{"id":13498,"date":"2019-08-13T15:31:35","date_gmt":"2019-08-13T15:31:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/?p=13498"},"modified":"2019-08-13T15:31:37","modified_gmt":"2019-08-13T15:31:37","slug":"inspirational-pilot-mentor-barrington-irving-to-receive-american-spirit-award-at-nbaa-bace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/national-news\/inspirational-pilot-mentor-barrington-irving-to-receive-american-spirit-award-at-nbaa-bace\/%20","title":{"rendered":"Inspirational Pilot, Mentor Barrington Irving to Receive American Spirit Award at NBAA-BACE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) has announced that Barrington Irving, who in 2007 became the youngest pilot to fly solo around the world in a single-engine airplane and who has continued to inspire young people to pursue careers in aviation and aerospace, will receive the association\u2019s 2019 American Spirit Award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The award will be presented during the Day 2 Keynote at the\nNBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (NBAA-BACE), which takes\nplace Oct. 22-24 at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, NV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Irving was born in Kingston, Jamaica and grew up in\ninner-city Miami, FL believing that college football represented his only\nopportunity to receive a higher education. Although Irving received several\nscholarship offers out of high school, he instead opted to pursue a career in\naviation under the guidance and mentoring of a Jamaican airline pilot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those experiences set Irving on a course that culminated in\nhis 97-day solo flight around the globe in a single-engine piston aircraft \u2013\nappropriately christened \u201cInspiration\u201d \u2013 to demonstrate to young people\nworldwide that they could also achieve their dreams. He then founded Experience\nAviation, based at Opa-Locka Executive Airport, and established the Experience\nAviation Learning Center dedicated to empowering middle and high school\nstudents in the Miami area to pursue science, technology, engineering and math\n(STEM+) careers, including within aviation and aerospace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter discovering his own future in aviation, Barrington\nIrving has dedicated his life in a tireless effort to promote STEM+ careers as\naccessible and attainable paths by which others may pursue and realize their\nown dreams,\u201d said NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen. \u201cHe embodies a tremendous\nspirit of inspiration and mentorship that not only serves as an important\nexample for the students who have benefitted from his guidance, but for\neveryone working in business aviation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Irving has continued to encourage students from all walks of\nlife with the Flying Classroom, combining air, land and sea expeditions with a\ndigital curriculum to engage millions of children throughout the world. He also\nhas been a frequent presence at NBAA events over the past decade, including as\na speaker and mentor during the annual Careers in Business Aviation Day at\nNBAA-BACE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NBAA American Spirit Award is presented in recognition\nof an individual within business aviation who exemplifies the courage, pursuit\nof excellence and service to others that characterize men and women who created\nand nurtured the American aviation community. Past recipients include: Bruce\nWhitman, former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, John and Martha King and the\npassengers and crew of Flight 93.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) has announced that Barrington Irving, who in 2007 became the youngest pilot to fly solo around the world in a single-engine airplane and who has continued to inspire young people to pursue careers in aviation and aerospace, will receive the association\u2019s 2019 American Spirit Award. The award will be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13498"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13500,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13498\/revisions\/13500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}