Delaware State University and Horizon Helicopters, Inc. Monday signed an agreement to create a flight training partnership.
The partnership will be the first between a helicopter training organization and a university or college aviation program in the northeastern U.S.
Alton Thompson, DSU provost and vice president of Academic Affairs, Amir Mohammadi, DSU executive vice president, and Capt. Stephen Speed, director of the DSU Aviation Program, joined Horizon Helicopters owner Harry Griffith in signing the agreement.
The university already provides fixed wing flight training toward an aviation/professional pilot degree, with the new agreement adding helicopter training as an option in the DSU aviation program.
The partnership was three years in the making. DSU and Horizon officials said the long time frame was due to the unique nature of the partnership. Typically, fixed wing and helicopter programs operate separately and the Federal Aviation Administration needed time to evaluate the arrangement.
Horizon is a full-service helicopter services company that also provides flight training at its headquarters near Newark. Horizon has been Delaware’s only F.A.A.-approved Part 135 charter service company since 1985. The company is Delaware’s only state-approved helicopter training facility. Speed said the addition of the helicopter program will provide a boost for the aviation program, which operates from an airport near Dover. The program means helicopter training will become an option in the professional pilot concentration of its Bachelor of Science in Aviation Program..
DSU aviation students can choose between flight training on fixed-wing aircraft and/or on helicopters. The helicopter flight training will take place at the Horizon facility in Newark. The partnership also opens the door for military veterans to use their Department of Defense benefits to enroll in the program.
“For DSU, it begins what we expect to be a long and mutually beneficial partnership with a company that has a demonstrated track record of success,” Speed said. “This option broadens our ability to train future aviation professionals. It is another way that DSU can accommodate the expected future growth of the aerospace industry.”
“Horizon Helicopters is honored to be uniting in a flight training partnership with Delaware State University to offer civilians and veteran students the opportunity to include rotorcraft/helicopter certification as part of their bachelor’s degree in aviation,” said Griffith. Aviation degree seekers can earn their licenses to become professional pilots or pursue the management side and become airport managers or air traffic controllers.
