Lawrence, Ready for Takeoff
Lawrence Regional Airport is entering an important period of growth and planning. As the community considers the airport’s future, K-10 Development Group is exploring another opportunity: how Centennial Flight Center and the proposed STAR Bonds District could complement that vision and potentially help advance aviation activity and future improvements at the airport.
Centennial Flight Center is envisioned as an internationally attended flight and aviation maintenance training center focused on women, with an associated residence hall at Lawrence Regional Airport.
What makes the idea especially compelling is the need.
Women remain dramatically underrepresented in aviation. FAA research found that women represented just 7.4% of commercial pilots, 4.6% of airline transport pilots and only 2.6% of aviation mechanics in 2020. More recent FAA medical-certification data shows women still account for only 10.6% of medically certified active airmen.
Those numbers represent more than a workforce gap. They represent generations of women entering fields where female instructors, mentors and experienced role models can still be difficult to find.
Centennial Flight Center could help change that. The vision combines professional aviation training with something traditional flight schools rarely provide: a residential environment where women beginning their aviation careers could learn alongside experienced women pilots and aviation professionals.
And one of the world’s most respected women’s aviation organizations is interested in helping explore what that could become.
K-10 Development Group is working with The Ninety-Nines, the international organization of women pilots founded in 1929 by 99 pioneering aviators, including Amelia Earhart. Today, The Ninety-Nines reaches women aviators across 44 countries and supports them through education, mentorship and scholarships.
The Ninety-Nines have expressed enthusiasm for Centennial Flight Center and intend to take a leadership role in bringing together a consortium of women-focused aviation organizations to explore its feasibility and potential operation.
That exploration is still beginning. No operating organization or model has been finalized. But the possibilities are significant.
Students could come to Lawrence for flight certification and aviation maintenance training. Experienced aviators could come for advanced instruction, recurrent training and aviation events. Scholarships, mentorship programs, fly-ins and other opportunities could grow from the collaboration.
Those visitors would also spend time in Lawrence, supporting hotels, restaurants, retailers and other local businesses while creating additional activity at Lawrence Regional Airport.
For Lawrence, the opportunity goes beyond constructing another facility. The Ninety-Nines could bring aviation expertise, international connections, mentorship and an extraordinary legacy of women helping other women succeed in flight.
Lawrence is historically and culturally known for progressive activism and for standing with people who have been underrepresented and marginalized. Centennial Flight Center gives Lawrence an opportunity to pair those values with economic development, workforce training and the future of our airport.
Welcoming The Ninety-Nines to Lawrence could connect our community to a global network of pioneering women aviators and help establish Lawrence as a place where the next generation of women in aviation comes to learn, lead, and take flight.
See what Centennial Flight Center could become. Watch the video and explore the vision for Lawrence Regional Airport.
