New England FAA Regional Administrator Colleen D’Alessandro and FAA Unmanned Aircraft Systems Collegiate Training Initiative (UAS-CTI) Project Manager Ed Cormier first invited AMA District I officers to participate as exhibitors in the Aviation & Maritime STEM Education Expo in 2024, which is hosted each May at the Delta Air Lines hangar at Boston Logan International Airport.
This year marked AMA’s third year of exhibiting and joining forces with industry, government, and academia to show youngsters and educators the direct correlation between STEM education and rewarding careers in aviation and maritime fields.
More than 1,200 middle and high school students from 47 Greater Boston schools attended this massive science and technology showcase. They explored 83 unique, hands-on career exhibits and 33 full-scale aircraft, including a FedEx Boeing 767, gliders, private airplanes, and a Delta commercial jet. While the FAA provided full-scale flight simulators, the AMA exhibit featured UAS and model aircraft simulators, drawing long lines of students who were eager for virtual RC flying all day.
District Associate Vice Presidents (AVPs) Doug Thompson and Steve Brehm, Concord Aero Guidance Society President Mike Stevens, and I arrived at 6:30 a.m. to set up. As seen in the interior photo, we occupied the back right wall, placing our branded AMA popup canopy over two tables with three flight simulator computers. To the left, we arranged two more tables that were packed with district club handouts, copies of Model Aviationmagazine, and several entrylevel RC airplanes and drones.
