The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-08-16
KEENER INTEREST
 IN AER0NAUTICS
ParOchial Schools to Take Pre=Flight Courses; Fly
 ing Nun Enthusiastic

Washington, D. C., Aug. 16- (SpeciaD-In numerous Catholic parochial schools throughout the nation, nuns and lay teahcers will carry into the classrooms an inti- mate knowledge of pre-flight cours. es in aeronautics as result of the special training these instructors have received under the guidance o1 Sister Mary Aquinas, O. s. F., the Flying Nun" of Ironwood, Mich igan, who has just completed ter weeks as director of air age educa- tional classes at Catholic University of America
 In all 130 teachers, from twenty states, attended the classes which were held in the aeronautica laboratory of the University, and which attracted such favorable at- tention in the press of the East be- cause of Sister Aquinas' rating as an expert in aviation, being one of the first members of the Catholic sisterhood who has qualified for a pilots license.
 The class room activities, which dealt with pre-flight courses in elementary and secondary school practice, were supplemented with practical knowledge gained by the student-teachers through the facil- ities of the Washington National Airport, which Manager John Grove made available for regular weekly classes in the various de- partments of the field. The classes, counting both sessions of the Cath olic University summer term, were composed of 130 teachers and fif- teen others who are planning to make some phase of aviation their profession. The courses included aircraft structure, elementary aero- dynamfcs, principles of flying, en- zines, meteorology, navigation. radio and communications. Prof Louis Crook, head of the Depart ment of Aeronautics of the Univer- sity, acquainted all the students with the nature of research being carried out at the school, and en- "riched the background by explana- tions of design, load testing and wind tunnel aerodynamic graphs as we'll as provided Sister Aquinas with all the facilities of the we'll equipped laboratory of the institu- tion.
 Sister Aquinas leaves early next week for her home in Ironwood, Michigan, where she will continue flight instruction in St. Am prose High School, and direct pub- lication of the curricular research of her students of Catholic Uni- versity during the past ten weeks. The Plying Nun" is enthusiastic over the success of her special classes at Catholic University.
 We have helped tot provide air age edudcation to an unlimited number of American youth through the instruction gained in this spe- cial course at the University" Sis- ter Aquinas said. Already a num- Der of the teacher-students 1n- structed in the first half of the course are out instructing other teacher groups so that the work is being carried on over a wide area. The enthusiasm of these teachers will match that of their students in the coming fall terms of school so that the knowledge of aviation will be carried down into the grades and thus instill in the youngsters some ideas of the world of aero- nautics."
 Sister Aquinas added that care fully prepared articles will be sup piled to widely circulated school publications about the courses at Catholic University, so that air age materials will be more generally used in the courses of Junior and Senior High Schools.