Wings over the Rockies Exploration of Flight is the second location for the Wings Over The Rockies Museum. ANN spoke with Keith Palmer, the Director of Operations at WOTR Exploration of Flight to find out what this campus offers to the community.
“The goal was to build something on the airfield, so that we could start teaching kids, our next generation, up close, personal, touching aircraft and seeing working aircraft. These are not museum pieces. Everything at the Exploration of Flight Campus is a working, functional aircraft,” Palmer explained. “We have multiple showcases, and our main focus is on the weekends where we have everything from fixed wing aircraft, to helicopters, to gliders, we have even had hot air balloons out here.”
The campus has multiple, quality simulators for people to experience what it is like to fly, and rent the simulators to pilots in training. They also run a scholarship program out of the facility and have started a new sport called “drone soccer”.
The goal of the center is to show the younger generation that there is much more to aviation and aerospace than just being a pilot.
“Not only do we need airline pilots, we need all of the support groups around it. Everything from ground handling to traffic control to engineers, to computer engineers. To take it a step further, drones. Drones are the next aerospace component that is growing rapidly, so we need drone pilots, drone designers, drone engineers,” Palmer continues.
WOTR Exploration of Flight Center believes that the best way to get children and youth excited about the industry is to be immersed in it, hands on, and this campus echoes that goal.
The center runs summer camps, weekend showcases, and rents the facilities for special events.
The campus is fifteen acres and right next door is a middle school, the Colorado Skies Academy, which is a charter school that is centered around project based learning that gets students excited about the aerospace industry.
Exploration of Flight Center is for all ages, not just youth. “When we have these weekend showcases, it's an activity that the whole family can come out from Grandpa down to the grandkids,” Palmer said. “We are trying to bring aerospace to everyone. That's our goal here.”
The next event that is coming up at the campus is Girls in Aviation Day International, which will take place on September 25, 2021. Girls in Aviation Day has been instrumental in introducing girls all over the world to opportunities in aviation and STEM that they never would have considered. They work very hard to bring participants and role models together so girls can see themselves in those exciting roles. Girls ages 8-18 can signup for Girls in Aviation Day on the Exploration of Flight Website.
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