Actually, what interests me is that we had nothing like the Anson–an all-purpose, all-services, multi-use, multi-engine trainer. Not the Beech AT-10 or -11, the Curtiss-Wright AT-9 or the Cessna AT-17. These were all basically pilot trainers, and our WWII gunners, radiomen and bombardiers mostly got training in other ways and in other airplanes (if airplanes were used at all).
So though the Beech is similar in some ways–and I understand that you were kidding, not trying to make a serious point–we didn’t have anything like the Anson.
Nothing like the Anson, Really?
I’m not that familiar with the Beech 18, but surely it could be seen as an ‘American Anson’?
It appears to have been used as a pilot, navigator, and bombardier and gunner trainer in its AT-7 and AT-11 guises.
The Beech 18 also seems to have had a rival, like the Anson did with the Oxford, in the shape of the Cessna 50, AT-17.
Like the USAF, the RAF also trained in other ways, by using ground schools for training the various flying disciplnes, such as Harwell boxes for the wireless operators, navigation trainer, and synthetic dome and turret ground trainers for air gunner and bomb aimer training.
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