Purdue Aviation Celebration

Purdue University's rich aviation heritage and significant contemporary role in modern aerospace will be recognized during the Purdue Aviation Celebration, a range of events and programs set for Oct. 17-20. News release about the Purdue Aviation Celebration Airshows, aircraft displays and demonstrations, and educational displays will be featured at an open house at the Purdue Airport Saturday, Oct. 17. The Aviation Spectacular is organized by the Department of Aviation Technology. The historical contributions of women to aviation will be one focus of the Aviation Celebration, which will feature tributes to Amelia Earhart, who served at Purdue as a consultant on women's careers. The Lockheed Electra 10E that Earhart flew on her 1937 around-the-world flight was purchased for through the Purdue Research Foundation. The Amelia Earhart Collection in Purdue Libraries Special Collections is the largest repository of materials in the world relating to the life, career and mysterious disappearance of Earhart (1897-1937). A highlight of the celebration will begin at approximately 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 18, when Linda Finch will fly her restored Lockheed Electra into the Purdue Airport, where she will be greeted by Purdue President Steven C. Beering and other dignitaries. Finch is a seasoned pilot who in 1997 recreated and completed Amelia Earhart's around-the-world flight. World Flight 1997 was sponsored by Pratt & Whitney, a world leader in the design and manufacture of commercial and military aviation and space propulsion systems. Pratt & Whitney also is sponsoring Finch's Purdue arrival as well as an aviation career symposium on Monday, Oct. 19. Amelia Earhart Linda Finch The career symposium will give Purdue students the opportunity to interact with female aviation industry executives. The symposium, featuring five female executives speaking and taking questions about careers in aviation, will be held from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 19, in Loeb Playhouse in Stewart Center. Pratt & Whitney will give away free mouse pads to the symposium audience. Students also can speak with panelists at a 4:30 reception before the symposium, and another at 7 p.m., both in the West Foyer, Stewart Center. The receptions also mark the Purdue opening of a traveling exhibit from the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum, "Women and Flight, at the Purdue Galleries' Stewart Center Gallery. The series of 75 black-and-white photos tells of 37 contemporary American women currently involved in the fields of aviation and space exploration, including Purdue graduate and NASA astronaut Mary Weber. Mary Ellen Weber in shuttle Each woman's story is told in her own words, in text juxtaposed with photographs. These pictures reveal dramatic images of women in flight: cross-country journeys, aircraft used to put out forest fires, and voyages into space. The exhibit will be on display on campus through Nov. 25. The Women and Flight exhibit is organized by the National Air and Space Museum and the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES). Women and Flight has been supported by Pratt & Whitney and United Technologies Corporation. Additional support is provided by Ilford Corporation and the Smithsonian Women's Committee. To the Purdue News and Photos Page