Eighty years ago this month, this naval officer was explaining to these scouts the finer points of model airplane construction. But it wasn’t just fun and games. These model airplanes were vital to the Navy’s training program, and Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox had called upon the youth of America to make a half million scale models–10,000 each of 50 different fighting planes.

In the April 1942 issue of Boys’ Life, Chief Scout Executive James E. West stressed how Scouts were especially equipped to handle this call. Models were had to be exact replicas of the ally and enemy planes, and were to be built to a precise scale of 1:72. At this scale, a model 35 feet away is identical to the true airplane at just under half a mile. Thus, Navy men could use these models for aircraft recognition, range estimation, formation flying, and other phases of the training program.

Inspectors would review each model, which had to be perfect. Upon passing inspection, the model planes would immediately be put into service for training. Plans would be in the possession of schools, and the Navy pointed out that modern war was so complex that it demanded the skills of all, including the boy of 12, to provide some of the services and materials needed by our forces.

According to the Navy, “it is scarcely necessary to stir the interest of American boys and girls in aviation, since many of them expect to grow up to be pilots, and this project channels that interest toward an educational objective of immediate value.”

Elsewhere in the same issue, to give Scouts a head start, appeared the guide at left to recognizing some of the enemy’s planes.