SOARING ON RED-AND-BLUE WINGS

DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY’S AVIATION VALUE PROPOSITION

- JULIE BOATMAN

A cold rain had turned the ramp at Delaware Airpark (33N) near Dover into a sopping mess. No surprise for a day in February, really. We huddled around a picnic table set in the back of the maintenance hangar that was, at the time, housing about a quarter of the training fleet at Delaware State University’s aviation campus. The rain tapped out a beat over our heads on the metal roof as director Lt. Col. Michael Hales illuminated the bright future of the aviation program he helped shepherd into maturity, following in the footsteps of program founder Daniel Coons, Ph.D., who convinced university leadership to back the initiative in 1987.

A few short weeks later, we would lock down—this rainy-day meeting was in 2020, just before the pandemic hit its stride in the US— but DSU’s flying continued on as well as it could. Those students persevered, fitting examples of the tenacity displayed by the mentors in whose footsteps they followed— none other than the Tuskegee Airmen who once flew here in pursuit of their own goals. In spite of the pandemic’s restrictions, 12 students graduated from the DSU Aviation Program in May 2020.

Flash-forward to late April 2021, and the DSU Hornets have thrived through just about every test, including the check rides anticipated in the weeks before graduation and the close of the semester. The program welcomed 127 students in fall 2020, with roughly 91 in flight labs through the year. A total of 14 students would graduate with the May 2021 class. Hales spoke then from the midst of the final push. “We’re in a mad dash for the last. We’re in the second-to-last true week of regular classes for this spring semester,” with April 29 marking the final day of regular classes.

Pursuing the Dream