The Lone Star Flight Museum, Houston, TX, welcomed hundreds of young aviation enthusiasts and their parents for its 12th annual Girls in Aviation Day on September 19. Presented by ExxonMobil, the event introduced girls and boys ages 8 to 17 to aviation, aerospace, and STEM careers through hands-on activities, aircraft experiences, and conversations with industry professionals.
(Image credit: Lone Star Flight Museum)
This year’s event added several new activities, including an ILC Dover spacesuit demonstration that gave participants an opportunity to learn about how astronauts live and work in space. Other activities included drone soccer, making a souvenir rivet, building 3D airplanes, testing aircraft designs in a wind tunnel, creating circuit flashlights, and programming a robot to navigate simulated taxiways and runways. The museum’s aircraft collection remained a central part of the event, with about a dozen aircraft on the ramp available for participants to explore. Returning activities included the pilot experience, preflight inspections, fundamentals of flight and flight simulators, along with hangar talks.
(Image credit: Lone Star Flight Museum)
A college and career fair brought representatives from about two dozen companies and organizations to the museum. Participants could learn how different jobs contribute to the aviation industry and what steps they could take toward careers in the field. Organizations taking part included Million Air, Houston Airports, San Jacinto College, Texas Southern University, and United Airlines.
(Image credit: Lone Star Flight Museum)
The event also featured a lunch and panel discussion sponsored by H-E-B, bringing together women working across different areas of aviation and aerospace. The panel included Tracie Carwile, a corporate aviation leader; Susanne Cross, an aircraft safety expert with United Airlines; Veronica Martinez, a spacesuit engineer; and Capt. Jennifer McNeill, a U.S. Air Force fighter pilot. Pilot and Tavaero Jet Charter Corp. owner Marcela White moderated the discussion.
(Image credit: Lone Star Flight Museum)
The event was supported by sponsors across several levels, led by Changemaker sponsor ExxonMobil and Champion sponsor Tavaero Jet Charter Corp. Additional sponsors included Million Air Houston, the Patricia Jayne Keefer Foundation, Atlantic Aviation, Galveston College, Linda & Barry Hunsaker, Signature Aviation, Universal Technical Institute-Houston, Dynamic Science Inc., Houston Airports, Parrish-O’Neill Aviation Insurance, and San Jacinto College. For more information and to support the Lone Star Flight Museum, click on this link: lonestarflight.org.
(Image credit: Lone Star Flight Museum)
