Airplane Project
Athenian Students Build Airplanes
A student built airplane is just one example of the hands-on experiential learning opportunities students enjoy at Athenian. During the 2006-07 and 2007-08 school years, students will be constructing their second plane, working with a talented volunteer team of aviation and engineering experts.
The first student-built airplane, a Piper Cub, took to the skies on Saturday, November 19, 2005, at the Buchanan Field Airport in Concord. The project began in March 2003 after Marshall Freeman, aviation enthusiast and Diablo resident, approached Athenian with a novel idea. He would fund and provide instruction to Athenian students to give them the rare learning experience of building something complex and of undoubted significance—their own airplane.
Eighty-eight Middle and Upper School students contributed to building the two-seat Piper Cub-style airplane. Students worked after school in a hangar built on the Athenian campus to construct the 22-foot-long plane, which has a 36-foot wingspan. They did wood and metal working, put in the controls and even disassembled the used 135-horsepower engine before it was professionally rebuilt. The plane holds two 12-gallon gas tanks and flies at approximately 100 mph. The plane passed the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspection, completing 25 more solo hours of flight before it could carry passengers.
Marsh has been an avid aviator for most of his life, both flying and building his own planes. Marsh led the Airplane Project with assistance from adult technical experts and close support from Bruce Hamren, an Upper School science teacher at Athenian. Although Marsh built airplanes before the Spirit of Athenian, teaching and coaching students was an entirely new experience for him. Bruce comments on Marsh’s involvement, “Athenian is thrilled to have such an opportunity and cannot thank our benefactor Marshall Freeman enough—not only for funding this unique learning experience, but also for giving so much of his time to work with and educate our students and faculty.”
