![]() ![]() Yale took home that first-ever trophy, ably assisted by a 20-year-old junior named Juan Trippe, who would famously go on to found Pan Am seven years later.īy 1929, the competition had morphed into a major event, with a news article about it appearing in Popular Aviation (the original name of this magazine before it changed to Flying during World War II) and judging presided over by none other than Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart, who personally handed over the Tiffany-designed Loening Intercollegiate Flying Trophy to those champion flyers from Harvard. It all began on May 17, 1920, when students from nine primarily Ivy League colleges competed in the first flying competition of its kind organized by what was then called the Intercollegiate Flying Association and held at Mitchell Field on Long Island. The competition, which began inauspiciously in aviation’s early days, has grown in size and prestige ever since. This year they were in search of a rare three-peat as they arrived at Terre Haute Regional Airport adorned in their trademark button-down shirts and ties and with a quiet air of confidence about them.Īnd why not? Considering the rich history of the National Flight Championships dating back almost 100 years, winning twice in two years is a commendable feat - three in a row would put the school in rarefied territory with a handful of past winners, including Harvard’s flight team in the late 1920s and early ’30s, the first three-peat champion. In 20, the Golden Eagles flight team from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Prescott, Arizona, campus took home the National Championship Trophy. ![]() Also drawing 53 coaches and 80 judges, the weeklong competition took on a festive atmosphere as the young aviators tested their mettle at the controls of their airplanes, in simulators and on written and hands-on tests.Īt the end of the week, the scores are tallied and one school is crowned the winner. For budding young pilots who flew themselves to the competition in their schools’ airplanes, the journey was the longest cross-country many had ever made - spanning more than a thousand miles for some far-flung teams. This year, 383 students from 28 schools participated in what has come to be called the Safety and Flight Evaluation Conference (Safecon), held April 30 to May 5 at Indiana State University in Terre Haute, a quick hop southwest from Indianapolis. Each spring, as college campuses buzz with the anxiety and anticipation of final-exam week, a select handful of students become laser focused on a different kind of test - the intercollegiate national flying championships, an aviation skills competition that pits some of the best and brightest young pilots from around the country against one another to vie for the chance to lead their school’s flight program to victory.
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