Red Tail Academy provides a runway for students to enter the aviation workforce

The finale week of a week-long aviation camp found Nathan Abernathy, 12, stepping out of the flight simulator and into the cockpit of a Piper PA-28-181. Fellow Red Tail Academy student and licensed pilot, 17-year-old Aiden Ellison, flew Nathan over houses and roads made miniature by the elevation. Then, Nathan took the yoke – steering the plane and holding a potential future in aviation with both hands.

That opportunity, to introduce young people to aviation, is what moved Jeff Bolden, Kerry Gooch, David Toliver, and John Hall to co-found Red Tail Academy in 2020.

It creates a pathway into the aviation workforce through exposure, education, and mentorship for local students who might not get the experience otherwise.

Plus, jobs within the aviation workforce are in high demand.

“Many professions in aviation are suffering from personnel shortages – pilots, air traffic controllers, and maintenance to name a few – and are projected to continue having these shortfalls for decades unless we get more people interested in these career fields,” said Colonel (ret.) Sam White, chairman of the Red Tail Academy Board of Directors.

[Red Tail] has been a huge help for me, just getting to where I am today. I mean, as far as giving young people experience, they helped me obtain my license, helped me find the right school, the right Certified Flight Instructor (CFI). It’s a huge help. Honestly, I can almost not put into words how much they’ve done for me.

— Aiden Ellison

Red Tail Academy student and licensed pilot

The Kansas City region is home to Kansas City International Airport (MCI), Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport (MKC), and 17 public and private airports surrounding tens of thousands of jobs. Based on data from 2024, the Kansas City Aviation Department reported that MKC supports roughly 2,800 jobs and MCI directly or indirectly creates nearly 40,000 jobs totaling $1.8 billion in payroll.

Through Red Tail Academy, White teaches young people who are eager to step into those jobs. He began his aviation career in the military, serving as a U.S. Air Force pilot for 25 years. After retiring in 2017, he became a civilian pilot with Delta Airlines.

“I think it’s powerful for a kid to have their private pilot’s license at the age of 16, which is the earliest that you can have it,” he said.

Red Tail Academy offers programming for 16- to 19-year-old students to obtain pilot certificates, providing an accelerated start to careers in aviation. Four years ago, the academy extended the runway for interested students, launching a youth summer camp for students extended the runway for interested students, launching a youth summer camp for students aged 10-13 and, two years later, a camp for students aged 14 to 16.

It was during this time of expansion that the organization evaluated its long-term strategy, fine-tuned the budget, and identified capacity gaps.

The organization’s board of directors – a volunteer, working board of seven members – have little capacity to focus on anything beyond the critical operations of running programs. They needed dedicated capacity for fundraising.

With a clear capacity gap identified for a program with direct impact on the aviation workforce pipeline in Kansas City, the Foundation awarded Red Tail Academy a Capacity Building grant in November 2024. Among the first cohort of Capacity Building grantees, the funding supported Red Tail’s ability to catalyze fundraising plans and consistent revenue streams for long-term organizational sustainability.

Now, halfway through its grant cycle, Red Tail developed a fundraising strategy and is close to finishing development of new aviation modules, White said. These stand-alone aviation lessons will create a revenue stream while sharing Red Tail Academy education with other youth organizations. Among other strategies, Red Tail will host its second annual fundraising gala this year.

“We hope to raise twice as much as we did last year,” White said.

Funding stability is imperative to Red Tail’s ability to reduce barriers and expand its reach to bring more students into the aviation workforce pipeline in Kansas City.

Students like Ellison, who obtained his license with 41 flight hours at age 17.

“[Red Tail] has been a huge help for me, just getting to where I am today. I mean, as far as giving young people experience,” he said, “they helped me obtain my license, helped me find the right school, the right Certified Flight Instructor (CFI). It’s a huge help. Honestly, I can almost not put into words how much they’ve done for me.”

Now at 50 flight hours – not including the discovery flight with his 12-year-old co-pilot, Nathan – Ellison has a clear vision for his career path.

“I’d like to be an airline pilot,” he said. “My plan is, once I graduate high school, I’m going to go to a collegiate flight university and get all my hours there and hopefully end up with a job offer by the time I graduate.”