Army Air Forces Bombardier Schools
 Map of schools w/ hyperlinks
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A Bombardier School was a United States Army Air Forces facility that used bombing ranges for training aircrew. After ground simulator training with the Norden bombsight, the 12- to 18-week course recorded each student's scores for approximately 160 practice bomb drops of "Bomb Dummy Units" (BDU), both in daytime and at night. The elimination rate was 12%, and graduates transferred to a Second or Third Air Force training unit to join a crew being trained for overseas duty. The bombardier trainer used was the Beech AT-11 Kansan. With the Bradley Plan increase in Eighth Air Force aircrews needed for the Combined Bomber Offensive, the 17 Army Air Forces Bombardier Schools graduated 47,236.
A July 1941 attempt at establishing a bombardier school at Lowry Field, Colorado (3 instructor classes with the last graduating 14 March 1941), was replaced by schools at Barksdale Field, Louisiana (moved to Albuquerque) and Ellington Field, Texas (changed to a navigator school.) In June 1942, several classes of cadets were sent for bombardier training at Davis-Monthan Field, Arizona.
Bombardier schools of the Gulf Coast Air Corps Training Center and the West Coast Air Corps Training Center included the GCACTC's Big Spring Army Air Force Bombardier School. Its "first class of cadets (118 men) arrived Sept. 16, 1942". The first bombardier training class (42-17) at San Angelo Army Airfield began in September 1942, and San Angelo's 34th Flying Training Wing (Bombardier and Specialized Twin- and Four-Engine) activated on January 8, 1943, as one of two dedicated bombardier training wings. The other was WCACTC's 38th Flying Training Wing at Williams Army Airfield, Arizona—later moved to Kirtland Field, New Mexico).
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