On July 20th, 2019, the U.S. will celebrate the 50th anniversary of NASA’s Apollo 11 mission, when America became the first nation to successfully send a man to the moon. But 2019 is also the 90th anniversary of another major moment in America’s aviation history. While it may not be as well-known as Apollo 11, this historic milestone is one that the city of Pittsburgh can proudly call its own.
In 1929, the Curtiss-Wright company was formed when companies founded by Glenn Curtiss, the father of naval aviation, and the Wright brothers, famed for history’s first flight, merged. Among their assets was Curtiss-Wright Flight Services, which sold and serviced aircraft and offered flight training, and which operated Bettis Field, one of the first airports in western PA.
That same year, August ”Gus” Becker, who managed the organization for Curtiss-Wright, leased the operations at Bettis Field and purchased the school and its facilities. As president, Becker changed the school’s name to the Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics, and changed its focus from selling airplanes to repairing and maintaining them. PIA would later become one of the first facilities to be approved by the Civil Aeronautics Authority, the predecessor agency to the Federal Aviation Administration.
As aviation technology has greatly evolved over the past 90 years, PIA has remained committed to training the mechanics and maintenance professionals who keep America’s aeronautics field moving forward. In fact, several PIA graduates are currently working in space exploration.
Kate Folmar (2011) is shattering stigmas working hands-on at NASA and recently served as research & development mechanic at Pratt & Whitney, where she helped the company develop engines for jets and rockets, while Chris Hoffmann (2011) spent several years working as a propulsion technician on the Merlin engines for SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets before recently taking a new position at an aerospace startup - Stealth Space Company in Alameda, CA, where he now serves as a Senior Launch Engineer and Rocket Launch Conductor.
As America celebrates the momentous achievements of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and the entire NASA space program this July, Pittsburgh can take additional pride in knowing that a West Mifflin airfield has proudly served as the training ground for 90 years of mechanics and technicians who have helped lift America’s dreams of flight from the skies to the stars.
