50 Eighth Grade Students from Harshman Middle School participate in “Airplane Tow” Lunch, Flight Simulator Ride and Hands-On Tour

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA – Recently voted by customers as the Best Airframe MRO Provider in the Americas, AAR (NYSE: AIR) and aviation industry partner Vincennes University hosted an outreach event and facility tour for fifty eighth grade students from Harshman Middle School in Indianapolis. The event was intended to promote careers in aviation, foster educational aspirations and help close the skills gaps that create hiring challenges at companies that repair and maintain airplanes.

The classroom briefing and facility tour began at Vincennes Aviation University’s Technology Center and continued on to AAR’s aircraft maintenance facility at Indianapolis International Airport.

The event hosted by Vincennes and AAR Aircraft Services — Indianapolis, treated students and their teachers to a flight simulator ride; a Boeing 737 “airplane tow” from Vincennes to AAR with lunch served aboard the aircraft; and a hands-on tour of the AAR shop floor where mechanics conducted “show-and-tell” sessions with students.

As the nation struggles with high unemployment, aircraft mechanic, engineering and avionics positions are difficult to fill at a time when the aviation industry is experiencing resurgence due to new aircraft manufacturing and increased demand for parts and services. In addition to introducing young students to careers in aviation and providing up-close and personal experience with all types of aircraft, the events are designed to engage local administrators, policymakers and vocational organizations.

Vincennes, as a leading aviation skills educator, and AAR, one of the largest employers of skilled aviation professionals in Indianapolis, have a longstanding partnership to fill open positions and build a pipeline of talent for aviation careers in the future. The aircraft maintenance facility tour is an extension of AAR’s Taking Flight program, a nationwide education initiative created to introduce aviation careers to youth as early as middle school and promote applied STEM education.

AAR recently commissioned a report, The Mid-skills Gap in Middle America: Building Today’s Workforce, which focuses on ways to close the skills gaps in America’s workforce that are creating barriers to hiring and job creation (www.aarcorp.com/mid-skills/). The report offers AAR as a real-life example of a mid-sized, U.S.-based company working diligently to remove barriers to education, recruitment, training and economic growth.

About Vincennes University’s Aviation Technology Center

The ATC is a 90,000-square-foot facility that provides state-of-the-art aviation training programs for airframe and power plant mechanic and airframe sheet metal technician careers requiring FAA certification for both Vincennes and Purdue Universities. For further information visit http://vinu.edu/cms/opencms/.