Aerospace Education

Civil Air Patrol (CAP) promotes and supports aerospace education, both for its own members and the general public. CAP educational programs help prepare American citizens to meet the challenges of a sophisticated aerospace society and understand its related issues.

CAP offers national standards-based educational products, including a secondary textbook, Aerospace: The Journey of Flight, and the middle-school-level Aerospace Dimensions. Teachers can get free classroom materials and lesson plans from CAP by joining CAP’s Aerospace Education Membership program.

CAP also operates the "Fly-A-Teacher" program.  The Fly-A-Teacher Program provides the opportunity for teachers to experience orientation flights in CAP aircraft. Teachers can receive these orientation flights following optional workshops at local area airports and can then share their experiences with their students.

Cadet Programs

Civil Air Patrol builds strong citizens for the future by providing leadership training, technical education, scholarships and career education to young men and women, ages 12 to 21.

Civil Air Patrol offers more than $200,000 in college scholarships each year, and about 10 percent of each year’s freshman class at the U.S. Air Force Academy is comprised of former CAP cadets.

For non-CAP members, the CAP School Program fills the gap between elementary school DARE and high school ROTC. CAP members, including cadets, volunteer their time in public schools, teaching respect, manners and personal accountability in a drug-free environment.

Through Civil Air Patrol's Cadet Program, young people develop leadership skills, investigate the fundamentals of aerospace science, acquire the habit of exercising regularly, solidify their character, and participate in exciting hands-on activities that prepare them to become responsible citizens.

Youth between the ages of 12-18 may join the CAP Cadet Program and remain in cadet status until they turn 21. Middle school students may join before turning 12, if their school participates in the CAP School Program.

Emergency Services

While CAP has long been associated with search and rescue missions, its work also includes disaster relief and communications, as well as counterdrug and homeland security missions.

Search and rescue remains an important service provided by CAP members, however. CAP still flies 95 percent of all federal inland SAR missions, as directed by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center (AFRCC) at Langley AFB, Va. CAP also supports the Joint Rescue Coordination Centers in Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico

On average, each year CAP members fly more than 100,000 hours in operational missions and save about 100 lives. CAP provides air and ground support for disaster relief, flying officials to remote locations, transporting blood or live tissue to critical care sites and performing aerial damage assessment.