Charles Habiger and Dick Moran, both students in the pilot training program, inspect one of two training planes used at St. Edward’s in the 1940s.

In 1940 St. Edward’s received approval from the federal government to establish a primary flying school on the university campus. The pilot training program was under the supervision of the Civil Aeronautics Board and twenty students, many of them from St. Edward’s, were accepted into the first class. The applicants, who received the same physical exam given to commercial pilots, had to have completed at least two years of college, be 21 years of age and hold United States citizenship.

“The course includes 24 hours of meteorology, 24 hours of air rules and regulations, 24 hours of navigation, 24 hours of aircraft operation and from 35 to 50 hours of actual flight training. The flying field and hangar will be located a mile southeast of the University. The spot is one of the most suitable in this section of the country for flying, C.A.A. authorities said.”

St. Edward’s Echo
May 7, 1940

For additional information contact the St. Edward’s University Archives.

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