FAA Partner Offers Tax Deductions For Planes Given to Kids

Have an old airplane in the hangar that, despite your best wishes or wildest dreams, you grudgingly admit you'll never be able to bring back to life? You may be in luck... as Build A Plane (BAP), the non-profit organization that helps kids learn science, technology, engineering and mathematics by building real airplanes, is in need of aircraft donations.

In a formal partnership with the Federal Aviation Administration since June, BAP works to place donated aircraft across the country into high schools that want to add aviation into their curriculum or who are willing to use aviation to enhance other educational objectives.

Currently there are 27 projects across the United States, plus others in India, the United Kingdom and Nigeria, and more than a 100 projects are forecast to be operating before the end of 2008. Kids are given project aircraft of all descriptions -- from cabin class twins to Cessna 150s -- as project planes to rebuild or refurbish.

Build A Plane understands the correlation between aircraft construction and real-world applications of math, science, engineering and technology.

Build A Plane is recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization. Aircraft donors receive receipts for their contributions and may take the fullest deduction the law allows. Any aircraft, or aircraft component is valuable to a high school program somewhere.

Build A Plane’s tremendous success has drawn support from a variety of general aviation industry leaders -- including Jack Pelton, the president and CEO of Cessna Aircraft Company, and Alan Klapmeier, president and CEO of Cirrus Design. Air show champion Patty Wagstaff and CNN anchor Miles O’Brien have also joined Build A Plane’s advisory board.

In addition to offering schools real airplanes as aids to learning science, technology, engineering and math, Build A Plane will soon offer a variety of aviation-themed curricula for high school students.

To donate and aircraft to Build A Plane, or to learn more about its projects, click on the FMI link below.

FMI: www.buildaplane.org