Disabled students earn flight certificates at Purdue

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) – At the end of this summer a program at Purdue University will have graduated 27 pilots who have physical disabilities and it has hopes of expanding.

Four disabled students are in the summer session of Able Flight, a Chapel Hill, North Carolina-based nonprofit group that provides flight or aviation career training scholarships to the physically disabled. The (Lafayette) Journal and Courier reports that the group does most of its flight training at Purdue.

The program is in its sixth year at Purdue. Students come from all over the country to earn a sport pilot certificate, which allows them to fly two-seat sport aircraft. Purdue has received a donated sport plane and its Department of Aviation Technology hopes to expand Able Flight program by incrementally adding students.