Compton, California — March 18, 2008 —You’re busy. Between sports, clubs and homework, it’s hard to find time for anything else.
But two 16-year-olds from California found time for something else. And they set new world records Saturday while doing it.
Kelly Anyadiki became the youngest black female to solo in four different aircraft on the same day. Jonathan Strickland established a new record as the youngest black male to solo six different airplanes, and a second record for soloing six airplanes plus one helicopter on the same day.
The teens flew in and out of Compton Airport as part of a Black History Month Celebration honoring the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of nearly 1,000 black pilots recruited by the Army to fly and maintain combat aircraft between 1942 and 1946.
Maj. Levi H. Thornhill, 85, was one of four original Tuskegee Airmen on hand Saturday to watch Strickland and Anyadiki make their record-breaking flights, according to the Press-Telegram of Long Beach, California.
Thornhill hopes young prodigies like Strickland and Anyadiki will influence other kids to join aviation programs.
"We gotta keep the kids off the streets," he said.
The young pilots learned to fly through Tomorrow's Aeronautical Museum, which provides aviation-themed after-school programs for more than 800 children in kindergarten through 12th grade.
“These new world records the kids set are an example of where the past meets the present and the future,” said Robin Petgrave, founder of Tomorrow’s Aeronautical Museum. "We're trying to show (the Tuskegee Airmen) that the legacy is alive. Anything is possible for these kids. We're not limited by color."
Strickland, a Los Angeles resident, has been flying since he was 12. During a trip from Compton to Canada at age 14, he became the youngest black pilot to solo an airplane and a helicopter on the same day, the youngest black pilot to fly a helicopter internationally and the youngest black pilot to fly a helicopter on an international round-trip.
"Today we're seeing history in the making," Petgrave said. "So few African-American kids are introduced to aviation, by the time they do it, everything they do is a record."
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Kelly Anyadiki became the youngest black female to solo
in four different aircraft on the same day.
Photo courtesy Tomorrow’s Aeronautical Museum
Jonathan Strickland broke two records — the youngest black male to solo six different airplanes the same day, and the youngest to solo six airplanes plus one helicopter
on the same day. Photo courtesy Tomorrow’s
Aeronautical Museum.
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