Irvine : Irvine Woman Selected to Receive FAA Award

Donald D. Engen, administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, has chosen an Irvine woman as one of three people in the FAA’s six-state Western Region to receive the first FAA Administrator’s Award for “excellence in aviation in education.”

Eleanor Wynne of UC Irvine will receive the award June 30 for improving aviation education in school classrooms throughout the United States over a 15-year period, FAA officials said.

“Her single-handed effort has been monumental in causing a 180-degree reversal of (previously) poor attitudes regarding the importance of aviation and space education in America,” according to Jule Zumwalt, director of aerospace education for the U.S. Air Force-Civil Air Patrol, Pacific Liaison Region based at Mather Air Force Base in Northern California.

FAA officials said Wynne has voluntarily conducted hundreds of workshops for teachers and has taught key aviation and space concepts to other groups for years.

The FAA’s aviation education program is aimed at public schools, where aviation has proven successful in promoting student interest in “core curriculum subjects, such as math and science, social studies and language arts,” according to agency officials.