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Thursday, January 26, 2006 K-STATE AVIATION INSTRUCTOR LEADS PARTNERSHIP WITH GLOBALFLYER SALINA – Evan Beckman had spent many years working in aviation maintenance for Raytheon and Bombardier before accepting a faculty position at Kansas State University at Salina. His jobs had taken him and his family all over the United States and South America. But when he decided to return to his hometown to teach aviation maintenance, he couldn’t have guessed the opportunities that were waiting for him. When the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer repositioned from the Mojave Desert to Salina in January 2005, Beckman volunteered his expertise and services to the maintenance crew and engineers from Scaled Composites, the company that designed and built the experimental aircraft. More than a year later, Beckman knows the plane very well and has been tapped to assist with the next record attempt, Ultimate Flight, when millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett will set out to fly the longest distance on record, from Florida, around the world, and back to London. “It’s been fun,” Beckman said. “I’ve learned so much and had the chance to work with the latest technology and prototypes. You’re usually used to working with technology that’s been tested and refined for a long time. Much of the GlobalFlyer was designed for the first time for this plane, so it’s very interesting.” Beckman has served as a liaison, of sorts, between the K-State at Salina students who were selected to assist with the GlobalFlyer maintenance, Scaled Composites and Marathon Racing, Fossett’s company. He has worked with the day-to-day duties of maintaining the plane, including preparing the aircraft for its annual condition inspection by the Federal Aviation Administration. He also assisted with modifications that were designed and put in place to address the fuel loss that put the first record-setting flight in jeopardy. These experiences have made their way back to the classroom, Beckman said. Being the instructor who specializes in composites, the material that makes up the GlobalFlyer, he said he has been able to enrich his lectures and lab instruction by many of the things he has learned and experienced during his work with the aircraft. He also commented that watching the selected students work on the GlobalFlyer has included watching them mature as mechanics. After all, there was one thing that made this project very different – it wasn’t just a lab plane in a teaching hangar. “The GlobalFlyer is a flying airplane,” he said, “but it’s not just any flying airplane. It is under a very intense microscope every day because it’s so well known and is involved in such famous flights.” Watching his students interface so closely with the Scaled Composites professionals and take on the responsibilities of working with a high-profile pilot such as Fossett has been satisfying, Beckman said. “They’ve taken their responsibilities very seriously,” he said. “They’ve showed a lot of integrity in the past year. That’s probably what makes me the proudest.” |