Identified as 'Langley' in a handwritten album caption, this cadet stands before the tail of a civil-registered training airplane marked 'NC12158.' The civilian registration reflects the common wartime practice of contracting private flying schools and their light aircraft to conduct the elimination and primary phases of the Navy's V-5 Naval Aviation Cadet program. Photographs like this one, taken informally by trainees themselves, document the everyday experience of young Americans as they took their first steps toward Naval Aviator wings during World War II. Project: 218579