page_title: United States Army Air Forces Contract Flying School Airfields
section_title: Prewar years
hierarchical_section_title: United States Army Air Forces Contract Flying School Airfields / History / Prewar years
caption_attribution_description: English: Fairchild PT-19 aircraft and Flight Instructors at Arledge Field Texas
context_page_description: During World War II civilian flying schools, under government contract, provided a considerable part of the flying training effort undertaken by the United States Army Air Forces.
context_section_description: In late 1938, eleven flight schools were contacted by the United States Army Air Corps by Arnold without any funding or Congressional Authorization.   Arnold asked if they would, at their own expense, set up facilities to house, feed and train Army pilots.   He promised that the Army would pay the schools $1,170 for each pilot that completed a primary flight training course, and $18 per flight hour for each student that washed out.   Arnold received a commitment from eight flying schools, accepting his proposal.
  In April 1939, Congress authorized $300 million for the Air Corps to procure and maintain 6,000 aircraft.  In the authorization, the Air Corps was authorized to enroll Army Flight Cadets in civilian training schools.   Moving forward, in June 1939, the War Department approved Arnold's request to organize nine civilian flight schools to train Army pilots.  Flight training would begin at most of these schools in July 1939.  After the spring offensive by Nazi Germany and the Fall of France in May, 1940, the Army, Arnold increased the rate of pilot training from 4,500 to 7,000 pilots per year.    Each of the nine Contract Pilot Schools (CPS) were requested to open an additional school to accommodate this increase.    In August 1940, the rate of pilot training was ordered increased to 12,000 per year.
  All civil flying instructors had to be certified by the CAA, as well as the ground school instructors and aircraft mechanics.  Also flying instructors had to undergo a two-week Army refresher program.  In order to exempt the instructors and mechanics from the wartime draft, all were enlisted into the Army as privates in the Army Reserve.   Each CPS was commanded by an Army officer (mostly, but not all West Point graduates), who supervised all aspects of the program as well as insuring that military discipline was maintained.  Also, a few Air Corps pilots conducted all check rides.
  However, the existing CPS contractors were unable to expand to train this increased number.  In response, the Air Corps issued a request for bid (RFB) to all of the 38 Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) approved flying schools in the country outlining the specifications for Army pilot training.   From the schools responding to the RFB, the Air Corps selected eleven new contractors for Army primary flight training.  With the war in Europe expanding, and the threat of war with the Japanese Empire becoming more and more a possibility,  the Chief of Staff of the Army directed Arnold to increase pilot training to 30,000 per year. To meet this new rate, the CPS concept was again expanded by converting three of the Level 1 primary CPS schools to Level 2 basic flying training and expanded the number of CPS contractors.
  However, in the strictest sense, these schools were not owned or leased by the USAAF, and for the most part, they were not designated or activated as Army Air Fields.  In official Army  directories, they were listed by the name of the civilian flying school, the name of the airport on which it operated, or sometimes just by the city name.
  In addition to the Air Corps demands for civil flying schools to train military pilots, in late 1940, President Franklin Roosevelt accepted a proposal from British Prime Minister Winston Churchill that the United States train Royal Air Force (RAF) pilots at civilian flying schools.  The first RAF flight cadets began training in the United States in June 1941. The Army Air Corps (later Army Air Forces) maintained a small liaison detachment at each of these schools, however the RAF provided a cadre of officers for military supervision and training, while flight training was conducted by contract flying schools.
caption: Arledge Field, Texas, 1943.  Flight Instructors from the Lou Foote Flying Service stand in front of their Fairchild PT-19 Trainers
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