STUART, Fla. — Andrew McBean's interest for aviation started at a young age.
“There was a small park next to the airport that I grew up at, and it was convenient because there was also a grocery store nearby, so after my parents went grocery shopping there we would play at this park and we would get to see the airplanes,” McBean said.
McBean, who is now the director of Martin County's airport, Witham Field, attributes those experiences as a child to his pursuit of an aviation career.
Now, the county is working towards gathering a new generation of aircraft technicians and pilots through an Outdoor Aviation Education Center.
“We’ll be able to walk a child in as though they were landing on that runway and explain to them what those markings mean,” Ted Astolfi, CEO and President of the Economic Council of Martin County, said.
The 2020 Boeing Pilot and Technician outlook projects that over the next 20 years, there will be a need for almost 2.5 million new aviation employees.
“There’s nowhere to watch planes take off and land in Martin County,” he said. “How do you expose those kids to aviation? You need to get those kids to the airport, and so this does it.”
Astolfi feels this park is essential to recruiting the next generation. It’ll be the first step in a talent pipeline that continues in middle and high school with career and technical education programs and ends with the REACH Training Center that’s getting built at the airport.
"We want to bus in children from public school, charter school, private school, home school," Astolfi said. "We want them to come here and learn about aviation and aerospace."
