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capable young men. If a woman could effectively handle a trainer plane it was a waste of manpower to have it handled by a pilot fully trained for higher duty. If women could do the routine of towing targets, or tracking, or searchlight missions, or ferrying, whether of a fighter or heavy bomber, it seemed wise to let them do so and release men who had already received combat training, or, of equal importance, release men for other branches of service who would otherwise have to be taken for flying training. 

But all that was known about women as pilots was that 3,000 had qualified for licenses, a few had done outstanding air work through the years from the time of Harriet Quimby, ruth Law, and other pioneer American women pilots. England had already found use for about all of their own and 25 of our American women pilots, and Russia, according to general information, was using women pilots even in combat and extensively in routine flying. How women pilots would prove out as a whole in relation to fatigue, strain, emergencies, and in connection with physiology peculiar to their sex, were largely unknown factors for determination. The women pilot program was started basically without the benefit of precedent. The two objectives had to be kept in mind, i.e, saving of manpower and determination of what could be expected of women as pilots, should any wide scale need for their service develop. Changes in requirements, in the training curriculum, and in features of the program as it developed, were a natural consequence.

When the training program was inaugurated, there were no clear cut physical standards available. There were available only ideas and opinions in the absence of exact information about the specific influence certain conditions would have on the capacity of women regularly to fly military aircraft. There were nearly 6,00,00 single women in the Unite States
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6-1262, AF 

Transcription Notes:
6,000,000