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Al Jones: A Pilot Then and Now

Then: Al Jones in the cockpit of his P-61 night fighter in 1945.

CFS3 users who have read the handbooks included on the product disc have already read a little about Al Jones, one of the veteran pilots who served as an historical and technical advisor to the Combat Flight Simulator team. Al has remained an active pilot for sixty-plus years, and is still logging stick time.

As both a WWII veteran and an active pilot, his assistance was invaluable in helping us depict the tactical air war accurately and in refining some of our aircraft flight models.

Al's war started early—in 1940—when he became an American volunteer in the Royal Canadian Air Force. After training he was assigned to an RAF squadron in England, then went to North Africa, where he flew 40 night missions in Wellington bombers.

This early-war introduction to night fighting provided plenty of challenges for a pilot new to air combat:

"In the 1942-1943 time frame I flew 40 missions for the RAF. Piloting a Wellington bomber on night missions was the most hair-raising duty I ever did. It seemed like everyone was trying to put you out of action—enemy night fighters, antiaircraft guns, searchlights, mid-air collisions, and weather all teamed up to make it miserable and hazardous."

Now: After successfully strafing a train during CFS3 testing, Al Jones gets an enthusiastic "thumbs up" from a Microsoft aeronautical engineer

In 1943 Al transferred to the USAAF and was assigned to a night fighter squadron flying Bristol Beaufighters before switching to the large and formidably armed P-61 Black Widow. He flew night intruder missions in Italy during 1944 (during the German retreat up the Italian boot) and in Belgium early in 1945.

As an "intruder," Al's primary objectives were to intercept German nocturnal air activity, and to stop road and rail movement of enemy troops and equipment. Sounds straightforward, but flying a large and powerful aircraft at low altitudes at night added a special set of challenges. Al's nonchalant summary of these activities makes them sound easy, but the reality was anything but:

"To locate and destroy targets such as trains, vehicles, and airfields, we would enter enemy territory at low altitude—200 to 500 feet. We used radar and the radio altimeter to avoid obstacles and the terrain, and followed the rail lines and highways until sighting a target, which was difficult unless the moon was out. Then we would use our bombs, cannon, and machine guns."

Try flying a daylight ground attack mission in CFS3 and you'll get a hint of what Al was up against at night!

After the war Al remained in the reserves, flying F-86 and F-100 jets. He went on to become a test pilot with Boeing, and rose through a distinguished career to become Chief Pilot of Flight Crew Training.

His long experience as a military and civilian pilot was evident when Al came to Microsoft last year and sat down in front of a PC to check out the flight models in CFS3. His light, precise grip on the joystick, his focus on the details of flying the aircraft—and his quick demolition of an armed train in the simulation—all showed that for him piloting has become instinctive.

Now retired, Al is still logging hours in a Cessna 182—early this year he passed the 20,000-hour mark—and he still flies the unfriendly skies of Combat Flight Simulator.