Civil Aeronautics Administration Hat Badge Type II

Washington, DC

In 1938 at the request of General Hap Arnold private aviation schools started to ramp up their training capabilities. Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938 contained language authorizing and funding a trial program for what would evolve into the Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP). President Franklin D. Roosevelt unveiled the program on December 27, 1938, announcing at a White House press conference that he had signed off on a proposal to provide a needed boost to general aviation by providing pilot training to 20,000 college students a year. The program started in 1939 and at its peak 1,132 educational institutions and 1,460 flight schools were participating. With the start of the United States entry into WWII this program became known as the War Training Service. Many of the civilian instructors used different types of wings an hat badges such as the ones shown here. The program ended in 1944 and by that time 435,165 people had learned to fly.

 


 

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