Civilian Pilot Training Program (U.S.)
Organization
Biography
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.