Alabama Aerospace and Aviation High School Students Take Flight with Auburn University!

By James Birdsong, Ph.D., and Captain Willie Billingslea (USN, Retired), Auburn University School of Aviation

Alabama Aerospace and Aviation High School (AAHS) is a new aviation-focused public charter school in Bessemer, Alabama (a southwestern suburb of Birmingham), founded in 2021. The school, free of charge for students, offers a career and college-focused education, providing students with a future-building, developmental pathway to success as pilots, mechanics, and other aviation professionals.

Alabama Aerospace and Aviation High School will be an industry-changing institution, supplying a pipeline of young aviation talent from a community long underrepresented in aviation. Many in the aviation industry believe schools like this are needed more than ever. Dr. Witte, the Director of Auburn University School of Aviation, said this about AAHS. “The dynamic nature and high academic standards of AAHS serve not only to introduce students to the world of aviation but provide them with the skills and knowledge to be successful.”

AAHS’s inaugural class began in August 2022 with approximately 100 rising ninth-grade students. The high school will grow enrollment by adding a grade each of the next three years so that by 2025, it will have a full high school complement of grades 9-12. The high school’s first-year class includes 85 percent minorities, with 25 percent being female. Those pursuing pilot careers will help diversify the pilot workforce, which is presently 93 percent white and 92 percent male, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

School founder, Ruben Morris, and his leadership team worked to develop bridge-building partnerships across higher education and the aviation and aerospace industry to create unique learning opportunities for students. This past summer, Auburn University, which has been a leader in aviation education since the early 1940s and can trace its aviation roots to a Wright Brothers’ visit to Alabama before the opening of their first flight school in Montgomery, Alabama, and the historic World War II era Civilian Pilot Training Program, partnered with Alabama Aerospace and Aviation High School to offer a week-long resident aviation summer camp to educate and inspire the high school’s inaugural students and help them learn about the many education and career opportunities available in aviation.

The university’s School of Aviation led academic programming, and the university’s Office of Outreach contributed logistical support. Twenty-seven high school freshmen attended the inaugural summer camp and now have a new perspective on what they can achieve in aviation and life. Students engaged in many hands-on activities that included: discovery flights from the Auburn University Regional Airport, simulator flights at the Delta Air Lines Aviation Education Building, a tour of university aircraft maintenance facilities, a visit to the Aerospace Engineering department led by Department Chair Dr. Brian Thurow, and tours of the wind tunnels and rocket labs, as well as a visit to Southern Union State Community College’s new engine lab, led by the college’s Director of Aviation Technology, Mr. Richard Belk. Students also visited the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site and museum at Moton Field in Tuskegee, just 25 minutes from Auburn. Students experienced university campus life while living in Auburn’s resident dormitories, eating at campus dining facilities, and enjoying evening social and recreational activities. School of Aviation students, flight instructors, faculty, and staff supported this program. Auburn University is a vital partner with AAHS. As stated by Mr. Morris, “Auburn’s School of Aviation is a mission-critical partner and supporter of AAHS. Our model depends on higher education and industry partners aligned with our mission to create clear Pathways into aviation and aerospace careers for all students. Auburn Aviation provides us with strategic guidance, essential training opportunities for students and staff, and invaluable exposure opportunities for students.”

Auburn University will host AAHS for another summer camp during Summer 2023. To learn more about the Alabama Aerospace and Aviation High School, please visit https://alaahs.org/.