SOARING OPPORTUNITY

EDUCATION, TRADES & LEARNING Tango Flight Soars into Jarrell High School

Funds from a Jarrell Education Foundation grant and the Rotary Club of Georgetown - Sun City helped JISD land this unique program.

by Charlotte Kovalchuk

A new program at Jarrell High School seeks to inspire the next generation of engineers, pilots, aviation mechanics, and technicians.

Launched by East View High School teacher Dan Weyant, Tango Flight is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit aerospace engineering course that gives students a unique once in a lifetime experience: real world, hands-on experience building an airplane. The class is a dual college and high school credit course. “Tango Flight is offered at very few schools across the state. To have this program at Jarrell High School is a terrific opportunity for our students and further demonstrates Jarrell ISD's commitment to giving students an exceptional education,” Superintendent Toni Hicks says.

A $10,000 grant from the Jarrell Education Foundation will help fund start-up costs and the plane kit. Superintendent Hicks says, “We're extremely grateful for the generous donations from the Jarrell Education Foundation and the Rotary Club of Georgetown-Sun City to help fund the program and get it off the ground.”

District teachers and administrators are also grateful for the many other 2022 proposals accepted for foundation grants, listed on the facing page.

WHAT IS TANGO FLIGHT?

In 2015, East View High School teacher Dan Weyant was pondering the shortage of young pilots, aerospace engineers, and airframe-and-powerplant certified mechanics. With years of aviation experience, he asked himself, why not use East View’s engineering program to encourage students to consider aviation-related careers? “It was our intent to help kids get an education in aviation, and eventually a pilot license, something that is beyond the resources of most kids. It is a great technical education, with college-level curriculum, and it can be tailored to give students a direct path into the workforce as pilots, mechanics or airframe techs,” Dan says.

The first Tango Flight class launched in GISD in the fall of 2016, and by the end of the school year, 24 East View and Georgetown High School students had completed the build on their first plane, “The Spirit of Georgetown,” which was unveiled at the Georgetown airport May 25, 2017. Now in ten high schools across the country, Tango Flight plans to continue stretching its wings across the U.S.