The smallish, two-person propeller plane is a two-to-three school year project but when done, the teens helping to put together the final pieces will be rewarded as the first to join an adult pilot for a ride in the skies, said Butler Tech Aviation Instructor Rich Packer.
Working with a non-profit airplane kit supplier, Butler Tech invested deposit money and then parts and classroom curriculum is provided incorporating the plane-building process, said Packer.
When completed the organization – TangoFlight – provides pilots for the newly built plane and current and former students are then invited to take flight in an aircraft they helped build.
The rare project, said Packer, “will give them (students) a hands-on opportunity that will really get them motivated and excited about aviation.”
“If you are an (aviation) mechanic or pilot or engineer and whatever their career goals are, who doesn’t get excited about building an airplane while you are in high school.”
The unusual class project comes as construction continues on a $15 million aviation school for Butler Tech students at Middletown Regional Airport.
Currently students are learning in make-shift classrooms and labs built into one of airport’s large hangars, but come February 2026, they will have their own dedicated hybrid building and hangar at the airport for job training – or college or pilot license preparation – in aviation industry jobs or related fields.
Middletown’s centralized location in southwest Ohio — within easy distance from Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky’s CVG International Airport, Dayton International Airport and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base — provides an ideal site for local high school students learning careers in aviation, said school officials.
But the rare opportunity to build a working plane from scratch is a tremendous opportunity to teach aviation maintenance and aircraft performance from the nuts-and-bolts level up, said students in Packer’s class.
Aviation student Dominga Lorenzo-Perez described the process as “exciting and interesting.”
Lorenzo-Perez, who plans to attend Ohio State University, said she is currently helping to build the plane’s vertical stabilizer and added “I’m hoping to be in aerospace engineering and this process is helping me.”
Packer said former students who worked on the project will be invited back for a ride in the clouds.
And nothing beats the tactile experience of building an aircraft, he said.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
“Students can sit there in front of a power point (lesson) in a classroom and teach things to kids all day long. But when they put their hands on something and they start drilling, riveting and building something that is going to fly, their motivation and their learning goes through the roof.”
Photojournalist Nick Graham contributed to this story
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