EAA and EADS Socata selected Ashley & John for their International Scholarship
- These two EAA Young Eagles will follow a five-week internship at EADS Socata’s headquarters in Tarbes, France.
Lakeland, Florida, 18 April 2007
During a News conference held today at the Sun’n Fun Air Show in Lakeland, Florida, Stéphane Mayer, EADS Socata’s Chairman & CEO, announced jointly with Elissa Lines, Vice-President Business Development of Experimental Aircraft Association the selection of two college students in Aeropace.
Ashley, from Crystal Lake, Illinois, aged 21, is a student in Organizational Management at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, and hold a private pilot license with the ambition to be a pilot as a career.
John, from Komoka, Ontario, Canada, aged 19, is a student in Engineering Science in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Western Ontario, London, Canada, and hold a commercial pilot license with the ambition to work in aircraft design.
“This is a significant milestone, which has been reached today with the selection of the two college students for our International Scholarship. After the announcement at Airventure 2006, I am pleased to see another step towards strengthening transatlantic ties between American and Europe’s aviation communities. Ashley and John, the two selected Young Eagles, will visit us and see from their own eyes that aviation has only one universal language and that is a shared passion for flight.” stated Stéphane Mayer, Chairman and CEO of EADS Socata.
“Out of the 32 candidates, it was very hard to select only two, as their resumes were outstanding” commented Nicolas Chabbert, Vice-President Sales & Marketing of EADS Socata. “Together with Tom Poberezny, Elissa Lines and Adam Smith from EAA, we have been very impressed by the high quality motivation letters and enthusiasm of these students for the program. We are very happy to host them in Tarbes and get their feedback at Airventure 2007, after they have also visited Paris Air Show, Charles-de-Gaulle airport and Airbus Toulouse assembly line” The EAA Young Eagles program was launched in 1992 to give young people, ages 8 - 17, an opportunity to go flying in a general aviation airplane. These flights are offered free of charge and are made possible through the generosity of EAA member volunteers.
The EAA Young Eagles have been registered in more than 90 different countries and missions have been flown by nearly 40,000 volunteer pilots.
EAA, the Experimental Aircraft Association, is an international aviation membership association founded in 1953 and headquartered in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. EAA sponsors many aviation education programs including the EAA Young Eagles program. More than 170,000 people currently belong to EAA, with local Chapters located in all 50 states and many countries. Members are aviation enthusiasts of every age group, including many airline and commercial pilots, engineers, business people and even astronauts.
EADS Socata is one of the world’s leading general aviation manufacturers, with more than 17,000 aircraft built since its creation as Morane-Saulnier in 1911. Current products include the TBM family of high-speed turboprops, TB GT piston aircraft, aerostructures for Airbus civil airliners, the A400M military transporter, Dassault Falcon jets, Eurocopter helicopters and Embraer regional jets. EADS Socata is expanding its customer service activities, to support its growing fleet of TBM and offer its light aviation expertise for aircraft below 5.7 tons through avionics modernization, maintenance, repair and overall package offers. Headquartered in Tarbes, France, with North American operations in Pembroke Pines, Florida, EADS Socata is a wholly owned subsidiary of EADS – a global leader in aerospace, defence and related services.. In 2006, EADS generated revenues of € 39.4 billion and employs a workforce of about 116,800.
