Marshall Magazine Spring 2022

Cleared for TAKEOFF State leaders gather for the official opening of the Bill Noe Flight School.

Photos by Austin O’Connor & Morgan Napier

O n Aug. 10, 2021, Marshall University moved one step closer to assuming its role as a leader in the nation’s aviation industry when the ribbon was cut on the Bill Noe Flight School’s Maier Aviation Building. More than 100 people were on hand for the event including leaders from across West Virginia. The state-of-the-art Maier facility, measuring approxi mately 10,000 square feet, and the hangar, which is ap proximately 12,000 square feet, both located at the newly renamedWest Virginia International Yeager Airport in Charleston, welcomed the school’s first class of around

houses Marshall’s f leet of aircraft, including the Kelly greenCirrus SR20 planes that students will use for most of their instruction. Students will graduate with a Commercial Pilot: FixedWing Bachelor of Science degree. The course work they complete in the program leads to the Federal Aviation Administration cer tifications needed to be a commercial pilot. Plans for the flight school began in 2018, with mul tiple partners collaborating to make the vision a real ity. In addition to Marshall Uni ve r s i t y and Yeage r Airport, Tri-State Airport and Mountwest Community and Technical College are

Bill Noe is serving as executive aviation specialist for the new flight school programs, volunteering his time to advise the school’s leaders.

20 students in the fall of 2021. Future plans are to ex pand the enrollment to 200 students a year. The hangar

working with Marshall to establish an associate de gree program in aviation maintenance technology,

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