The Sky’s the Limit for a Career in Aviation

By Grayson Ardies, director of the Oklahoma Aeronautics Commission

Boeing’s Pilot and Technician Outlook states that the aviation industry will need 763,000 new pilots worldwide by 2039. World air traffic will double every 12-15 years. More people will be needed to build, fly, and maintain new planes. Those are roles that could give many Oklahoma students a bright future.

Seeing the need for an increase in the aviation field, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) created an aviation STEM curriculum for high schools across the United States. The AOPA High School Aviation STEM Curriculum, aka the “You Can Fly” program, is the first of its kind, offering students comprehensive four-year aviation study options that are aligned to Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards. The AOPA program consists of two pathways, the pilot pathway and the UAS pathway, ensuring that students interested in all aviation fields can get on the path to their careers.

The Oklahoma Aeronautics Commission (OAC) embraced the initiative immediately and has led the charge to implement an aviation curriculum at the high school level across the state to help solve workforce challenges and to ensure that Oklahoma’s second-largest industry, aviation and aerospace, will continue to be a significant economic driver.

Today, Oklahoma is ranked #1 in the nation for high schools teaching aviation curriculum, with 57 Oklahoma schools implementing the specialized AOPA program. It’s not just about flying airplanes, but about the whole aviation portfolio, ranging from history of the industry, to learning about aircraft systems, understanding the physics of aerospace engineering, operating around an airport, and even meteorology.

Oklahoma has one of the country’s most robust aerospace and aviation education programs. The Oklahoma Aeronautics Commission has invested over $450,000 a year to help educate young Oklahomans about the opportunities available in aviation and aerospace and excite them about the career field. The AOPA nod is one of the many reasons Oklahoma’s aerospace sector weathered the pandemic better than other states and why aerospace companies continue to locate operations here. The success is fitting. Oklahoma’s aerospace industry has roots established a century ago by pioneers such as Wiley Post, Clyde Cessna and many others.

This past August, Governor Stitt, who also happens to be a commercially rated pilot with several thousand flight hours, signed Senate Bill 1147 into law, allowing students to take specific aviation and aerospace courses as part of their core curriculum. Oklahoma also ensures students from all over the state have access to this specialized education. Of the schools across the state that are teaching these courses, over 60% are what would classify as rural schools. These students now have the opportunity to join this great career field, thanks to the AOPA program in Oklahoma. The program is helping to prepare the next generation of workers for Oklahoma’s aerospace industry.

In addition to the AOPA STEM high school program, Oklahoma has 12 universities offering aerospace degrees, including the nation’s only Ph.D. program that caters to UAS. In May 2021, Governor Stitt signed the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Development Act, establishing the Oklahoma Aeronautics Commission as the go to organization in state government for UAS and AAM. Integration of AAM and UAS into the National Airspace System will be the key to unlocking this fantastic technology for the aviation and aerospace industry moving forward.

There has never been a better time for students who want to enter the aviation industry. We’re proud that the state of Oklahoma is helping their future careers take off!