Helicopter and Rotorcraft Curriculum Added  

A new partnership is bringing helicopter training to Delaware State University’s (DSU) Aviation program.

On Thursday, 20 April 2023, Delaware State university President Tony Allen and Deputy Commanding General Amanda Azubuike of the U.S. Army’s Cadet Command signed an agreement authorizing the service to pay U.S. Army ROTC Cadets’ flight lab fees incurred in the new helicopter training program.

Fixed-wing aviation students’ fees average $58,000. Rotary-wing fees are considerably higher. Ergo, Azubuike opined that the Army’s investment is well-spent, stating: “We hope that we are extending opportunities that they [lower-income cadets] wouldn’t otherwise have. So being connected to an HBCU [Historically Black College or University], it’s a population that we are trying to target that may not typically have the opportunity because flying is expensive.”

Since he was two-years-old, U.S.Cadet Tajay Kelly has aspired to become a pilot and is eager to pursue his dream and grateful for the opportunity to do so. Cadet Kelly remarked: “I used to fly and then switched to management, but now I have the opportunity to fly again because they gave me a scholarship. So, your dream may be hindered, but it can still happen.”

The helicopter in which DSU’s Army ROTC cadets will train is a Guimbal Cabri G2—a French-made, two-seat, reciprocating-engined, light-helicopter produced by Marseille-based Hélicoptères Guimbal. Designed in the 1980s by former Eurocopter engineer Bruno Guimbal, the machine has served ably and contemporaneously in the roles of a general aviation training rotorcraft and the basis for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) such as Eurocopter’s Orka 1200 and Airbus Helicopter’s VSR700.

Each student who learns to fly it will earn their private pilot license, their instrument rating, their commercial certificate and their flight instructor rating in helicopters.

Ten students will start the program in the autumn of 2023. Another ten will be added each year thereafter. In time, the program will be made available as an option to all undergraduate aviation majors.

Currently, DSU’s aviation program enrolls more than one-hundred aviation pilot students and forty aviation management students.

FMI: www.desu.edu