The Aviation Science department marked two important events on Wednesday. The first was a signed agreement that will strengthen BSU’s partnership with Cape Air. The second was the unveiling of a refurbished flight simulator.
The event took place at BSU’s Aviation Training Center, located at New Bedford Regional Airport.
The partnership between BSU and Cape Air (along with its partner JetBlue) dates to September 2014, when the university was accepted as part of the airlines’ pilot-development program. The JetBlue University Gateway Program takes the best aviation students and provides training and mentoring, eventually setting them squarely on the path to fly first for Cape Air and then JetBlue. BSU was the seventh institution to be taken aboard the program.
The new agreement will establish a postgraduate co-op program for aviation students. These co-op students, if accepted, will train to become and serve as first officers on Cape Air flights.
President Frederick W. Clark Jr. signed the agreement on behalf of BSU, and said the time is right to invest in the aviation program, which gained national accreditation two years ago.
“At a moment in time when the U.S. needs pilots – as a matter of fact, the world needs pilots – I think the timing is right to make an investment in our program, to make an investment in this place, and time to make an investment in our students most importantly,” he said.
The refurbished simulator is a dozen years old and had been taken offline due to obsolescence. The Information Technology Department upgraded the simulator’s computer, graphics and other components, creating an upgraded simulator that mimics a multi-engine plane that can fly into any “airport” and in any weather.
As Dr. Elmore Alexander, dean of the Ricciardi College of Business, said, “They replaced technology that barely worked with technology that gets us to the state of the art.”
The refurbished simulator is a necessary tool for aviation majors on the multi-engine track. The center has two single-engine simulators as well.
The new simulator will make training for multi-engine flying more efficient and cost effective, said David Lotto, ’13, a flight instructor at BSU’s aviation training center.
“This is definitely a big step up,” he said. (Story and photos by John Winters, G’11, University News & Media)
Photo caption - ribbon cutting for the refurbished simulator: (Left to right) BSU Vice President and CIO Ray Lefebvre; Loren Herren, director of operations at BSU’s Aviation Training Center; Craig Bentley, senior vice president of operations for Cape Air, President Clark, Dr. Elmore Leonard, dean of the Ricciardi College of Business.
