CALIFORNIA, Md. – Through a unique partnership between Florida Institute of Technology and TechPort, students are getting hands-on experience by flying actual airplanes. Dr. Bob Schaller, Director of Florida Institute of Technology Southern Maryland Center, came to Tommy Luginbill, TechPort Director, with an interesting idea, “What if we taught a real hands-on class with an airplane?” The two agreed that it would be a great idea to host and run the FTE 5702 Airplane Stability and Control Flight Test Engineering Course at the TechPort facility, so they could utilize the airplane hangar.

With this course, students would be able to “examine techniques to evaluate airplane stability and control flight testing.”1  Dr. Brian Kish, Program Chair of Flight Test Engineering, and Mr. David Callender, Pilot and Certified Flight Instructor (CFI), taught this class to a group of 7 NAVAIR Flight Test Engineers during the week of June 8, 2020. With this combination of classroom work and experiential learning, these students will gain great experience and collaboration to build on their existing skills.

This is a unique arrangement that has never been done before at TechPort. Luginbill was thrilled to see this relationship between TechPort and Florida Tech produce great opportunities for students. “Collaboration with Florida Tech and their stability flight engineering lab is the perfect use of TechPort’s airplane hangar and a prime example of multiorganization collaboration,” Luginbill stated.

Additionally, Dr. Schaller was thrilled of this local collaboration going on in the Southern Maryland community. “The partnership between Florida Tech Southern Maryland and TechPort UMD enabled a vital course to be delivered to NAVAIR flight test engineers that would not have been possible under current facility access restrictions,” he began. “The unique arrangement of running flight test labs out of a hangar made the experience that much more meaningful.” This partnership is a perfect example of how shared resources benefit numerous parties.

TechPort, operated under contract by the University of Maryland, is a technological incubator that offers many services, such as developmental space and a general machine shop, but TechPort is also a creative workspace. TechPort provides the ability to connect with people in the community to make a difference. TechPort is becoming a community hotspot, where visionaries can collaborate, and new interesting ideas can thrive and grow.

To stay up to date about our innovative projects, visit our website, www.techportsomd.org, or follow our social media at @TechPortUMD.