An older student training Cessna 172 aircraft, very similar to a newly acquired model, sits on the tarmac outside the Texas Southern University aviation program Flight Office Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023 at Ellington Airport in Houston.
Kirk Sides/Staff photographerHouston City Council approved a measure this week to fund the building of the Texas Southern University Flight Academy.
The action allows Houston Airports to take $5.5 million out of its Airport Improvement Fund to build the two-acre school at Ellington Airport.
Construction is expected to begin in May 2024. A five-year lease agreement between Houston Airports and Texas Southern was approved in May.
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“The investment in this facility allows Houston to remain at the forefront of supporting the rapid growth of the air transportation industry in the United States,” mayor Sylvester Turner said in a statement. “I am honored that the City of Houston is taking the initiative to build this facility, which will provide numerous opportunities for Houstonians in the future.”
The facility will include a 24,000-square-foot aircraft hangar, 11,000 square feet of aircraft apron and 8,000-gallon above-ground aviation fuel tank along with 4,200 square feet of office and classroom space.
Texas Southern’s aviation science program started in 1986. There are three different degree concentrations as part of the program: management, professional pilot and unmanned aircraft systems (drones).
The school is one of a handful of historically Black colleges and universities in the country with an aviation management system, a pilot program and a flight school. As of 2021, Texas Southern was also the only school in Texas to have all three.
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The flight academy is the latest investment in the Texas Southern program over the last few years. In October, the program welcomed a new Cessna to its fleet of nine airplanes.
“This new facility is a major step toward Texas Southern University becoming the premier destination for training pilots and aviation professionals of the future,” TSU interim president Mary Evans Sias said in a statement. “Our aviation program has reached heights in achievement that are unprecedented for the state of Texas. We look forward to the future aviators who will come through these doors and leave prepared to seize the opportunities in aviation, which we know are only increasing.”
