American Airlines Donates Final MD-80 to Chicago-Area A&P School

American Airlines has donated the last of its retired MD-80 aircraft to Lewis University, a Chicago-area school with more than 700 students currently enrolled in its Aviation and Transportation Studies department. The aircraft, which made its public debut yesterday morning, arrived at Lewis University Airport in Romeoville, Illinois earlier this week and has already been used for hands-on demonstration with some of the school’s aviation maintenance students.

Members of American Airlines’ Tulsa TechOps team traveled to Lewis University to change out one of the MD-80’s engines, which was still leased. The crew spent two 15-hour days with a handful of selected students from the school’s aviation programs, walking them through the engine change process step-by-step.

“During that whole process we pretty much just had an open Q&A and could ask them any questions we wanted,” says Owen Schmid, an Aviation Maintenance Management major at Lewis University. “We don’t get to change an engine every day, so actually seeing that right there from start to finish was unbelievable.”

Schmid adds that being able to work on and troubleshoot a more modern, completely airworthy aircraft will help prepare students for the kind of work they will see once they enter the workforce. The university currently trains on an assortment of corporate jets, general aviation aircraft and a Boeing 737 that was donated by United Airlines in the 1990s, but according to Ryan Phillips, chairman of Lewis University’s Department of Aviation and Transportation Studies, the 737 is getting harder to keep operational as it gets older, “so it’s time to rotate in something a little more modern.”

Phillips adds that the MD-80 will be used within curriculum for students training to become aviation maintenance technicians and pilots in order to take concepts from the classroom and apply them on an aircraft more representative of what they will work with in the industry. “This cements that foundation,” explains Phillips. “They learn it in the classroom, they work on the smaller airplanes we have in the hangar and then they take it to a whole other level up there.”

One benefit the donated aircraft will provide is an avionics package that Phillips says is “a step above” any equipment currently being used within the university’s programs, including glass displays, digital avionics and an electronically controlled APU.

“It will give them a very good understanding of what they’re getting into, because quite frankly, any larger airline operates cutting edge airplanes, and as an A&P you may not work for an American or a United—you may work for a carrier that only has 737s,” says Jack O’Callaghan, technical crew chief of American Airlines’ O’Hare technical operations. “It’s going to give them the feel of what it’s like to work on a commercial airplane, and it’s going to be equipment that is not really that outdated.”

The MD-80 will join an assortment of equipment donated to Lewis University by various airlines, including engines, tugs and a power cart. Phillips says the university’s hangar was overhauled approximately four years ago, including top-to-bottom paint, new heating and ventilation, and new tooling through a partnership with Snap-on. The university also partners with airlines on internships and pipeline programs, and Phillips says enrollment in Lewis’s aviation maintenance programs is at an all-time high—currently approaching 200 students.

“It’s all driven by demand in industry, which is awesome for us,” he adds. “The students could not be getting into this at a better time.”

Congressman Dan Lipinski, a member of Lewis University’s Board of Trustees and of the House Aviation Subcommittee, pointed out during the MD-80’s unveiling event that demand for aviation maintenance jobs is at a high.

“Right now there’s a great need for new maintenance technicians for aviation,” said Lipinski, citing the results of Boeing’s Pilot and Technician Outlook. “These are jobs that are growing—these are jobs that are not going to be going away.”