Middle Tennessee State University unveiled a new air traffic control simulator Monday. The university hopes to use it to recruit and train more aerospace students.
School officials say they are positioning the aerospace program for an industry with an aging workforce.
The Federal Aviation Administration has estimated that it will need more than 11,000 new air traffic controllers in the next decade.
Jim Drury is the air traffic manager at Nashville International Airport. He says the industry has seen a substantial hiring increase.
“We’ve been hiring for the last two-and-a-half, three years now. Just an incredible turnover of people. We’ve probably done about 30 new folks at Nashville [and] certified about 20 of those. It’s an issue for us, and we’ve been working pretty hard at getting folks through.”
MTSU Aerospace Chair Wayne Dornan says the university will also use the program to test new concepts of how to bring planes in on runways.
The MTSU simulator uses software similar to FAA Academy training programs.
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