Royal Canadian Air Cadets

Royal Canadian Air Cadets (French: Cadets de l'aviation royale du Canada) is a Canadian national youth program for persons aged 12 to 18. It is administered by the Canadian Forces (CF) and funded through the Department of National Defence (DND) with additional support from the civilian Air Cadet League of Canada (ACL). Together with the Royal Canadian Sea Cadets and Royal Canadian Army Cadets, it forms the "largest federally funded youth program in the country". Cadets are not members of the military and are not obliged to join the Canadian Forces.

The first squadrons were established in 1941 to train young men for duties during World War II. The purpose has since changed to focus on citizenship, leadership, physical fitness, general aviation and stimulating an interest in the activities of the Canadian Forces.

The majority of cadet training takes place at the local squadron during the regular school year with a percentage of cadets selected for summer training courses at various cadet summer training centres located across Canada. Central to the air cadet program are the gliding and flying scholarships offered to air cadets who qualify. One in five private pilots in Canada is an ex-air cadet and 67% of commercial and airline pilots began as air cadets. There are 456 squadrons located across the country with an approximate enrolment of 23,000 Air Cadets.

Read more about Royal Canadian Air Cadets:  Overview, History, Local Training, Summer Training, Flying, Uniform, Ranks, Music Appointments, Honours and Awards, Cadet Fitness Assessment and Incentive Program, Notable Former Air Cadets

Famous quotes containing the words royal, canadian and/or air:

    Not to these shores she came! this other Thrace,
    Environ barbarous to the royal Attic;
    How could her delicate dirge run democratic,
    Delivered in a cloudless boundless public place
    To an inordinate race?
    John Crowe Ransom (1888–1974)

    We’re definite in Nova Scotia—’bout things like ships ... and fish, the best in the world.
    John Rhodes Sturdy, Canadian screenwriter. Richard Rossen. Joyce Cartwright (Ella Raines)

    That air would disappear from the whole earth in time, perhaps; but long after his day. He did not know just when it had become so necessary to him, but he had come back to die in exile for the sake of it. Something soft and wild and free, something that whispered to the ear on the pillow, lightened the heart, softly, softly picked the lock, slid the bolts, and released the prisoned spirit of man into the wind, into the blue and gold, into the morning, into the morning!
    Willa Cather (1873–1947)