Originally Posted by
OldLurker
I count 36 aircraft in the photo. Would that have been only one squadron? How many aircrew, and how many ground crew, would have been dedicated to that number of aircraft?
In that era, the Crew:Aircraft ratio was maintained at the NATO ACE Forces Standards "Excellent" level of 2:1 - so 24 pilots + 24 navs per 12-aircraft sqn - including all the execs.
The established groundcrew strength per 12-aircraft sqn + 3 x SE Fitt (that belonged to Arm Eng Flt) + 3 x Gen Techs (that belonged to Gen Eng Flt) was around 135.
In addition, there was an Army major Ground Liaison Officer (GLO) + Army GLO driver / clerk (l/cpl) + Sqn Admin Off / SQINTO + 3 x PANDA clerks + 3 x AATC (cpl/SAC).