The program at Texas Southern University is getting a dozen new aircraft in all, and five are equipped with a special safety feature called Safe Return.
HOUSTON — Texas Southern University is showing off five brand-new planes that they call the safest university fleet in the nation.
The TSU aviation program has seen rapid growth in recent years, and the addition of the single-engine planes could help enrollment skyrocket even more.
Dreaming big helped put aviation student Anthony Pumphrey Jr. in the pilot seat.
“It’s a rewarding job, getting a chance to fly with people and friends and family, just seeing their facial expressions,” Pumphrey told KHOU 11 as he checked out the new planes, complete with a tiger logo.
Money from the state and a donation from an anonymous TSU graduate made the purchase of a dozen aircraft possible.
“It speaks volumes to me that people are willing to invest in my future and make sure I’m successful. In every best way possible,” Pumphrey said.
Five of the planes are equipped with the latest safety technology called Safe Return.
“With the push of a button, the airplane will land itself, brake itself on the runway, and then turn itself off without the pilot having to do anything,” Dr. Terence Fontaine, executive director of aviation, explained.
TSU says it’s the first university in the country to have the Safe Return technology.
TSU grad and certified flight instructor Lubianka Lanza learned to fly on older planes, most of them from the 1970s.
“We were creating pilots even before all of the fancy stuff. So, now imagine what we’re going to do with these new aircraft,” Lanza told us.
As a native of South America, the Latina pilot says she’s proof that the TSU program works.
“You see somebody that looks like you, just inspires you to say, yeah, maybe I can do it.”
When Pumphrey graduates in December, he hopes to sit in the instructor seat to help show future students that the sky is the limit.
“If I can do it, you sure enough can do it,” Pumphrey said.
The university is holding a ribbon-cutting on October 6 at Ellington Field to unveil a new hangar and the rest of the new fleet.