New Mexico Senator Bill Soules, D-Las Cruces, and Experimental Aircraft Association member and local engineer owner Brett Hahn want everyone to have the confidence to feel like they can fly. The two men teamed up to launch the Aero-Knowledge Center in 2023 as a hands-on aircraft and aviation mentorship program for students of all ages.
Hahn, who began mentoring students with Carl Bogardus in 2012 through the New Mexico State University Capstone Students program, has extensive engineering experience working for Mazda, White Sands Missile Range, Hawaii Space Flight Laboratory, NASA and more. His and Bogardus’ work with local students in the area has led students of all identities to obtain engineering degrees as well as jobs at places such as White Sands Missile Range, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Guardian Glass, Yuma Proving Grounds and the U.S. Navy.
Bogardus, a lifelong educator, pilot and local science teacher, passed away in 2018.
Soules has dedicated 40 years to teaching and school administration and has served New Mexico since 2013 as a state Senator for District 37. Soules learned to fly in Ohio but obtained all his training in New Mexico, and has held a pilot’s license since 1977. He even owns a plane. Hahn is also a pilot, learned to fly in 1995 at the Las Cruces International Airport and owns an aerobatic biplane.
The Aero-Knowledge Center occupies a hangar that once belonged to Apollo 8 astronaut Frank Borman, located at the city-owned airport. It has a fully functional paint booth, a complete aerospace welding and machining facility, a library and five Redbird-certified flight simulators.
The space gives students a place to learn about aviation and the basics of engineering, work on projects and learn how to fly a plane.
Soules and Hahn currently guide eight students. Among them are Sebastian Ojeda, recently graduated from Las Cruces High School and is planning to study aerospace and mechanical engineering at NMSU; Jorge Carrillo, a senior at Mayfield High School; Dominic Orona, a junior at Las Cruces High; Ruben Sanchez, a junior at Organ Mountain High School; and Levi Henderson, who attends a Christian private school.
The students applied for the internship through the Doña Ana County Summer Student Internship Program, which uses state funds to pay students up to $15 an hour at no cost to businesses, marking STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) as their subject interest.
"It was luck of the draw really,” Ojeda said. “I got called by Bill at Walmart, and he asked me if I was ready to work at an airport.”
Since beginning their mentorship this summer, students at the Aero-Knowledge Center have done it all. In the first two weeks, Hahn said, “These guys have gotten this hangar together and ready.” The established internet service in the hangar and Carrillo installed workbench lighting in the fabrication shop before proceeding to connect the HVAC system in their paint booth to another room in the hangar.
“I prefer this than sitting behind a desk,” Carrillo said.
Orona and Ruben are aspiring mechanics and have worked with motors and engines since they were children. They are working on turning a lawn mower motor into a basic tug that can pull small planes. Ojeda is working on a bottle opener shaped like a plane, learning the basics of woodworking in the process. Levi, joining the program a few weeks ahead the rest of the group, has moved equipment from one hangar to another and designed a new logo for the program.
The group has heard presentations on women in aviation, and some of the students have accompanied airport maintenance on their inspections to learn more about the airport and the planes.
“We get to do so much, I definitely feel like I am learning a lot,” said Carrillo.
The students have also taken to the flight simulator with ease. “They have flown around the airport and landed, all with minimal direction,” said Soules, who is the resident instructor for the program. Soules expressed hope that allowing students to fly using the simulator will generate more interest in aviation.
“It is all about opportunity,” he said. “This is a white guy type of profession, and because of that, the profession is suffering. We want to be able to show everyone they can do this, too.”
Soules and Hahn have big plans. Soules would like to establish the complete restoration of a plane as a standing project for the program. When the hangar is fully up and running, they plan to host the Boys and Girls Club for a tour and invite schools to take field trips here in the fall.
The program is looking to expand beyond its usual summer mentorship, and accepts donations from anyone willing to contribute to the program.
The Doña Ana County Summer Student Internship Program has already reached capacity for this year, but students applying next year and can specify that they want to be placed at the Aero-Knowledge Center.
More information on the program and how to get involved are available via Brett Hahn at brettvhahn@gmail.com and Bill Soules at bill.soules@nmlegis.gov.
