Young Compton Pilots To Perform First"Youth versus Military" Precision Flying Competition Demonstration At 2005 Congressional Black Caucus Convention

Young Compton Pilots To Perform First”Youth versus Military” Precision Flying Competition Demonstration At 2005 Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Convention in Washington DC

CBCFC, WASHINGTON DC–September 14, 2005–Tomorrow’s Aeronautical Museum of Compton, California today announced that it has been selected to participate in the upcoming Congressional Black Caucus Convention to be held in Washington DC at the Washington Convention Center on September 21-24, 2005. An unique after school aviation program, Tomorrow’s Aeronautical Museum is noted for being the recipient of an unanimously passed United States Congressional Resolution 532 in recognition of the museum’s achievement and success in teaching aviation, engineering, and flying to “at-risk” and economically disadvantaged minority students. The museum is celebrated for being the home of three world-acclaimed young minority pilots: Jimmy Haywood (11) and Kenny Roy (at 14), African-Americans who made a historic flight to Canada, and Breean Farfan (13), youngest Latina pilot to fly cross-country.

Reminiscent of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt’s flight to endorse the Tuskegee Airmen, the demonstration is being performed to prove that even “at-risk” youth possess the technical skills to merit the country’s investment in developing minority pilots. At the convention in Washington DC, the first ever “Youth versus Military” precision flying competition demonstration will showcase three young African-American and Latino pilots–Diamond Hooper (12), Richard Olmos (12), Kenny Roy (15), with student staff pilot Jeanessa Perry (13) lending assistance on the ground–performing in a head-to-head landing competition against military pilots using a Cessna-172 airplane. Kenny Roy can best be remembered for fulfilling the requirements to be certified to fly solo in Canada at age fourteen versus sixteen in America.
The young pilots will be officially introduced to the public at the Celes King III Tuskegee Dedication Ceremony being held in Los Angeles, California at the corner of Crenshaw and Martin Luther King Boulevard on Friday, September 16 at 1:30 PM. They will arrive home from Washington DC triumphantly landing at the Compton Air Fair to be held at the Compton/Woodley Airport in Compton, California on Saturday, September 24, from 9AM to 5PM, press conference and landing at 11:00 AM.

The flying demonstration in Washington DC will be held on Thursday, September 22, 2005 at 10:30 AM at College Park Airport in College Park, Maryland, located conveniently seven miles from the convention center. The facility, known for being the “oldest continual operating airport in the world” and where airplane inventors Orville and Wilbur Wright first began giving flying lessons, will now host a new chapter in aviation history. Congresswoman Juanita Millender-McDonald, Ranking Member of the Committee on House Administration and a member of the Committee on Transportation, Aviation Subcommittee, will attend in support of the young pilots that herald from her congressional district.

To honor Tuskegee Airmen, the young pilots and the museum’s visionary director Robin Petgrave, an acclaimed helicopter stunt pilot, will also speak at the Congressional Black Caucus Convention at an issues forum entitled “Black Youth in Aviation: Honoring the Legacy By Creating a Future in Flight.” The forum, organized by the leading engineering firm EMT-Inc of Huntsville, Alabama, will bring together an esteemed coalition of organizations with a shared concern to advance the participation of minority youth in aviation. Represented organizations include Tuskegee Airmen Incorporated, the International Black Aerospace Council, the Aviation Youth Academy, and Delaware State University, a historic black aviation college. Among the speakers will be the sponsoring Congresswoman, Corrine Brown of Florida, Congresswoman Juanita Millender-McDonald, and the only African American Air Combat “Ace” in the history of aviation, revered Tuskegee Airman, Retired Lt. Colonel Lee Archer. The first African-American female astronaut, Dr. Mae Jemison, has been invited to attend the forum which will be held on Friday, September 23, 2005 at 8:30 AM in the Washington Convention Center, Room 202-B.
“Everything possible should be done to honor and assure the legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen continues, and that the sacrifices they made to advance minorities in aviation are truly realized,” stated Tomorrow’s Aeronautical Museum Director Robin Petgrave. “These two events at the Congressional Black Caucus Convention highlighting youth are designed to underscore the crucial need for a new commitment on the part of the aviation industry, government, and the private sector to provide resources to foster and sustain programs that will increase minority participation in the aviation industry.”

College Park Airport is located at 1909 Corporal Frank Scott Drive, College Park, Maryland 20740, telephone 301-864-5844. The Washington Convention Center is located at 801 Mount Vernon Place NW, Washington, DC 20001, phone 800-368-9000. Tomorrow’s Aeronautical Museum is a 501(3)(c) non-profit organization located at Compton/Woodley Airport, 961 W. Alondra Boulevard, Compton, California 90220, telephone 310-618-1155. Press inquires should be directed to Cynthia Macon, 310-940-8801 or Mmacon1960@aol.com.