Pilot Education: The Beginnings

For those of us involved with flight education, it is easy to take for granted some of the concepts that we practice daily, concepts such as a standardized flight curriculum, periodic flight checks, clearly defined flight instruction procedures, and progression from the simple to the more complex aircraft. These concepts did not simply appear full-blown, they were born, shaped, and modified via the crucible of world conflict. To find the roots of these flight education concepts, we have to look to Europe, to the early days of flight, to 1914, to what we now call World War I