A student-built Vans RV-12 aircraft constructed by 24 students from East View and Georgetown high schools was on display at the Georgetown Municipal Airport on May 25.

The plane received its certificate of airworthiness from the Federal Aviation Administration and has undergone five flight hours, but it was grounded due to heavy wind conditions.

A part of the aerospace engineering program offered within Georgetown ISD, the students, along with instructor Dan Weyant and a group of around 30 community advisers, spent the 2016-17 school year getting the plane into flying condition.

The implementation of this program led to the creation of Tango Flight. Tango Flight is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit high school aerospace engineering program in which students learn about aspects of aviation and aerospace engineering through the hands-on experience of building an aircraft and working with local aviation companies, and they earn college credit with the integrated Project Lead the Way engineering curriculum. The science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, program offers high school students the opportunity to participate in building a functioning two-seat metal airplane.

Mayor Dale Ross, Superintendent Fred Brent and Weyant spoke to a crowd of onlookers after the plane taxied on the runway. Weyant said the program is being extended to a school in Wichita, Kansas, with the help of sponsorship from Airbus Americas.

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