On October 5, the Tulsa Air and Space Museum hosted a Student Flight Day event to celebrate the 1,000+ Oklahoma AOPA students from 31 area schools. For the last two years Oklahoma, has been nationally ranked #1 for the number of schools teaching the AOPA STEM curriculum.
The event was held in partnership with Oklahoma Aeronautics Commission (OAC), Tulsa International Airport, Tulsa Air and Space Museum, Oklahoma National Guard, American Airlines, and the Air and Space Forces Association of Oklahoma. At the gathering, students attended a pep rally before spending the day seeing multiple exhibits of aircraft static displays, flight simulators,dronesandlearning about various careers in the aviation and aerospace industries.
The Oklahoma Aviation andAerospaceindustryisthe second largest in the nation producing just under $44B billion in annual economic activity. With 206,000 jobs in aviation and aerospace totaling $11.7 billion in payroll and an average salary of $73,300, it is one of the highest average salaries in the state.
These careers are in high demand however, the number of new pilots and aviation technicians have been on the decline. In 2021, there were 21% less new pilots and technicians than in 2012.
TheAOPASTEMcurriculum wascreatedbytheAOPA Foundation, a philanthropic arm of the world's largest aviation community, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) to help fill a gap between the supply and demand within the industry. It presents an opportunity for students to explore careers in aviation not previously considered.
There were people from American Airlines there to share their first-hand knowledge of the career opportunities at the Tech Ops-TulsaMaintenancebase performing overall aircraft maintenance work. There were also representatives from the American Cadet Academy on hand to provide information on joining their program as well.
The mission of the Oklahoma Aeronautics Commission (AOC) is to “promote aviation, which includes ensuringthattheneedsofthe commerce and communities across the state are met by thestate’s108publiclyowned airports that comprise the Oklahoma Airport System and helping the ensure the viability of the state’s aerospace industry”.