OSHKOSH, WI (WTAQ) – An expansion, decades in the making, is taking flight in Oshkosh. EAA broke ground on a $6.2 million Aviation Center expansion on Monday.
Vice President of Community and Member Programs Rick Larsen says the first floor of the new facility will be a Pilot Proficiency Center with ten state-of-the-art simulators and tons of classroom space.
“A number of different things that will have an impact on the general aviation community from a safety standpoint,” Larsen said. “The intent is to really make this service available to a lot of other aviation groups as a way to augment pilot training and proficiency. We would expect to see various type clubs coming in and using it, [as well as] FAA safety seminars.”
Larsen says they’ve seen tremendous support from the aviation community on the facility, and donations have funded a large piece of it.
The second floor focuses on youth education, and will include 15,000 square feet and five flexible labs for hands-on learning.
“What the expansion really allows us to do is really up the game when it comes to the type of programs that we can offer kids coming into the facility, be that a school groups, scout groups, [etc.],” Larsen said. “We want to offer things that simply can’t be done today on a classroom basis, but allows teachers and the schools to expand the reach from a STEM standpoint…One of the elements in there will be a low speed wind tunnel. The kind of thing that the schools aren’t necessarily going to be able to go invest in, but we can, then we can build programming around that.”
Larsen hopes to create a synergistic connection from a science, technology, engineering, and math standpoint at the local school level – from kindergarten all the way through grade 12.
The 30,000 square-foot addition on the south side of the museum’s Eagle Hangar is expected to be completed by mid-2022.
