Accomplishments of the National Youth Administration (part 8 of 10): Flight

 

(The description for this photo reads, "Mrs. Virginia Davis, a riveter in the assembly and repair department of the Naval Air Base, supervises Chas. Potter, a NYA trainee from Michigan." This photo was taken in Corpus Christi, Texas, in August of 1942. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.)

The National Youth Administration (NYA) engaged in a large amount of projects related to aviation. These projects (1) gave NYA participants job training and modest pay, (2) helped modernize America's airport infrastructure, and (3) contributed to our national defense and war effort.  

Nationally, the NYA created 23 new landing fields, 113 new seaplane landing locations, 123 new seaplane landing facilities, 31 new aircraft hangars, and 49 other new airport buildings. They also engaged in many other projects to repair or improve existing airport infrastructure (Final Report of the National Youth Administration, p. 140).

NYA airport work also included the installation of boundary cones, corner markers, and windsocks.        

(Image courtesy of Wikipedia.)

An interesting NYA project began in 1939, when "NYA youth started to build a transcontinental chain of seaplane bases extending from Maine to Key West, and along the Gulf of Mexico to Louisiana. Other network of bases were established up the Pacific coast, in the Mississippi Valley, and in the Great Lakes region. These bases usually consisted of docks and pontoons" (Final Report of the National Youth Administration, p. 139).

In addition to airport infrastructure work, the NYA had an extensive program in aircraft mechanics. NYA youth were trained in "motors, starters, generators, fuselages, wings, radio equipment...blueprints...sheet metal...instrument repair, electrical work, propeller work, dope and fabric work" and also filled support roles as "clerks, stenographers, warehousemen, and general helpers..." (Final Report of the National Youth Administration, p. 158).

In Minnesota, NYA youth built 5 gliders "for use throughout the State in cooperation with the State Aeronautical Commission" (Final Report of the National Youth Administration, p. 159).

Many people (then and now) consider New Deal investment in our youth--such as the NYA provided--to have been "wasteful spending!" and "godless communism!" And I have observed that many of these same people have no problem with America having the largest prison-industrial complex in the world (in fact, they sometimes call for even more prisons). What are your thoughts?   

(This WPA poster was created in Ohio, 1937, by artist Blanche L. Anish. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.)

 (The description for this photo reads, "Oyida Peaks riveting as part of her NYA training to become a mechanic in the Assembly and Repair Department at the Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas." This photo was taken in 1942 and is provided courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.)

 

(The description for this photo reads, "Working inside the nose of a PBY, Elmer J. Pace is learning the construction of Navy planes, Corpus Christi, Texas. As an NYA trainee at the Naval Air Base, he gets practical experience. After about eight weeks, he will go into civil service as a sheet metal worker." This photo was taken in 1942 and is provided courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.)