Students building flying WWI Replicas

Students of the Aviation Institute of Maintenance (AIM) are in the process of building WWI replicas as part of their education. AIM is a program teaching students to become aircraft technicians at eight campuses. Most of the individual classes at AIM focus on specific aircraft components and systems. The difference of the WWI Student Project is that students are allowed to work on whole aircraft.

The program is set up so each campus will build an individual aircraft as teams. Each team started out by evaluating and selecting which type of aircraft they wanted to build. The aircraft will use modern engines and using modern construction techniques (modern wing designs, metal structures instead of wood, etc.)

Once the planes are completed, they will go through pre-flight and flight-testing and then will be available for local events and air shows. They will also be transported to the AIM location in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where they will be flown and be evaluated by judges.

Each team is maintaining a blog to track the progress of their projects, and post photos of the students doing the work. According to these blogs many of the teams are learning about WWI in the process, often visit regional museums to see historic examples of the replicas they are building.

Team Atlanta - Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter

Team Dallas - Sopwith Pup

Team Indianapolis - Nieuport 11

Team Kansas City - Morane Saulnier AI

Team Manassas - The Avro 504

Team Orlando - Fokker DVIII

Team Philadelphia - Nieuport 17

Team Virginia Beach - Nieuport 24