The Wings and Dreams Campaign has been recently initiated to support the remaining construction of a new education building located next to the WACO Air Museum and WACO Airfield in Troy, Ohio.
“Since 1923, WACO has been a high-profile part of the local community, representing innovation, creativity, and excellence,” said Nancy Royer, executive director. “President Clayton Brukner was an aviation pioneer and inventor, who started and led the WACO Aircraft Company to prominence as the top manufacturer of civil aircraft in the US, which are still considered the best of their type ever built.”
Royer pointed out that current WACO education programs were developed years ago on that history to meet a need for STEM-related learning and quickly filled. She noted that in 2024, there were 10,000 hours of instruction for 2,000 participants.
“Young people, pilots, and others have benefitted from WACO programs academically and professionally, with many going on to be engineers, pilots, cyber specialists, and other specialized careers,” she said. “A unique benefit of the WACO programs is structured mentoring by the teaching professionals along with the education process.”
Current STEM-related programs include unmanned aerial vehicle instruction and operation, robotics courses, the Aviation Cadet program, young engineering opportunities, STEM summer camps, and other learning programming.
Increased enrollment and limited space created the need for the new facility, she said.
She added WACO was inspired by the original vision and generosity of Thom and Pat Robinson whose $1 million gift started the design and construction of the 17,000-square-foot building. However, work was slowed, and then stopped due to a combination of original campaign shortfall, prolonged COVID closure issues, and increased construction costs.
But now, Royer emphasized, plans are being finalized for construction work to resume with the support from the Wings and Dreams Campaign, which already has some funds pledged.
She pointed out that, over the past few weeks, a visible next step in the project, the water line hook-up between the building and the highway, was initiated and is now nearly complete.
For more information: WACOAirMuseum.org
