When I started on the FLYING journey, I could not imagine how rewarding it would be. In the past year, we have made significant improvements across FLYING. 

Focus on the Highest Quality 

Earlier this year, we upgraded the print edition of FLYING with high-end paper, a new design, and award-winning photography. We also required all advertisements to run full-page ads in order to ensure that the magazine delivered a positive experience for the reader. 

Our focus continues to center around publishing the highest quality print aviation magazine in the market. 

Print Returning to Monthly 

Initially, we rolled out the new FLYING as a quarterly publication, but in response to the overwhelmingly positive feedback we received from our readers—and enormous support from our advertisers—we have decided to take FLYING back to a monthly frequency. 

FLYING subscribers will receive the 2022 Buyers Guide in October, followed by the Q4 2022 issue of FLYING in November, and finally a special December issue. Beginning in January, subscribers will receive 12 issues in 2023, and we will maintain the same high quality of our recent redesign. 

Significant Investment in the Digital Experience Across Web and Mobile

In addition to our investments in the magazine, we have also made significant upgrades to the FLYING website. I hope you have noticed how much more content is there, with special attention paid to pilot-oriented topics such as Destinations, Maintenance, Aircraft Ownership, Careers, and Student Guides. We have also expanded our coverage of aviation history, military, and aerospace topics. We plan on doubling the number of contributors in 2023, and they will provide a wide array of aviation content. 

As part of the website upgrades, we’ve made the reader experience more intuitive. We eliminated the programmatic ads that were on the site and replaced them with aviation-relevant, direct-sale ads that don’t interfere with your reading experience. 

Response From the Market? Overwhelmingly Positive 

We have invested nearly $10 million in the new FLYING, and the market has responded very positively to the changes and upgrades. Revenues are up 88 percent year-over-year and we are starting to see real momentum in the business. As a growth-oriented CEO, I plan on investing the increased revenue right back into FLYING. We have big plans in 2023 and beyond to expand FLYING with more high-quality content, experiences, and applications. 

Back at the FBO—and Back on the Newsstand

As a supply chain executive, I was appalled by how challenging the print supply chain was for FLYING when I first arrived. Over the past year, we have overhauled the supply chain and created a streamlined process over which we have direct control. This process is complete and we are expanding our distribution to fixed-base operators (FBOs) and retail newsstands. 

Beginning in October, FLYING will be available at FBOs nationwide. We believe that being in FBOs is important—they are the central meeting and “refueling” place for all pilots. If you haven’t seen the new print version of FLYING, it’s likely to be at your local FBO starting next month. I hope you will take advantage of the opportunity to check it out and if you like it, please subscribe. We will continue to invest in new content creation—and we are also working on a subscriber rewards program. We want to develop a community with our readers, one in which we have relationships based on a love of flying—and FLYING. 

In November, FLYING is also returning to select retail newsstands. The print version of FLYING will be available at Barnes & Noble and more than 970 Hudson News stores. We believe this gives FLYING the opportunity to reach prospective pilots and aviation lovers in airports and bookstores nationwide. 

We are committed to bringing FLYING back to greatness and are preparing the magazine for the next generation of aviation. In addition, we are working on a number of new initiatives and products that will make FLYING an even greater part of the aviation community. 

Subscribe today to never miss an issue. 

The post FLYING’s Significant Improvements and Smashing Success appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

We value this feedback and realize that this isn’t just our magazine, but it’s also yours, the reader.

One thing that I promise is that we will always try new things to bring additional valuable content to you.

The Adventure Guide was created as a special and unique extra issue, intended to highlight destinations that you can fly your aircraft to. For us, the easiest place to start was in our own backyard, which includes the fly-in resort and community we are building at The Fields. For some, the interest around the region and format was well received; for others it was met with caution and concern about the direction we took and they saw it as potentially self-serving.

I am a passionate entrepreneur, and I care deeply about the projects I’m involved with. I bring that same enthusiasm to what we are building at The Fields. I am also a pilot, and am equally passionate about aviation with a goal to promote the lifestyle we all enjoy as general aviation enthusiasts. The Fields was formed out of the intersection of those two passions.

Most importantly, though, I am passionate about FLYING and the history associated with the brand. 

Rest assured, we are not converting FLYING into a real-estate magazine. It was supplemental and complementary, and is not the standard format of FLYING going forward. 

The next issue of FLYING is already at the printer, and it will be on its way to you in the next few weeks. It will return to the consistent format that so many of our subscribers love. We are also planning on going back to monthly in October, with 12 issues per year. 

For those that appreciated the inclusion of our destination content, we plan on adding a section into FLYING that features fly-in destinations throughout the country. The goal is to highlight different regions and interesting places to visit in your aircraft. 

Over the next year, future issues of FLYING will include coverage centered around the following regions, including Alaska, Utah, Texas, Michigan, Florida, New York, Colorado, Washington, and various provinces in Canada. We would love to hear your suggestions on regions you’d love for us to explore.  

I want to thank the FLYING community for voicing your thoughts and concerns. The love and passion you have for the magazine and brand is what makes FLYING so special. 

If you would like to join in on the print journey and all the exciting updates we’re making to the magazine, subscribe here.

The post Introducing: The Adventure Guide appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

As promised, we wanted the magazine to be something coffee table-worthy and the highest quality magazine dedicated to pilots in the world.

I believe we accomplished that with our first two quarterly editions of FLYING, the second of which ships next week. With the feedback we’ve received from the FLYING community and tapping into my own love of FLYING, we’ve decided to do the biggest print magazine expansion in FLYING’s history.

We are going back to monthly, and we are keeping the high-quality print and design that we introduced in the first quarter.

But that isn’t all. 

This August, we plan to expand the magazine from 112 pages to 164 pages. Like our first two editions of the new design, they are going to be incredibly beautiful, with the highest end paper and packaged with beautiful photos and stories.  

• JOIN THE PARTY: Subscribe to FLYING Magazine

As a FLYING subscriber, you will now receive monthly print issues that are the highest quality magazines in aviation, along with 52 more pages of aviation content each month.  

In addition to the content you currently enjoy, we are also going to be going much deeper into topics that impact current or prospective aircraft owners. Things like aircraft maintenance, finance, buying/selling an aircraft, hangars, and even a section dedicated to aircraft and real estate listings. The back of the book is inspired by Dupont Registry, but for aviation lovers. 

We are also introducing two special editions each year: A summer adventure flying edition and a buyer’s guide. The adventure flying issue will be the July edition and the annual buyers guide will be the October issue. 

I am incredibly excited about this expansion of FLYING Magazine and ask for your support by becoming a subscriber. Subscriptions help cover our cost to deliver the highest quality aviation magazine on the planet. 

Also, don’t forget to tell your pilot friends about all of the exciting developments at FLYING.

The post <i>FLYING</i> Magazine to Expand Back to Monthly With 50 Percent Larger Book appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The magazine uses the highest quality paper on the market, along with ink that has far more color depth than anything I’ve ever seen. It now has a weight that gives the magazine an essence of significance and a level of sophistication that is coffee-table friendly for even the most refined taste. 

The new magazine now contains a lot more content than before. For the past couple of years, the previous version typically contained 70 pages inside the covers, and the new version has 112 pages. But since the paper and covers are thicker, the new version comes out three times as thick when you compare the density. The Q1 issue has 24 article sections versus 16 in the most recent editions. 

Because we’ve removed distribution at newsstands (you can now only get FLYING Magazine by subscribing), we made the cover very simple with no text or barcode that detracts from the image. On the new cover, you’ll only find the FLYING logo, an aircraft themed photo, and the Issue number and date at the bottom. We think this cleaner look creates something you’re more likely to display in your home or office than what we offered before. 

The updates weren’t just on the cover—you’ll find more upgrades inside, as well. We used more modern design techniques to give the magazine a fresher look that’s easier to navigate. You’ll find a lot more articles and photos than before and we removed some of the cluttered ads that populated the old magazine. You will still find a few ads sprinkled in, but we’ve implemented tighter design standards and limited the amount of ads per issue. 

While we’ve made FLYING a quarterly publication, this doesn’t mean we’ll only produce four editions each year. We have plans for at least two special editions in 2022, one in the summer around adventure flying and a buyer’s guide in the fall for a total of six print magazines in 2022. With the enlarged quarterly print editions and the special editions we have planned, a FLYING subscriber will receive more content than in recent years. 

The print edition is also focused on evergreen content that is less about news and similar coverage. We have been ramping up our website for timely news and topics, which features about 10 new articles each day. In fact, with the redesigned FLYINGMag.com website and investments in digital, traffic to the web version of FLYING has increased fourfold since we took over, and the site continues to break records. 

I strongly encourage you to subscribe to the new FLYING Magazine. It’s only available to subscribers, you won’t find it in the stores, anywhere. 

Our revamped print magazine is the finest aviation magazine on the market and we would appreciate your support. 

I would love to know what you think of the new version of FLYING and we’d love for you to send us comments or suggestions on how we can make the magazine even better. Connect with me on Twitter @freightalley. 

The post Subscribers Are About to Get the New <I>FLYING</I> Magazine appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

We’re using a high-performance design with a fresh look, with the goal to make the site easier to navigate, discover new and engaging content, and just get lost in the world of aviation. There are sections for all interests in aviation from students to professionals, pistons to jets, historical content and disruptive technologies, military and space, airports and aviation real estate, business-to-business reporting, safety and accident investigation and analysis, and everything in between. 

The goal at FLYING is to build on our legacy as the premier spot for engaging aviation and aerospace content, always from the perspective of a pilot. We have a new mobile app that we are working on that will be a vast improvement over the current one. Look for that to launch in the next month or so. 

New Print Product to Come

Also on the horizon is our new print edition. The new FLYING magazine will be bigger and contain a lot more content than the current version. 

We are improving the quality of the paper, the cover, layout, and focusing on evergreen content that is engaging and beautiful. We want to create a journey with our print product that is exclusive and exciting for the aviation world. 

We are also eliminating a lot of the ads that are in the current version of FLYING to ensure that the few ads we do have are relevant and beautiful.

You will not find FLYING magazine on newsstands after the new year. You must subscribe to get the print version. You can do so here. 

An annual subscription to FLYING is the perfect holiday gift for yourself or a loved one. 

You can connect with me on Twitter @freightalley. I would love to hear your thoughts on the direction of FLYING and what we can do to make your experience better. 

The post Taking Off in Public: Welcome to the New FLYING Website appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

But the reality is that general aviation is actually experiencing a massive resurgence.

According to the FAA, there were 827,000 pilots in the United States in 1980, the peak year for pilots. There were 692,000 pilots at the end of 2020. While on the surface this suggests a 17 percent decline since the peak, what’s less obvious is the increase in the number of pilots since 2015.

The industry bottomed out in 2016 when just 585,000 pilots were registered with the FAA. Since then, we’ve seen an increase every year, with 2020 having the highest number of pilots since 1990. For every year since 2016, the average jump in pilots has been 4 percent. If the trend continues, the number of pilots could break records by 2025.

This would be a remarkable turn around. What is driving this?

Every pilot, regardless of where their eventual experience takes them—hobbyist, military, airline—begins as a general aviation pilot. Their experience in flying light airplanes often stays with them even when they move into larger aircraft. After all, many airline pilots can attest to how boring flying a large commercial airliner with crew can be compared to piloting a small single-engine GA aircraft. The adventure often lives with them beyond their initial training.

With the airlines facing unprecedented pilot shortages, they are ramping up recruiting and training programs. Pay is also on the upswing. With the potential for career pilots to make salaries that rival those of medical and legal professionals, few jobs offer as much upward mobility. The airline industry will accelerate their advertising spending to attract new recruits to the rank of pilots. This top-of-the-funnel approach will trickle throughout the industry and will introduce people to life as an airline pilot.

With airlines funding the top of the funnel and pulling new recruits into the industry, colleges and university training programs are catching on. Nothing resonates more to colleges and universities than programs that offer career placement with high earnings potential. This is true, especially as colleges fight for capturing student aid dollars and want to tell a story about the adventure of being a pilot. With increasing spending in STEM programs continuing across the country, there will be more funding and interest in aviation and aerospace programs.

The Emerging Flight-tech Industry

Nothing drives more innovation than the emergence of venture capitalists who catch onto an industry that’s about to undergo massive disruption. This will have a huge impact on the aviation industry. Venture capitalists have started to fund projects around the aerospace industry, including projects around electric propulsion, eVTOLs, urban air mobility, and space commercialization themes. This new capital will create opportunities for both students and engineers to become general aviation pilots.

Venture capital investment will also drive innovation, which general aviation will benefit from. New technologies that make aviation more economical, sustainable, safe, and attainable will be tested and created in pilot-flown aircraft first. One such technology is Skyryse’s new self-flight platform, which makes personal aviation incredibly turnkey.

The FAA will also experience pressure to overhaul its processes to respond to industry. This pressure will come from new market entrants, incumbents, investors, and even pressure for national security purposes. After all, the U.S. will not want to lose its standing on the global stage as the leader in aerospace worldwide. This will enable a more innovative and accelerated approach to government regulations.

The wealth effect is also driving interest in general aviation. Successful entrepreneurs, professionals, and investors have discovered the joy of piloting their own aircraft. While most of these new market entrants are low-time pilots that take up the hobby for recreational purposes, they also soon discover that buying a small aircraft is not the end to their quest for even greater power and functionalities. With glass cockpits making piloting safer, more intuitive, and attractive for new entrants, the manufacturers are experiencing unprecedented growth in personal aviation.

The ability to work remotely, from anywhere, and health-conscious flying as a result of the pandemic has accelerated interest in personal aviation. Nothing offers more freedom from the airline chaos than personal aviation. The trend of people moving away from major urban centers—with the resulting increased distance from major airline hubs—will only increase the desire for the flexibility that general aviation can offer.

Social media and an aviation media renaissance will add to the interest among people to take their discovery flights and explore becoming a pilot. While it’s hard to measure how many people become pilots because of the photography, video, and stories that cover the general aviation industry, there is a lot of anecdotal evidence that these platforms are major influencers in driving people to consider personal aviation.

I know from my own experience. I get regular messages from my supply-chain and venture capital connections on social media who have become introduced to personal aviation since I started posting content from FLYING that they have taken up the hobby. With the investments we are making at FLYING in new content, editorial coverage, video, photography, and podcasts, I only expect this momentum to continue. By looking at the engagement data on our social media accounts, I know that there is a fanatical audience that loves everything about aviation. I also know that we are not alone. There are thousands of highly engaged social media accounts that serve up regular content to prospective avgeeks out there.

Connect with me on Twitter @freightalley.

The post Taking Off in Public: The GA Renaissance appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

During the 20th century, much of the capital invested in aerospace came from governments, directed toward spending in military and space. When the Cold War ended, a lot of capital dried up, and innovation slowed.

But in the past decade, the aerospace innovation winter ended, and we’ve seen an explosion of new startups and ideas. Venture capitalists have started to take the place of governments as the primary source of innovative capital around the aerospace industry.

SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic are all examples of venture-funded aerospace startups driving the space industry to new heights—literally.

Closer to earth, we’ve seen startups pursuing a number of innovative ideas, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. The hottest aviation segment encompasses eVTOLs, promising to create the urban air mobility (UAM) sector that Morgan Stanley believes will surpass $9.6 trillion by 2050. If they’re right, the UAM sector will be the most transformative industry since the internet.

Investors have started to pour a lot of money into the space, backing startups such as Joby Aviation, Boom Supersonic, Xwing, Kitty Hawk, or Elroy Air—all promising to make the world more accessible and physically connected.

According to Pitchbook, more than 200 aerospace companies have raised more than $10 billion dollars in venture capital since 2018.

Just this past week, we saw a pureplay flight tech venture capital firm form with $230 million to invest in urban air mobility startups. UP.Partners counts famed ETF (exchange traded fund) principal Cathie Woods, Alaska Airlines, and Toyota as major investors.

GA Also Scores

But eVTOL and space aren’t the only areas seeing investment. General aviation is also benefiting.

Icon Aircraft is one of the most successful venture-backed general aviation companies, having raised $460 million, with valuation of $780 million. Bye Aerospace recently closed a $20 million Series B venture round, hoping to usher in electric propulsion. Skyryse—another flight tech startup that hopes to make piloting an aircraft far more accessible—just raised $200 million.

The fact remains that while some of these companies will fail, aviation will win. With new capital and startups, we will get new technologies that will make aviation safer, more efficient, and more economical. It will force regulators to embrace innovation and find ways to address major issues that GA pilots struggle with. It will also bring in a whole new batch of young people to the aviation industry who will discover the joy of our adventure, and what it means to be an aviator.

Aviation has always been a place where innovation and creativity have been embraced. After all, the entire concept of powered aviation is still in its infancy. At FLYING, we recognize that some of our audience will express disbelief and even find some of the future concepts unsettling. We also find some of the claims to stretch reality. But we also recognize that these conversations will bring a new level of interest and awareness to aviation and will give us all the chance to share our love with people just discovering what personal aviation is all about.

This is the idea behind Modern FLYING. It’s to cover the more speculative businesses and concepts in a way that enables startups and innovators to share their dreams with the FLYING audience. Modern FLYING articles can be found on the FLYING website, but also will be a single feature in the new print edition of FLYING.

We hope you enjoy it.

Connect with me on Twitter @freightalley

The post Taking Off in Public: Introducing Modern FLYING appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

• Military aviation and aerospace
• Space
• University and training programs
• Modern FLYING (emerging technology and innovation)
• STOL and backcountry flying
• Aircraft ownership
• Personal finance for professional pilots
• Aviation real estate
• Light sport aircraft
• Accident analysis
• Women in aviation
• GA travel

Now, we are expanding our editorial efforts to include aviation business and market insights, under the banner of FLYING Business.

This will be an important area of focus and one that I am particularly excited about. While I understand that this will appeal to perhaps only a segment of our audience, I believe it’s an important extension of our brand.

After all, the best way to track the innovation and development in the aviation space is to have close relationships with the various manufacturers, technology vendors, and suppliers in the space. By investing in business coverage, we will have a much deeper understanding of the developments in the aviation industry.

We’ve named our first business editor, Michael Wildes, who holds a flight instructor certificate with single-engine, multiengine, and instrument ratings. He earned a master’s degree in logistics and supply-chain management and a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical science, both from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. He has also worked in the university’s flight department as a check airman, assistant training manager, and quality assurance mentor. Wildes also sits on the board of Dreams Soar, Inc., an organization that encourages girls and young women to consider STEM and aviation careers.

Michael has written for FLYING as a contributor for the past two months under the headlines of “What Your Flight Instructor Wants You to Know.” He will continue to write this section but will also oversee our business coverage efforts. Michael combines a deep understanding of aviation from the perspective of a pilot, which will serve him well in covering business stories for FLYING.

Our plans are to grow FLYING Business to become the leading provider of content for companies and professionals in the aviation and aerospace industry. We plan to grow the editorial team with additional journalists, always keeping our focus on covering the aviation industry from the perspective of a pilot.

It’s my observation that business news doesn’t do very well in print. Therefore, FLYING Business is a digital-only approach.

If you are curious about how we plan to execute the FLYING Business media plan, you can check out FreightWaves, the company I founded four years ago, which has quickly become the market leader in supply-chain news, analysis, and data. The idea is to provide deep stories and analysis for the aviation industry, always with a focus on original stories that are timely and have a lot of depth.

We will cover topics that go beyond press releases and include investigative journalism, earnings, capital raises, mergers and acquisitions, market updates and analysis, technology innovations, and other developments. The goal is to build the largest source of information for anyone interested in aviation, whether an adventurer, professional, or executive.

Interested in connecting with me? You can find me on Twitter @freightalley.

The post Taking Off in Public: Covering The Business of Flying appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Editor’s Note: “Taking Off in Public” is a new digital series written by Craig Fuller, the new owner of FLYING. In this series, Fuller will provide insight into his plans for Flying and a first-hand look at how Flying is being built for the next generation.

This week, FLYING had the opportunity to host the first virtual streaming conference in our history. We brought together industry professionals, innovators, thought leaders, and executives to talk about what the future holds for general aviation. We featured topics ranging from STOL drag, eVTOL kitplanes, personal aircraft, and corporate jets. If you missed any of the talks, you can find them on demand here.

We received a lot of feedback from the audience and participants, most notably about the quality of production. The streaming model that FLYING used for virtual events is one the team at FreightWaves has perfected. It is intended to operate like a streaming cable TV network on the day of the event. In fact, with the infrastructure that is required to put on a broadcast-level event being so significant, it only makes sense to create an actual streaming broadcast network. FreightWaves typically sees about 35,000 people a day that tune into watch streaming supply-chain and logistics content.

The FLYING event that we put on was a test run of sorts for a broader FLYING broadcast network. Starting in January, FLYING will broadcast a daily show each morning that will cover aviation news and special interest topics. The content will be broad, but focused from an aviator perspective. It will be broadcast quality and available on major streaming platforms like Apple TV, Roku, web, and mobile. The content will be available on-demand and accessible through podcasts.

Our hope is that this one daily show enables us to create an entire streaming TV network covering all aspects of aerospace, with a range expanding between general aviation, business aviation, military, commercial, and even space commercialization.

We also are planning to expand into B2B coverage with our newest brand, FLYING Business. FLYING Business will deeply cover business topics in the aerospace industry, but always with a perspective that is aviator first. We are looking for a B2B editor. If you have business news editorial experience, reach out to discuss opportunities.

Interested in connecting with me? You can find me on Twitter @freightalley

The post Taking Off in Public: Streaming TV and B2B to Come appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Editor’s Note: “Taking Off in Public” is a new digital series written by Craig Fuller, the new owner of FLYING. In this series, Fuller will provide insight into his plans for Flying and a first-hand look at how Flying is being built for the next generation.

Choosing a college is one of the most important decisions any high school student can make. College shapes so much of one’s future life that a decision this profound should be made very carefully.

In aviation circles, colleges have a significant influence on the future of our industry. With the military playing less of a role for developing pilots and aerospace professionals, institutions of higher learning have become ground zero for training future aviators.

With pilots and aviation professionals being in such high demand, FLYING has taken a deeper look at aerospace education. We hired a full-time reporter to cover aviation education and believe covering news and commentary regarding aviation colleges and universities from a pilot’s perspective provides an important resource for prospective aviation students and their parents.

After all, there are many college guides, but none that have the perspective of an aviator.

This past week, I had the opportunity to visit the University of North Dakota, which is home to the largest aviation program of any public university in the world.

The Nuts and Bolts

UND Aerospace has more than 1,800 students and nearly 500 faculty and staff. It’s home to four departments:

• Atmospheric Sciences
• Aviation
• Earth System Science and Policy
• Space Studies

Degree programs include:

• Air traffic management
• Airport management
• Atmospheric sciences
• Aviation management
• Aviation
• Commercial aviation
• Earth system science and policy
• Space studies
• Unmanned aircraft systems operations

The university’s pride and joy is the pilot training program, or bachelor of science in commercial aviation.

The program has a fleet of 130 airplanes that are currently sourced almost exclusively through Piper. The school runs the fleet as efficiently as any commercial operator, with a large on-site maintenance and supply chain program. Having a single provider of airplanes enables interchangeability and eases risks of downtime.

The pilot training program is operated out of Grand Forks International Airport (KGFK), the closest major airport to the Canadian border, located just 80 miles south of Manitoba.

The Modest Giant

But even though Grand Forks isn’t a major international hub for the airlines, it’s still one of the busiest airports in the U.S. In fact, for a few days so far in 2021, Grand Forks International has had the largest number of flight operations of any airport in the U.S., with more than 2,000 takeoffs and landings on a given day. The UND blog took it one step further when back in March it proclaimed that Grand Forks may have been the busiest airport in the world.

“And given that the U.S. is home to the world’s busiest airports, we might have been No. 1 in the world,’ UND’s chief flight instructor says.”

The UND flight program can take credit for helping to create this distinction. The flight operations–or number of takeoffs and landings–may not carry the cachet of carrying a large number of passengers or air cargo like Atlanta Hartsfield or O’Hare, but for pilots or air traffic controllers, they all represent an aircraft to monitor and sequence.

Even more challenging is that most of the pilots operating out of Grand Forks are not seasoned professionals, but rather students with various levels of experience.

I can only imagine how challenging it is to be a controller at Grand Forks.

The most surprising thing I learned during my visit is that the school will still conduct operations unless the temperature drops below -30 degrees Fahrenheit. I rarely want to get in a car with heated seats when the weather is below freezing, I can’t imagine getting in an airplane when it’s that cold.

While it means that students will be getting a lot of winter flying experience, I can’t imagine that many of them are excited to be flying around in such harsh temperatures—but I’m biased, having lived my whole life in the South.

The school has a robust lab of flight simulators to provide real-world experiences that are safest simulated on a screen and not in the air.

The school has a virtual tower with a 360-degree view, which acts as an ATC simulator. The lab can simulate weather, wildlife, and countless challenging situations to prepare ATC students with some of the most difficult scenarios. Student pilots are even invited to participate in the ATC simulations, in an attempt to give the ATC students a more authentic experience.

An Eye Toward The Future

UND has also developed real-world labs that simulate what life is like to live on the moon or Mars. When we were on campus, students were simulating a two-week stellar habitat experience.

The school is thinking a lot about what’s to come. There’s been a significant ramp up in unmanned aerial systems programs and research, along with developing business-model and supply-chain education. The school understands that an 18-year-old student will likely experience the urban air mobility revolution within their career.

If Morgan Stanley’s projections are correct, the urban air mobility (UAM) industry will be a $9 trillion dollar industry by 2050. If that happens, UAM will be larger than the entire transportation industry is today.

Keep in mind that 2050 is less than 30 years away. A freshman in college would be experiencing the societal changes equivalent to the span of time from the internet revolution in the early 90s to 2021.

In addition to urban mobility, the university is thinking deeply about space commercialization. UND has a partnership with NASA and a number of major private space contractors. They believe that the future of aerospace is multifaceted and about to receive an explosion of investment and interest in the private and public sectors.

Room for Improvement

While I was very impressed with the program at UND, I did find some of the aerospace facilities dated. You could tell that the school is making investments in the campus, but still has a ways to go.

The aerospace buildings around the airport almost gave the air of a prison, but only because of the 1970s era architecture. Luckily for future students, the foundation is working to secure $60 million in capital funding to construct a flagship building for the program at the airport. I saw the plans, and once it’s built, the facility will be the finest home to any aviation education program in the world.

Dropping The Puck

After we completed our tour of UND’s Aerospace program, we were invited to watch the UND hockey team take on Niagara. While the game was a bit of a blowout (a 6-2 victory against the Purple Eagles), I was most impressed by the hockey facility and environment. It reminded me of attending a college football game at Alabama.

I found the environment exciting and energetic. The hockey stadium was as impressive as any indoor sports facility I had ever been in, far besting the Nashville Predators home at Bridgestone Arena. You could tell there was a substantial amount of pride in the team, which was helped by the fact that UND has won eight NCAA national hockey championships.

While my 15-year-old has a few years before he settles on a school, I’ll encourage him to look at UND. And although he’d be far from home, he certainly wouldn’t be unique. Almost 90 percent of the students in the aerospace program are from out of state, some from several states away.

Interested in connecting with me? Follow me on Twitter @freightalley.

The post Taking Off in Public: A Benchmark for Aviation Education appeared first on FLYING Magazine.