Featured Member: Tomorrow’s Aeronautical Museum

Based at the Compton Woodley Airport, Tomorrow’s Aeronautical Museum (TAM) is a dynamic nonprofit flight academy and after-school classroom teaching the principles of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) enrichment as a compelling alternative to drugs, gangs, violence and other self-destructive activities for at-risk youth.  Founder and chief pilot of Celebrity Helicopters’ Robin Petgrave started the organization in 1998 after seeing the positive impacts on South Los Angeles students from visits to his Torrance hanger. He decided to be more proactive with the program and worked with schools to do something unheard of at the time: beginning his presentations by landing his Robinson R44 helicopter directly on school grounds.  Eventually, the Aero Squad After-School Program was developed and today, more than 800 youth have logged more than 4,000 hours in-flight hours and six students have set 12 world records.  TAM has recently been featured on CNN and in the Smithsonian documentary, “Black Wings.” And, if you looked up in the sky as the Space Shuttle Endeavour was making its final approach in to LAX,  Petgrave was flying the helicopter overhead.  The sky and resources are TAM’s only limits.  To learn more about TAM and how to support their programs, got to http://www.tamuseum.org/