Open Books and Possibilities With High School Aviation Courses

With students heading back to high schools across the U.S. over the next few weeks, it’s a great time to turn our attention to educational programs designed to spur interest in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) and aviation as a career. I want to focus on two efforts with which I’m familiar that are already making a big difference in students’ lives.

The GAMA/Build A Plane Aviation Design Challenge, which I wrote about in January, attracted entries from 74 schools in 31 states in the competition’s third year. The winners, the CHEF Homeschoolers from Cuba City, WI, completed “Fly to Learn” curricula and modified a virtual Glasair Sportsman airplane using X-Plane software to win the contest. They focused their modifications on aspect ratio, wing loading, power loading, and the overall airplane design to make the most efficient aircraft for the mission.

During the two-week build at Glasair Aviation in Arlington, WA, in June, the four students worked closely with builder Paolo Buonfante as they bucked rivets, ran control cables, mounted the wings and gear, and attached the propeller, among other tasks. Their hard work paid off, as the airplane taxied a day ahead of schedule, then passed the FAA inspection to receive its certificate of airworthiness, and took its first flight while the students were there.

Air+Space Academy Initiative

My friend, Dr. Tim Smith, the executive director of the National Air and Space Education Institute, is leading the Air+Space Academy initiative, another impressive effort to increase students’ knowledge of STEM and give them a head start in entering the aviation field. What started in 2010 as a program with nine high schools in Kentucky now serves more than 50 high schools in Kentucky and Tennessee, with plans to grow even more. Tim estimates that at least 1,500 students will take its courses during the 2015-2016 school year.

Designed as a four-year curriculum, all freshmen take an introduction to aerospace course, which covers such topics as flight/aeronautics, aircraft maintenance, aeronautical engineering, and space science. Sophomores take fundamentals of aerospace science, which gets them started on their FAA Private Pilot ground school as well as deepening their understanding in space science. Students then choose a path for their last two years of high school: either aeronautics (including aircraft maintenance and manufacturing, private pilot, aviation operations/management, air traffic control, and operating Unmanned Aerial Systems) or space (including designing, building, and operating nano-satellite technologies). Students earn their Private Pilot certificates in high school.

The Air+Space Academy works with universities across the country to develop its curriculum and provide dual college credit opportunities for its students. For example, it partners with Eastern Kentucky University in flight/aeronautics, Morehead State University on space systems engineering, and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University/MIT on aerospace engineering.

Tim’s program also works closely with state departments of education to get its courses approved, so they can be taught as part of the regular school schedule (and are therefore eligible for federal grants). Teachers spend a week each summer training at the academy’s new 40,000-square-foot facility at Bowman Field in Louisville, KY, so they’re ready for students in the fall.

As this year’s students prepare to head back to class, they have a world of possibilities before them. Competitions and initiatives like the GAMA/Build A Plane Aviation Design Challenge and the Air+Space Academy are just two examples of programs providing excellent opportunities for them to build their knowledge, increase their skills, and learn about the many wonderful aviation career possibilities available to them. Here’s to a great school year!

To learn more about the GAMA/Build A Plane Aviation Design Challenge, please e-mail [email protected]. To learn more about the Air+Space Academy, please visit airandspace-ed.org.