Featured Photo by Noah McLane
Story by Noah McLane
MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee announced Shelbyville as the new home of MTSU’s Aerospace Program Thursday from the Shelbyville Municipal Airport alongside Gov. Bill Lee, Chairman of the Board of Trustees Stephen Smith, Shelbyville Mayor Randy Carroll and Director of the Shelbyville Municipal Airport Paul Perry.
The event took place just off the runway for a crowd of over 200 people. With a parade and a backdrop of aircraft coming and going, the crowd was buzzing.
Four MTSU Diamond DA-40 Aircraft piloted by MTSU students landed at the airfield and taxied off the runway less than 200 feet from the audience while “Jump” by Van Halen blasted through speakers. The planes were being showered with water by Shelbyville fire engines, making them sparkle in the morning sun.
President McPhee said the announcement marked “a new milestone in the storied history of our aerospace department [that] promises to expand our capabilities even further.”
MTSU’s Professional Pilot and Maintenance Management concentrations have just under 1000 students currently enrolled with that number expected to soar in the coming years.
Gov. Lee spoke at the event, saying, “What we have in this program at MTSU is unique to the country, it’s one of the leading aerospace programs in America. It’s why all these leaders in the general assembly decided to put some 60-something million dollars into this program. Because this matters to Tennessee, it matters to our future.”
A worldwide pilot shortage in addition to Southwest Airline’s plan to open a new crew base in Nashville further increases demand for trained pilots, especially in the Middle Tennessee area.
To become trained pilots, students need to fly– a lot. MTSU Aerospace graduate and current certified flight instructor for the school Dillon Beckwith said pilots need to log 1,000 hours of airtime before they can get their commercial air pilots’ license.
This means more students are going to need more facilities over the long term. In the short term, MTSU really needs somewhere to store its growing fleet. The university currently operates 45 training aircraft.
The Shelbyville Airport is almost triple the size of Murfreesboro’s and has space to build classrooms, hangers and possibly housing, according to Chaminda Prelis, chair of the MTSU Aerospace Department.
“This is a defining moment in our history,” said Prelis.
“We took the first step today, by getting the funding we need for this facility…the next steps are building it, making sure they’re state-of-the-art buildings with the most modern equipment,” said Prelis
And with $57.2 million in state funds approved and $5 million in matching funds raised by MTSU secured for developing the seat of Bedford County’s campus, the sky is the limit.
“In the next two weeks we will be meeting with architects and an engineering and design team,” said Prelis, “They [will design] an operation space for the dispatching of airplanes and for our flight instructor office spaces… they’ll also add academic spaces for the Maintenance management program.”
MTSU said it will have temporary facilities by the end of spring semester 2024, with 10 to 20 aircraft moved then for flight training. Groundbreaking will be in the summer or fall of 2024.
Correction: On Oct. 25, 2023, the sentence, “MTSU’s Professional Pilot and Maintenance Management concentrations have over 1200 students currently enrolled with that number expected to soar in the coming years,” was corrected to, “MTSU’s Professional Pilot and Maintenance Management concentrations have over 1000 students currently enrolled with that number expected to soar in the coming years.” MTSU’s total aerospace enrollment, including all 6 undergraduate concentrations and 3 graduate concentrations, is just over 1200.
Correction: On Oct. 25, 2023, the sentence, “MTSU Aerospace graduate and current flight training manager for the school Dillon Beckwith said pilots need to log 1,000 hours of airtime before they can get their commercial air pilots’ license,” was corrected to, “MTSU Aerospace graduate and current certified flight instructor for the school Dillon Beckwith said pilots need to log 1,000 hours of airtime before they can get their commercial air pilots’ license.” Dillon Beckwith is a certified flight instructor, not a flight training manager.
Correction: On Oct. 25, 2023, the sentence, “The university currently operates 44 training aircraft,” was corrected to, “The university currently operates 45 training aircraft,” and the hyperlink was removed. The link provided outdated information. The university operates 45 training aircraft, not 44.
Noah McLane is the geopolitical reporter for MTSU Sidelines.
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