Evening star., 1939-01-22

Within the next few weeks 800 stud
ents in 13 American higher educa-
tlonal institutions will strap on para
chutes, helmets and goggles to launch
national flight training program which,
regardless of any military implications,
probably will have profound effect on
the future of American aviation.
Their training will constitute a prac-
tical tryout during the second semester
of the current school year of the ma
tional defense program of training 90
600 student pilots year. Congress has
been asked by President Roosevelt to
appropriate $4,000 900 to make possible
operation of the full program during the
1939-40 school year.
Such program will involve the train
ing of students in virtually every State
and will press into service civilian in
structors, training airplanes and flying
fields in majority Of the Nations uni
versity and college cities and towns.
Operation of the program, under rigid
Federal supervision, through the Civil
Aeronautics Authority, is expected to
increase greatly the standards and safe
ty OF aviation training, the soundness
of the instruction offered and the quality
OF the pilots produced. 1t is expected to
stimulate greatly the aviation industry,
not only by requiring production of
continuous supply Of training airplanes,
but also by opening a market in coming
years for private airplanes for graduate
trainees.
Although the primary purpose of the
program is to create great reservoir
| from which the military services may
| draw partially trained aviators, it is
unlikely, unless this Nation becomes in
volved in major war, that very many
| OF these students actually will be taken
permanently into the Army or Navy.
Nevertheless, they will have received
basic flight training and will, perhaps
in great majority of cases, have
gained love of flying which will stay
with them in later years Many of them
will become private and sportsman flyers,
using airplanes for business and recrea-
ton. At first they may group together
to purchase airplanes on a club plan
eventually many of them probably will
become individual airplane owners.
Asset in Event of War.
"The use of private aircraft on much
larger scale in the United States would
OF course, be desirable in that it would
enlarge the productive capacity of the
aircraft industry create a reservoir of
pilots constituting a distinct national
asset in the event of war, and provide in
effect a new industry in the United
States with large opportunities for en-
ployment" the National Advisory Com
mittee for Aeronautics has reported,
The committee believes that civil aero
nautics will in time prove as revolution
ary in the lives of the people as the
automobile"
To inaugurate the training program,
the Civil Aeronautics Authority has Sc
lected 13 institutions on the basis of
pioneer work they have done in aero
nautical engineering and in actual flight
training OF students. They are Purdue
University, the universities of Alabama
Minnesota, Washington, Michigan, North
Carolina and Kansas, Massachusetts In
| ooAoSoS Va ACSAAA1OAOSy. 4CAdS IA. ana NJ.
College, Georgia School of Technology.
New York University, San Jose State
College and Pomona Junior College.
In these institutions a total of 800
students between the ages of 1S and Is
are being selected for training to be
financed with 100000 allotment made
by President Roosevelt from National
Youth Administration funds
The Army Air Corps will contribute
actively to the program by having its
flight surgeons give free physical ex-
aminations to all students selected for
training. School authorities have been
advised, however, that their own physi-
clans should conduct preliminary weed
ing-out examinations to spare the Army
surgeons an unnecessary burden of work.
A list of physical standards to be used
in eliminating all candidates who will
not have reasonable chance of meeting
the Air Corps medical requirements has
been sent to the schools concerned.
| In carrying out the full-scale training