And then there was a helicopter on campus.
Delaware State University unveiled a partnership with U.S. Army Cadet Command on Thursday that will bring helicopter flight training back to the university’s aviation program. Warming sun gleamed off that Cabri G2 Helicopter itself as media and officials gathered for the morning announcement in Dover.
“The helicopter flight training program is huge for DSU,” said Lt. Col. Michael Hales, director of DSU Aviation and retired 25-year veteran of the U.S. Army, ahead of the event.
This expansion boosts the professional pilot discipline offered at Delaware State, not only providing helicopter training to U.S. Army ROTC students, according to the university, but later to prove an option for all undergraduate aviation majors. Delaware State offers an aviation management degree as well.
“And it’s a win-win for the Army,” Hales said. “Because at the end of four years, they get a commissioned officer who will have their private instrument, commercial and flight instructor’s rating in helicopters.”
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The first cohort to take advantage will come by this fall, a university spokesperson said, in about 10 students on ROTC scholarship. The Delaware Airpark hosts these flight operations, about 10 minutes’ drive from main campus.
Poised for photos Thursday morning, two of these two-seat machine and its over 23-feet of wingspan are set to join a fleet of 26 university-owned planes, several flight simulators — and a blooming program.
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Lt. Col. Hales is a bit of a helicopter man himself.
“The Army reached out to me and said, ‘Hey, you’re a former officer. You’re one of us. Help us do this.’ And I said, ‘Goodness, we shut that down not long ago — let me see what I can do,'” said the pilot dual-rated in both planes and helicopters, recalling the U.S. Army seeking the partnership. “And we were able to figure it out.”
Delaware State will be the only aviation program among Historically Black Colleges and Universities to offer helicopter flight training, Hales added.
His program already boasts graduating the most pilots of color in the nation. It seems to keep getting stronger.
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Hales said 2019 came with the largest class on record. That year, a $3.4 million grant from the Delaware Higher Education Economic Development allowed the outfit to purchase 11 planes — 10 Vulcanair V1.0 single-engine aircraft and a twin-engine Piper Seminole.
Two years later, the only program of its kind among HBCUs in the region announced its first-ever partnership with United Airlines. The 2021 link paved graduates a direct path to becoming pilots with the major airline. This came as United shared plans to train five-thousand new pilots by 2030, with the goal of having at least half of them be women or people of color.
Just last year, a retired United Airlines pilot and his wife made a $100,000 donation to support flight training at Delaware State. The largest cash donation in the 37-year history of the university’s aviation program, thanks to Bob and Karen Fischer of Lewes, would help offset student fees as well as contribute to needed renovations.
A favorite regional airline for students to join as they start their careers or seek internships, Republic Airways also made a $30,000 contribution in 2022. Similarly, these funds were marked to help offset student fees and purchase flight simulators. Delaware State has another regional partner in Piedmont Airlines.
This new helicopter training program will add to the degree offerings at Delaware’s only HBCU. An outside vendor — Ascent Aero of New Jersey — will be contracted by the university, Hales said, to run the new training in its early stages.
