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Show End of War Will Mark Aviation's Golden Age America invented the airplane yet the greatest single threat to our security today is the plane itself. Having created the means by which man could fly, America failed miserably to recognize the significance signifi-cance of its own invention. It remained re-mained for other nations to grasp the airplane's enormous possibilities to visualize it as a gigantic instrument instru-ment of peace and war. It remained for other nations to sense the possibilities of training not just a small segment but all its youth, to be air-minded and air-wise. air-wise. Americans have been caught napping. nap-ping. But, if a determined group of American citizens have their way, this will not, cannot, happen again. These determined citizens have united unit-ed to form the Air Training Corps of America. Wings for America at Peace. No informed person will deny that the end of this war will mark the true beginning of the Aviation age. There will be new markets to be won, new lands to be developed. And in this post-war race for trade, aviation will play a major role. In America and throughout the world, the highways of commerce will be in the air. In transportation, in a thousand as yet undreamed-of facets of our daily life, men trained in aviation avia-tion will be the leaders of tomorrow. And the nation which molds these leaders will be itself a leader. In training its youth for aviation, America is assuring its sons a rich opportunity, and is at the same time, taking steps to insure its own future. Wings for America at War. Every decent American hopes that boys now in high school will never have to go to war. But every thinking American realizes that they may have to fight before this war is won. And make no mistake about it, this war will be won by trained, professional pro-fessional airmen over that "last battlefield," wherever it may be. These airmen, grim though the idea is, must be young. For the air warfare of today, with its 40,000-foot altitudes and 400 m.p.h. speeds, demands youth trained youth. No one else has a fighting chance. This is the lesson brought us from England, a lesson dearly learned by the heroic RAF in the Battle of Britain. England itself has already profited from this lesson, and has set up its own Air Training corps under un-der the air ministry. So far, England's Eng-land's Air Training corps has graduated gradu-ated 75,000 boys into the Royal Air force. Helpful to Canadians. The idea, transplanted to Canada, has resulted in the training of 26,000 boys and has not yet hit its full stride. It is already considered an indispensable part of the Royal Canadian Air force training program. pro-gram. It is saving the best part of a year precious time when time is all-important in preparing airmen for combat duty. It has materially reduced training casualties. Not all of these boys, of course, become pilots. One of the important benefits of this training is the fact that it "screens" the boys into the particular par-ticular job in air or ground crew for which they are best qualified. Furthermore, it gives them the essential psychological conditioning con-ditioning that their own job, whatever it may be, is all-important. all-important. Naturally, an important part of the program is a carefully worked out course of training to promote physical physi-cal fitness, to make the youth of America strong, hardened and ready for the tasks that lie ahead. Members of the Air Training Corps of America will also receive basic training in the manual of arms and military drill, and will be schooled in the highest ideals of discipline dis-cipline and patriotism. ATCA's Role in the War Effort. In undertaking to set up pre-flight squadrons in the nation's high schools, the Air Training Corps of America is co-ordinating its work with that of other organizations interested in-terested in the progress of aviation. The Civil Aeronautics administration, administra-tion, working with and through educators edu-cators who have a thorough grounding ground-ing in aviation and aviation problems, prob-lems, have done a splendid job of preparing practical, easily understood under-stood textbooks in the various phases of pre-flight training. |