Outside of the big three — the SUN ‘n FUN Aerospace Expo, EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, and the annual National Business Aviation Association convention — there aren’t many places the DreamLaunch Tour visits on a recurring basis. The schedule simply doesn’t allow for it. But somehow, year after year, a small college town in Tennessee keeps making the cut.
Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Population not particularly large. Aviation footprint? Substantial.
That’s not by accident. Tennessee has quietly become one of the more interesting aviation education stories in the country, and Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) is sitting right in the middle of it, according to Jamail Larkins, FAA Ambassador for Aviation & Space Education, founder of the DreamLaunch tour and AviationStart, an online resource to help people get started in aviation, as well as a repository of more than $20 million in aviation scholarship opportunities.
Why Tennessee Keeps Earning the Trip
MTSU’s Department of Aerospace is a first-class operation — professional pilot, safety, UAS, and an A&P program all under one roof. That alone would make it a worthwhile stop, according to Jamail.
“But what makes Tennessee genuinely different is what’s happening around MTSU,” he says.
The Tennessee Department of Transportation is actively investing in growing aviation education across the state. Recently, TDOT and the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) collaborated on a series of events throughout Tennessee to help teachers discover how to use AOPA’s high school curriculum in their classrooms, a curriculum AOPA makes available free of charge to more than 1,500 schools nationwide, impacting more than 130,000 students across all 50 states.
That’s the kind of ecosystem-level work that turns a state into a pipeline. And it’s why DreamLaunch keeps coming back, he says.
From Quick Visit to Two-Day Event
Last year’s MTSU stop was a quick in-and-out — meaningful, but limited by time. This year, with the support of Middle Tennessee State University and AeroShell, Jamail says they “built something entirely different.”
“Two full days,” he says. “Hundreds of high school students bussed in from across Tennessee. A real, interactive DreamLaunch event built around the same message we bring to every stop — but with the time and resources to actually deliver it.”
He relates that he opens every presentation with numbers.
“The same numbers that should be keeping every aviation HR director up at night, and that should be lighting a fire under every high schooler weighing their options,” he says. “The big one: 83% of aviation mechanics are projected to retire in the next nine years, and the industry is nowhere near prepared to replace them.”
Jamail claims that’s not a problem — it’s an opportunity.
“That’s the opportunity of a lifetime for the next generation of aviation professionals — and it’s not just A&Ps. It’s pilots, dispatchers, ATC, MROs, avionics, UAS, the entire ecosystem,” he says.
Next on the agenda: Connecting students with the scholarships resources found on AviationStart.
“That’s the part of the message that turns ‘this sounds cool’ into ‘I can actually do this,'” he says.
The last item on the agenda was MTSU’s Aviation Career Expo, where student had a chance to meet employers ranging in size from Embraer Aircraft to local charter operators to airport authorities, he says.
“Students left knowing the opportunities in aviation are real, named, and hiring,” he says.
A Different Event for the Current Students
The high schoolers were one half of the visit. The other half was an event built specifically for current MTSU aviation students — the people who’ve already made the decision and now need to figure out how to launch their careers from here.
That session focused on connecting them to the aviation organizations that can actually support their professional growth — the trade groups, the membership networks, the mentorship pipelines that most students don’t even know exist until well after graduation, he explains.
“We also brought a few surprises,” he says. “Giveaways aimed at aspiring aviation professionals — gear that actually matters when you’re starting out. The headline prize was a brand new Bose A30 headset, and the lucky winner was Atticus Gossett, an MTSU student whose unexpected headset upgrade clearly made his week.”
The Takeaway
The DreamLaunch Tour is a national tour, but it’s the recurring stops, the places that keep earning the trip, that tell you the most about where aviation education is actually going, according to Jamail.
“Tennessee has built something,” he says. “MTSU is part of it. TDOT is part of it. AOPA is part of it. The high school teachers using AOPA’s curriculum are part of it. And the hundreds of students who showed up on those two days in Murfreesboro are the reason all of it matters.”
For more information: AviationStart.org
See more about Jamail’s nationwide travels here.
Jamail has done more for aviation in his relatively short career than anyone I hear or read about. It is a remarkable story and an excellent example of what one dedicated person can do..