Shopping center space to house aircraft mechanics facility

Plaza photo by Jordan Crossingham

Students who want to be airplane mechanics will be welding, sand-blasting and riveting in their own large facility by January.

Located in a donated section of The Plaza shopping center in Lynchburg, the future aeronautics mechanical labs will be housed in approximately 20,000 square feet of vacant space that was formerly a Roses department store.

“This is where they’ll be training aircraft mechanics,” said Charles Spence, LU’s director of planning and new construction. “We’re right now in the design phases, but very shortly it will go under construction.”

The facility will include shop-style classrooms to accommodate all types of mechanical work, as well as office space for the program.

The aircraft mechanic program is part of LU’s new School of Aeronautics, the tenth school to be authorized at Liberty. In addition to its aviation program, the school also hopes to train air traffic controllers and aeronautical engineers.

Click here for more information about Liberty University’s School of Aeronautics.