Local high school students on Thursday got a behind-the-scenes look at the Owensboro Air Show, exploring several aircraft as part of their STEM and JROTC classes.
Director of Public Events Tim Ross said the City of Owensboro, which puts on the Air Show, wanted to expose students to different careers in aviation. By bringing in nine aircraft, students learned about everything from the Air Force to private flying.
“We wanted to bring in lots of different types of aircraft and occupations in aviation just to expose the students to something maybe that they weren’t familiar with,” Ross said.
Classes from Owensboro Innovation Academy’s engineering programs, along with JROTC students from Apollo and Daviess County high schools, were in attendance.
Ross said they also wanted to showcase that some pilots are the same age as the students. Civil Air Patrol, an agency that trains and equips pilots, told Ross that one of their cadets was 18 years old so Ross jumped at the opportunity to have him speak.
“We had talked to a handful of students and they didn’t know that they could be in that same element where somebody their own age is doing it right now,” Ross said. “It’s not something that’s 6 and 8 years down the road, so we thought it’d be good exposure for them just to see and be able to chat with somebody that’s doing it and who is in their same spirit of life right now.”
Emmitt Brock, a sophomore at Apollo, is currently in ground school and earned his pilot license earlier this month.
“Just being around airplanes … it gives me dopamine, just being around them and just seeing them being in an airfield just makes me so happy,”
Brock was formerly a student in Apollo’s Aerospace Engineering class through the Engineering Academy. As he continues his time at Apollo, he plans to get his private pilot license.
Ross said teachers were excited to bring the students because it was a unique way to drive home some of the topics that were covered throughout the year.
“They thought it’d be something good near the end of the school year,” Ross said. “It’s kind of a way to apply what they’ve been studying through some of their simulations and some of the coursework to get kind of a hands-on experience at the end of the year.”
