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TUSKEGEE, Ala. (WSFA) – It’s been nearly 80 years since pilots trained at Tuskegee University. Now, the historic institution is exploring new heights with the next generation of fliers.
In 1942, five cadets completed the Tuskegee Army Air Corps pilot training program, earning their silver wings and becoming the nation’s first black military pilots. It’s been nearly eight decades since pilots trained at Tuskegee University, but now, the first 21st-century pilots of Tuskegee University have earned their wings.
“It’s exciting; it’s an honor,” Titus Sanders,Aviation Science Director at Tuskegee University, said. “This institution, this university has a rich legacy in producing African American pilots, and they had the ability to continue that legacy and that history, and also, to also include women in the training population.”
Kembriah Parker is the first Tuskegee Airwoman. She decided she wanted to become a pilot when she first visited Tuskegee in 2017.
“I went over to the Tuskegee Airmen museum over there, and I was just interested in flying ever since then,” Parker said.
A school day doesn’t feel like work for aviation science student Isaiah Hand.
“With aviation science, it gives me pleasure from the start of the day to the end of the day, from the work to the flying, it doesn’t feel like work, it feels like I’m enjoying myself,” Hand said. “It feels like leisure, although I am putting in work and putting in a lot of extra time.”
Sanders says it’s passion that drives these students.
“They want to be here; they want to be at Tuskegee,” he said. “They want to fly, and they want to share their excitement and joy with others.”
The sky isn’t the limit for these new pilots; it’s only the beginning.
“It doesn’t get more significant than this,” Hand said. “This is where the Tuskegee Airmen trained, this is where their history is, this is where the legacy is.”
Sanders says the program had about 19 students when it was launched just last year. Now, it has about 48. He hopes that in the next two years, that number will double.