Flight training for military pilots was another enterprise that helped keep Curtiss solvent during the lean years. Following World War I there were drastic cutbacks in government funding for the military services. Defense installations were few and budgets were small. Since the Great War was thought to be "the war to end all wars," the federal government did not continue to fund the defense system at the previous higher war levels. Both the Navy and the Army did, however, award contracts to Curtiss for pilot instruction.

The Navy has a long-established pilot training prgram at the United States Naval Reserve Base at nearby Great Lakes north of Waukegan. As the years went by, a few land-based planes were acquired, and a small airfield was built on base property. As higher-performance aircraft were developed, there was a need for longer runways. Space was not available at Great Lakes, and after an axhaustive search for a suitable location in the Chicag area, the Naval Reserve Aviation Base chose the Curtiss-Wright-