First military flight training: 1908, Fort Myer, Maryland
First students: Lieutenants Frank Lahm and Frederic Humphreys
First trainer aircraft: Signal Corps #1
Reported dual time before solo: 3 hours each
First Civilian Flying School: Wright Brothers Flying School, Montgomery, Alabama
Started business in Montgomery: March 1910
Moved out of Alabama: May 1910
Current site of the school: Maxwell Air Force Base
New school location: Huffman Prairie, Ohio
Number of aviators trained there: About 100
Noteworthy alumni: Hap Arnold, Commander of U.S. Army Air Forces
Other noteworthy alum: Thomas DeWitt Milling, first rated pilot in the Air Forces
Milling’s second instructor: Orville Wright
End of Operations: 1916, with the onset of World War I
Current status: Open to the Public as Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historic Park
Number of trained U.S. pilots entering World War I: Approximately 100
Number of flight schools: 3
Number of pilots needed for the war effort: At least 5,000
Model for U.S. training: England’s Central Flying School, established 1912
Current status of the school: Still operational, longest active flight school in the world
Pledge U.S. cadets had to make for flight training: They wouldn’t marry
Congressionally mandated pilot training program: Civilian Pilot Training Program, 1939
Goal of CPTP: Train 20,000 civilian pilots
Largest single school’s actual numbers: 60,000 students trained
Number of CPTP flight schools at its zenith: more than 1,400
Year aeronautics study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology began: 1896
Notable accomplishment that year: MIT mechanical engineering student Albert J. Wells built a 30-square-inch wind tunnel
First aeronautical engineering degree program established: 1909, Paris, France
Currently: Still in existence as ISAE-SUPAERO (Higher Institute of Aeronautics and Space)
Year first American aeronautical engineering program was established: 1914
Offered at: University of Michigan
Average cost of getting a Private Pilot Certificate, 1990: $4,270
Average cost of getting a Private Pilot Certificate, 2017: $9,900
Student pilot certificates issued, 1977: 203,510
Student pilot certificates issued, 2016: 36,712
Estimated active flight instructor certificates held, 1977: 44,777
Estimated active flight instructor certificates held, 2016: 104,382
Average age of student pilots, 1986: 32.2 years
Average age of student pilots, 2016: 31.7 years
Estimated active student pilots under the age of 16, 2016: 259
Estimated active student pilots over the age of 80, 2016: 152
Number of colleges (2- and 4-year) in the U.S. with aviation programs, 2017: 300+
Largest collegiate training fleet: University of North Dakota
Number of aircraft: 120+, including airplanes, helicopters, and UAS
Oldest aviation college with flight training: Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Established (as Embry-Riddle School of Aviation): 1926, then reestablished in 1939 in partnership with the University of Miami
