Kentucky Institute For Aerospace Education Growing Momentum

By Maxine Scheer

Last week at AirVenture, ANN met up with Tim Smith, CEO of the Kentucky Institute for Aerospace Education (KIAE).  Tim is an educator with a passion for making a difference in STEM education.  He first appeared at AirVenture in 2008, with a group of students from a high school in Frankfort, Kentucky, towing along the skeleton of an Aeronca 60-TF.  Over the last five years, Tim has established an aviation pathways program that has grown from serving one high school (Frankfort, KY) to serving 23 high schools in not only Kentucky, but now includes Tennessee. 

"Each school is required to have an on-site coordinator, serving as a liaison with the Institute. The physics teachers tend to be the most excited," said Tim.  "Two teachers (women) were inspired by the program and recently soloed."

Dr. Smith, who has a PhD in education, is the real deal.  He understands how kids learn through hands on experience, was persistent and effective in engaging the support of his school district, and has grown the program into a four year curriculum of aviation-themed learning in the areas of flight and aeronautics, aircraft maintenance, aeronautical engineering, aviation operations and management, and space systems engineering.  “We focus on the skills that will make the students college and career ready,” said Smith, as he described the effectiveness of the content.

Tim described working with colleges and universities who offer early college credits for students in their senior year of high school, and has recently launched a campaign for establishing a permanent building The Kentucky Aerospace Institute at the state-owned Capitol City Airport in Frankfort, KY. The facility will be dedicated to aviation and aerospace themed teacher workshops, camps, and other events. 

"We designed the lab to meet industry standards for aircraft maintenance," said Tim, as he enthusiastically described a vision for the industry connections to the facility. "We've secured a 99 year lease for $1 a year with the State for a site with airside access, already improved to include an apron and taxiway. Local community support of in-kind design and construction fees reduced the facility cost estimate from $2 million to $800,000."  Tim also noted that he has a facility operating budget from his school district.

"We are currently operating out of T-hangars," said Tim, "and the kids are disappointed when we can't work on the aircraft when it is too cold."  Tim described how a number of aircraft have been donated since the program started with the pieces of the Aeronca.  "We recently received a Cessna 195 from Pakistan, a former spy plane. We have the log book and it has only 551 hours, the lowest time of any Cessna 195." It is one of four airworthy aircraft we have out of the 12 aircraft in the fleet.

Before ending the interview, a student walked up to say hello, Tim Clayton, who attended the first year of the Institute's program at Rowan County Senior High in Morehead, Kentucky.  Tim is pursuing a flight career while attending college and recently completed his Commercial/Instrument ratings.

It was nearly five years ago that I met Dr. Smith. He was introducing his students to welding at the Lincoln Electric exhibit here at AirVenture. Tim was encouraging one of the students, Stephanie Jones, to try welding and asked the Lincoln Electric EAA mentor to describe the type of wages they could earn, even if only to work their way through college if that was their choice.

"Dr. Tim Smith came to AirVenture in 2008 with lofty goals, and is steadily making great progress. When you hear someone saying, “we need to do something about the future of aviation," doing is exemplified by Dr. Smith, teacher extraordinaire and founder of the Kentucky Aerospace Institute.

(Pictured Top (L-R): Tim Dayton, Tim Smith, Bottom, Student Stephanie Jones)

FMI: www.kiae.org