BETA Technologies Collaborates with Sinclair Community College “to Advance Electric Aviation Training Program”

BETA Tech­nolo­gies is col­lab­o­rat­ing with Ohio’s Sin­clair Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege, to Advance Elec­tric Avi­a­tion Train­ing Pro­gram, reports a press release. The Col­lege is also pur­chas­ing one of BETA’s ALIA CTOL (con­ven­tion­al take­off and land­ing air­craft) as well as a high qual­i­ty flight sim­u­la­tor.

This part­ner­ships shows “a shared com­mit­ment to advanc­ing the future of avi­a­tion and estab­lish­ing Ohio’s posi­tion in the indus­try,” says the release, “by cre­at­ing access and oppor­tu­ni­ties to work­force train­ing with elec­tric avi­a­tion tech­nolo­gies and new­ly devel­oped pro­grams.” 

The part­ners are to estab­lish a path­way “to con­duct famil­iari­sa­tion train­ing for Sin­clair stu­dents and clients in elec­tric avi­a­tion oper­a­tions and pilot/maintainer pro­fi­cien­cies.” 

With the acqui­si­tion of the ALIA CTOL and flight sim­u­la­tor, Sin­clair, with input from BETA, will cre­ate a frame­work for stu­dents to gain train­ing and cre­den­tials in elec­tric avi­a­tion, while con­duct­ing research and devel­op­ment in autonomous tech­nolo­gies. The Col­lege was able to secure USD2 mil­lion in fed­er­al fund­ing for this project.

Sin­clair Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege Cam­pus (Cred­it: Sin­clair)

After this acqui­si­tion, Sin­clair is to inte­grate the ALIA CTOL and flight sim­u­la­tor into its Nation­al UAS Train­ing and Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion Centre’s work­force train­ing, research and com­mer­cial­i­sa­tion activ­i­ties, with a focus on prac­ti­cal, hands-on accli­ma­ti­sa­tion and cre­den­tial­ing in elec­tric air­craft sys­tems, oper­a­tions and main­te­nance. 

Mike Turn­er, a Ohio con­gress­man, com­ment­ed, “The recent two pur­chas­es is anoth­er impor­tant step toward advanc­ing Dayton’s role as the future of flight. These sys­tems will enable more stu­dents to gain crit­i­cal train­ing and edu­ca­tion in Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty pro­grams, which is essen­tial for inte­gra­tion into the Nation­al Air­space Sys­tem.”

Sin­clair will lever­age its well over 100 years of aca­d­e­m­ic exper­tise and expe­ri­ence in train­ing and pro­vid­ing the nec­es­sary avi­a­tion work­force to sup­port a con­stant­ly evolv­ing indus­try. 

Both the air­craft and flight sim­u­la­tor will be housed at the Spring­field-Beck­ley Munic­i­pal Air­port, using Sinclair’s pres­ence in the Nation­al Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty Cen­ter of Excel­lence (NAAMCE) and the facil­i­ty’s notable capa­bil­i­ties sup­port­ing research, train­ing and pub­lic demon­stra­tions.

Jef­frey A. Miller, Senior Vice Pres­i­dent of Work­force Devel­op­ment and Con­sult­ing at Sin­clair Col­lege, remarked, “The growth of this mar­ket is essen­tial not only for improv­ing urban and rur­al trans­porta­tion, car­go logis­tics and emer­gency ser­vices, but also for dri­ving eco­nom­ic progress by enabling new infra­struc­ture, gen­er­at­ing jobs and fos­ter­ing col­lab­o­ra­tion between the pub­lic and pri­vate sec­tors, as in this case through our part­ner­ship with BETA.”

He con­tin­ued, “We are thrilled to estab­lish this nov­el part­ner­ship to advance the inter­ests of indus­try, gov­ern­ment, and acad­e­mia. We great­ly appre­ci­ate Con­gress­man Turner’s lead­er­ship and sup­port for this vital Day­ton Region pro­gram.” 

The flight sim­u­la­tor was deliv­ered to Sin­clair last month and BETA will deliv­er the ALIA CTOL ear­ly next year. 

Ohio Con­gress­man Mike Turn­er

The release con­tin­ues, “The part­ners will col­lab­o­rate to devel­op a cre­den­tial-based pro­gram for Sin­clair stu­dents and clients, to ensure they have the oppor­tu­ni­ty for hands-on expe­ri­ences that famil­iarise indi­vid­u­als to meet the evolv­ing stan­dards and reg­u­la­tions of this new seg­ment of the avi­a­tion indus­try. Sin­clair will begin offer­ings focused on ground school and pilot ori­en­ta­tions, lever­ag­ing sim­u­la­tion of elec­tric avi­a­tion oper­a­tions as soon as this sum­mer.” 

Shawn Hall, BETA Tech­nolo­gies’ Chief Rev­enue Offi­cer, said, “By lay­er­ing our elec­tric avi­a­tion tech­nolo­gies on top of Sinclair’s long stand­ing excel­lence in avi­a­tion edu­ca­tion, we’re not just famil­iaris­ing pilots and tech­ni­cians with this new tech­nol­o­gy, we’re cul­ti­vat­ing a new work­force for the future.” 

For more infor­ma­tion

https://beta.team

https://sinclair.edu

(Top image: BETA Tech­nolo­gies)

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