| Chrystal Elise Cole 1983- Born: Hernando, MS The famed Tuskegee Airmen, the nation's first Black fighter pilots who flew so valiantly during World War II, were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. More than 60 years later, young pilot Chrystal Cole is following in their legendary footsteps. Cole is the first female graduate of a partnership program between Tuskegee University and Kansas State University's Salina campus that trains African American pilots and engineers for the aviation industry. Chrystal studied aerospace engineering at Tuskegee University during the academic year and braved sweltering Kansas heat to complete her flight training in the summers. Today, Cole is truly in an elite group. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, of the nation's 121,000 professional pilots and flight engineers, less than 3 percent are African Americans; only about 5 percent are women. Black women account for about 0.1 percent of the nation's pilots. In 2007 Cole spoke with The Crisis about her experience and her goals. “My interest in piloting evolved in the sixth grade. We did a play on Amelia Earhart. While doing all this research, I became interested in aviation. After visiting Tuskegee during a college tour, I had met two Tuskegee Airmen and let them know what my goals were. They told me, ‘If this is something you want to do, you can do it.’ |
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