Students would help design, develop, test fly, and maintain Boeing aircraft, providing sales and engineering feedback to the parent company.

[5][6] Arnold asked that Lee, along with and Oliver Parks of Parks Air College and C. C. Moseley of the Curtiss-Wright Technical Institute, establish a startup called the Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP) to train cadets as aviation mechanics for the Air Force.

[5] Although the program had yet to receive funding from Congress, all three schools agreed to begin training, housing, and feeding cadets in preparation for the United States' entry into World War II.

To meet wartime demand, the school suspended its commercial pilot training for United Airlines in August 1942.

By 1943, the Civilian Pilot Training Program contract had expired and Boeing absorbed the school operations into the parent company.