RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) – Thursday, children from Youth and Family Services’ Girls Inc. of Rapid City and Middle School Program got a taste of history.
“It was a Navy airplane. They use them as patrol bombers, they were anti-ship and maritime patrol and anti-sub; they used them for electronic warfare,” said Warbird pilot, Bijan Maleki.
The Westjet Air Center gave the kids a private tour of the World War II Navy PB4Y-2 bomber; giving them an opportunity to witness one of the last remaining PB4Y-2 bombers as an attempt to inspire them to go into aviation.
“Aviation’s kind of a hidden niche job. Not a lot of people are aware of it or understand it,” said Maleki.
He said there’s been a great demand in the aviation industry in the last decade and feels people didn’t do a great job in marketing aviation careers in the past.
“When you think aviation, you probably think about the airlines and there’s really a lot of different jobs out there, there’s a lot of different pathways,” said Maleki. “We need people to fly the freight. We need people to flight instruct. We need people to haul medical supplies.”
It was a long line at one point as many of the kids were eager to get an inside look of the plane.
“There’s a bombing area where they hook in the bombs to this ladder-type thingy,” said Andrea Housh. “And then, they just open it up and then they drop the bombs.”
Not only did the plane hunt enemy ships in the Pacific more than 80 years ago, but it was also used by the U.S. Coast Guard for search and rescue and hurricane hunting. In addition, this aircraft fought fires from the 60s until it was retired in 2002.
“It’s a bit of a reality check as to what an 18-year-old coming out of high school and into World War II experienced,” said the vice president of Westjet Air Center, Miranda Maleki. “We had it easy, we fly it to air shows and other community outreach events.”
Bijan said it’s valuable to get the youth enthusiastic and exposed to aviation.
“We had 50 kids run through the cockpit today, and I think at least a half dozen of them said they were super interested in learning to fly someday,” said Bijan. “And if we get even one of them, it was worth all of the effort and expense.”
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