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Having spent the majority of her career at WYDOT working with airports across the state, she knows very well the value of the airport system, its needs and the work required to maintain and to build success into the system. She also appreciates its heritage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Using that knowledge, Cheryl has decided to roll her passion for aviation into something special. \u201cMy passion project is forming a group locally for the preservation of our Wyoming aviation heritage,\u201d Cheryl explained. \u201cEssentially, fundraising for preservation projects, supporting aviation history museums, and as a resource for aviation history information.\u201d Currently, the Wyoming Aviation Heritage League has an aviation historian and an historic preservationist. \u201cI am confident, we will grow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After receiving a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from University of Wyoming, Cheryl\u2019s first position with the Wyoming Highway Department (Reorganized into a DOT in 1991) was as a bridge design engineer. That position led to a design crew leader, a position she held for 10 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cheryl\u2019s first involvement in aviation came in 2001 when Cheryl was promoted to Staff Engineer. Her position was split between the Construction Staff Engineers office and Aeronautics. \u201cThe job for the staff engineer was attractive because of the aviation component. Although the job was supposed to support both highways and airports, I was quickly drawn into the aviation side,\u201d Cheryl shared with the State Aviation Journal. \u201cI had to learn everything from scratch about airports, even that R\/W means runway not right-of-way! It was fun for me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cheryl is a lifelong learner and gets bored if she\u2019s not learning something new on a regular basis. Every day was a school day for quite some time. \u201cThere were many challenges in those early years in Aeronautics but part of it was the opportunity to create new processes, procedures, and group projects,\u201d said Cheryl. \u201cOne of the things that impacted my thinking the most is the Wyoming communities, the challenges they face, and the benefit their airports bring to the communities and to the state.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Cheryl said she learned the hard way how federal and state governments can be overly bureaucratic. At some point she figured out that some of their processes that she helped create added to the bureaucracy without much benefit. \u201cFortunately, we were able to step back and figure out something better. I believe we are here to serve the public in the best way possible and really formed that thinking while here in Aeronautics,\u201d she said. (Photo above – The presentation of Cheryl’s 35 year service award. L to R: Luke Reiner, previous WYDOT Director; Cheryl Bean; Brian Olsen (Aeronautics Administrator) May 2021.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cheryl’s initial interest in aviation came from her family. Her dad was a WWII B-24 co-pilot. \u201cHe didn’t talk a lot about the war, but I saw photos of him in his uniform and with his crew in front of the B-24 they flew,\u201d said Cheryl. \u201cThey crashed in the Pacific Ocean and lost a couple of their crew.\u201d Her uncle and brother were also pilots. \u201cBack when I first started as a crew leader in bridge design, I had to take a charter flight to an emergency situation in the northern part of the state. It had 5 seats and I sat in the front next to the pilot. At first, I was reluctant to climb in. I am so glad I did because it was an amazing experience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nThe idea of preserving the state\u2019s aviation heritage started one day as Cheryl was pulling into the parking lot of Aeronautics to go to work. The Cheyenne airport terminal was replaced in late 2018 and the previous terminal was standing vacant. Construction on the old terminal began in 1959 and completed in 1960. “It has a very cool mid-century modern hyperbolic paraboloid roof. Extremely unique and it reminds you of an airplane,\u201d said Cheryl. \u201cI remember it as a very young girl and coming up to the airport with my parents to see JFK.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Compelled to do something to stop the terminal from deteriorating and being demolished, Cheryl wrote letters and tried to garner support with some success. \u201cI received some guidance from local historic preservation experts, several of whom have been key members with the group.\u201d At first, it seemed the community didn’t care that much about the building. It would take a lot of money to refurbish it and that was why a new terminal was built. \u201cIt wasn’t practical for it to be a terminal any longer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fast forward to\ntoday and things have turned around. \u201cThere is much more support locally for\nsaving the structure and turning it into a multi-purpose facility,\u201d said\nCheryl. \u201cThere are now draft conceptual drawings which include an aviation\nhistory museum area, bar, restaurant, etc. It could actually become a\n\u2018destination\u2019 and the terminal will still be used for charters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What started as a\ngroup to save the terminal, now has a much broader mission for aviation history\nin the entire state. Wyoming was part of the initial air mail route, Elrey\nJeppesen was living in Cheyenne and making his notes in a basement that was\nwithin walking distance to the airport, United trained the first stewardesses\nhere, and there was a WWII modification center here for B-17’s and other\naircraft. Other locations around the state have specific aviation history that\nneeds to be preserved as well. Cheryl notes that the biggest challenge will be\nto raise the funding needed for major projects. \u201cBut our first project is to\nhelp support the renovation of the 1959 terminal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After serving in state service in Wyoming for most of her career, Cheryl L. Bean, P.E. (shown at right) retired last week as Aviation Planning and Programming Manager for the Wyoming Department of Transportation Aeronautics Division. It doesn\u2019t mean however, that she\u2019s stepping away from the aviation industry. Having spent the majority of her career […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":26315,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[116,67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-front-page-slider","category-wyoming"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_0094-edit-3-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26307","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=26307"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26314,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26307\/revisions\/26314"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}