Metropolitan State College of Denver’s Precision Flight Team receives top trophy
Loening Trophy
In 1913, Grover Loening was the first aeronautical engineer hired by the Wright Brothers to manage the Wright Aircraft Company. In 1929, a pure silver Tiffany & Co. trophy was commissioned when Loening saw the need to annually recognize the most outstanding achievements in collegiate aviation. Loening, joined by other aviation pioneers such as Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart, judged the first competition that year, awarding the winner his namesake trophy.
Now, more than 80 years later, Metropolitan State College of Denver’s Department of Aviation and Aerospace Science is among an elite group of honored colleges as a recipient of the Loening Trophy. As the most prestigious collegiate aviation award in the country, the award recognizes the best all-around collegiate aviation program based on criteria that include excellence in aeronautical skills, academics, community involvement, safety, and the ability to advance the profession.
The Loening Trophy is presented annually by the National Intercollegiate Flying Association foundation. Metro State’s Precision Flight Team received the award in July 2011. Aside from the U.S. Air Force Academy, Metro State is the only college in the Colorado to receive the award. Past recipients of the Loening Trophy include Stanford University and Kent State University.
Metro State is considered one of the top professional aviation schools in the United States. Its Aviation and Aerospace Science program is four decades old, and offers a number of unique programs and partnerships for more than 500 students, while advising industry and filling vital workforce needs throughout the state. More recently, the department has added space commerce to its curriculum, with students studying subjects such as the ethics of space commercialization, space mission architecture, and spending time tracking orbital space debris in the project lab. Students also train on flight simulators in the college’s Robert K. Mock World Indoor Airport.
About 75 percent of Metro State’s graduates continue their careers in Colorado,in jobs such as pilots, air-traffic controllers, and flight planners.
