Aviation academy for Norwich

The Aviation Skills Partnership has begun building work on a state-of-the-art £12m aviation academy at Norwich airport.

It is being built in a former WWII hangar and will be used to train the next generation of pilots, engineers and aircraft crew.

Partnership founder and chief executive Simon Witts told the Eastern Daily Press the academy, with 20 classrooms, five engineering workshops and a complete live Airbus A320 aircraft, would be a world first and bring aviation training back to Norwich.

The Type C hangar is being stripped down to its metal frame and around 1,500cu m of concrete will fill the football-pitch-sized floor space. The facility is expected to be finished early next year.

The first students – a class of 20 to 40 – will be enrolled in September and taught elsewhere before moving to the airport when building is complete. Some 500 students aged between 16-21 will study at the site at the peak.

Witts, a former CAA executive and executive director on the boards of five regional airlines, said the next stage would be to build accommodation nearby in partnership with the University of East Anglia to house students enrolled in the degree course.   www.aviationskillspartnership.com

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