MORE IDEAS ABOUT FASHION & GRAPHIC DESIGN: Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP)

In the 1930s several European nations built up their air forces in part by training civilians as pilots in anticipation of possible conflict. In the United States, a similar program, known as the Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP) began in 1938. President Franklin D. Roosevelt supported the CPTP's plan to train 20,000 civilian pilots a year because this would create a pool of potential military pilots that he believed the country would need soon.
In 1939 the Army had a total of only 4,502 pilots, including 2,007 active-duty officers, 2,187 reserve officers and 308 national guard officers. The number of new Army-trained pilots grew rapidly each year as war seemed more likely, from 982 in 1939, to about 8,000 in 1940, to more than 27,000 in 1941 -- but many more were needed, and the Army by itself could not train the huge numbers of cadets desperately required. The U.S. Army Air Forces drew additional fliers from the CPTP and a separate network of civilian schools under contract to the USAAF, as well as conducting training in its own schools.
The CPTP eventually operated at 1,132 colleges and universities and 1,460 flight schools, and CPTP-trained pilots did well in further training at USAAF schools. Recording nearly 12 million flying hours, the CPTP trained 435,165 pilots from 1939 to 1944.

Flying Instructor and student pilots

CPT wings

CPT embroidered wings on cotton

Flying Instructor wings

By 1939, war in Europe was threatening, and there was concern the U.S. would soon be entering the war with too few military pilots. Consequently, a system of training schools was established with Parks Air College being one of the schools.

In 1940, Oliver Parks leased the airport to enable the necessary expansion of his college. Other civilian tenants were requested to leave and the airport name was changed to Curtiss-Parks Airport. As enrollment swelled, Parks further expanded his facilities to include operations at Cape Girardeau and Sikeston, Missouri; Tuscaloosa, Alabama; and Jackson, Mississippi. "Chub" Wheeler became a flight instructor for Parks. Through the end of WWII, some 37,000 cadets were trained at Parks facilities; of these, 24,000 become commissioned pilots. Fully one-sixth of all U.S. Army pilots of the era were trained at Parks’ Midwestern facilities.