Inside MTSU’s Aerospace Program

Oshkosh draws pilots, mechanics, and manufacturers from every corner of the industry. But for one week each July it also becomes something of a recruiting ground for the schools training the next generation of aviation professionals. Middle Tennessee State University brought students, faculty, and its provost to this year’s EAA AirVenture to walk through what has become one of the largest collegiate aerospace departments in the country.

Jamail Larkins, founder of AviationStart and the FAA’s ambassador for aviation and space education, visited MTSU’s AirVenture booth this year to give FLYING an exclusive look at what makes MTSU’s Aerospace Department one of aviation education’s hidden gems.

Larkins was joined by  Chaminda Prelis, MTSU’s Aerospace Department chair, Mark Byrnes, the university’s provost, a graduating flight instructor, and a Civil Air Patrol leader whose partnership with the school spans more than a decade.

One of the first questions most prospective students ask is what they will be flying. MTSU’s Aerospace Department primarily uses Diamond DA40s as trainers.

“The DA40 uses an all-glass cockpit,” Prelis said. “It’s a very easy aircraft to fly.” 

While the school uses Piper Seminoles for some multi-engine training, DA40s make up the bulk of the fleet. MTSU’s relationship with Diamond isn’t new. The university has been a customer for over 20 years, and according to Prelis, the DA40 is a workhorse of an airplane that students absolutely love.

That fleet is about to get significantly more room to grow. MTSU’s flight operations are relocating to a new facility in Shelbyville, Tennessee, roughly 30 minutes from the main campus. According to Prelis, the move will be fully operational by summer 2028. The current fleet stands at about 49 aircraft, but the new site was built with headroom.

“We have enough space to go up to 60 airplanes,” Prelis said, describing it as a significant investment by the state and by the university.

The expansion will also give MTSU’s maintenance program a dedicated 30,000-square-foot facility, as the maintenance side of the department has become just as important as the pilot program.

The fleet itself doesn’t sit still, either. 

“Every seven years, we rotate the older airplanes out and bring in the newer airplanes,” Prelis said. “We try to keep up with the technology that’s out there.”

Many aviation programs are narrow in scope, but MTSU is proud to produce more than just pilots. 

“We teach aviation management, flight dispatch, technology, unmanned aircraft systems, and maintenance management,” Prelis said.

The industry, he said, has a growing need for aircraft mechanics in particular. Some major aviation companies have indicated that their shortage for maintenance is much higher than it is for pilots, according to Prelis, which is one reason MTSU has continued to invest in broadening its educational offerings.

With over 1,400 students in the program, aerospace is the largest department on campus. Notably, it also includes the largest number of military veterans of any department at MTSU.

Byrnes put the scale of the Aerospace Department in a university-wide perspective. 

MTSU, with an enrollment of around 20,000, sits on a campus located about 30 miles southeast of Nashville amid the region’s booming metropolitan growth. The Aerospace Department accounts for roughly 7 percent of the entire student population. Of those, Byrnes said more than 400 are pursuing something other than a pilot track, including maintenance, dispatch, or airport management. 

“We’re interested in serving the entire industry, not just the flying part,” Byrnes said.

The department’s roots trace back to World War II, when MTSU trained military pilots, but Byrnes pointed to the more recent trajectory as the real story. 

“In recent years, the growth has been really dramatic, largely in response to the needs of industry,” Byrnes said. “We hear from the airlines all the time. They need pilots, and so we’re doing our best to supply them.”

Much of what separates a university aviation program from a stand-alone flight school comes down to two things—the credentials a degree unlocks, and what it costs to get there.

On the first point, Prelis pointed to MTSU’s dual accreditation in the form of the FAA’s Restricted ATP (R-ATP) pathway and ABET recognition across its programs. The university also earned agency recognition in fall 2025 for its Safety Management System. That applies department-wide, not just to pilot majors. 

“Since safety is such a critical issue, we are teaching these students from day one what it means to be a professional aviator and act in a safe manner,” Prelis said.

On cost, Prelis argued MTSU holds its own against peer institutions despite the inherent expense of flight training. The university supplements costs with roughly $400,000 a year in internally funded scholarships, according to Prelis.

Reese Webber, a senior professional pilot major in MTSU’s Department of Aerospace who is already working as a flight instructor, echoed that value proposition. 

“Being at a 141 school gets you qualified for your restricted ATP,” Webber said. “A thousand hours in these brand-new Diamond DA40s is a wonderful training experience.” 

Asked about life after graduation, Webber said that his plan is to hit the 1,000-hour minimum as a CFI then start applying to airlines. He already started tapping into that pipeline at Oshkosh itself.

“I shook hands with at least twenty different pilots at about fifteen different airlines,” he said.

MTSU’s presence at AirVenture also highlighted a partnership that begins well before students ever apply—its relationship with Civil Air Patrol (CAP).

Major General Regena Aye, Civil Air Patrol’s national commander, described a collaboration dating back roughly to 2014, one that now brings around 60 CAP cadets to MTSU’s campus each year through cadet special activities. 

“When you are on a college campus and you get to experience what college students get to see and do on a daily basis, that inspires you to see yourself in that environment,” Aye said, noting that some of MTSU’s own flight instructors are former CAP cadets themselves. 

Aye leads a program of some 34,000 cadets and 36,000 adult volunteers nationwide. She offered a simple piece of advice to any students who are weighing where their aviation careers might start: “You miss all the shots you don’t take.”

MTSU’s week at Oshkosh was spent demonstrating a program that has scaled a full aviation ecosystem—pilots and mechanics, dispatchers and UAS operators, cadets and career instructors, all built around a durable partnership with Diamond and a bet on where the industry’s demand is headed next.

Click here to learn more about MTSU’s Department of Aerospace.