NBC CHICAGO: Teen Pilot’s Dream Takes Flight
June 29th, 2009 Posted in Press
Teen Pilot’s Dream Takes Flight
15-year-old girl to fly from California to Virginia
By JONATHAN LLOYD AND ROBERT KOVACIK
Updated 9:49 AM CDT, Mon, Jun 29, 2009
The 15-year-old will attempt to become the youngest black female to pilot an airplane transcontinentally. She took off from Compton Airport for Newport News, Va. at about 7 a.m., Monday.
Kimberly was accompanied in the single-engine craft by Tuskegee Airman Levi Thornhill and safety pilot Ronell Norman. Thornhill was a crew chief during World War II.
They will meet other Tuskegee Airmen at stops along the flight path. Their first stop is in Arizona.
“They did such a good thing,” Kimberly said of the Tuskegee Airmen. “Everything that they did was so amazing. When someone’s constantly telling you no, when someone’s constantly telling you that you’re stupid, that you don’t have the cognitive development, and that you can’t do something so good, and you go out and prove them wrong — it’s just like, wow.”
15-year-old girl to fly from California to VirginiaKimberly’s flight is part of an after-school program sponsored by Tomorrow’s Aeronautical Museum (TAM). Kimberly has been part of the program for aspiring pilots since she was 12.
She is expected to arrive July 4.
