Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Diploma: From a Cincinnati Flying School to Aerospace Education
Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University is a private university focused on aviation and aerospace in the United States. It has residential campuses in Daytona Beach, Florida and Prescott, Arizona, as well as a Worldwide Campus that offers online learning and education at international locations. It is strongly linked to pilot training but its academic interests include engineering, business, computing, security and space studies. This range reflects the variety of professions involved in the design, operation and management of aircraft and aerospace systems.
The university’s educational history began in 1926 with the opening of the Embry-Riddle Flying School at Lunken Field in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was founded by businessman T. Higbee Embry and pilot John Paul Riddle, who had agreed to form their company in December 1925. Their first enterprise was a combination of flying instruction and other aviation activities such as aircraft sales and airmail services. It came at a time when commercial flying was still making its way into the daily life of Americans.
There was no constant progress. The original flying school was closed in 1930 due to a corporate merger. In 1939, Riddle and John McKay later opened the Embry-Riddle School of Aviation in Miami. During the Second World War its activities expanded to include training pilots, mechanics and technical personnel for the Allied war effort. After the war the institution continued to teach aviation skills, adapting to the needs of veterans and the nascent civilian aviation industry. For further details about the institution’s development, visit Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s official history page.
Academic Focus and Research Today
A move that proved decisive was made in April, 1965, when the institution moved from Miami to Daytona Beach. The move was dubbed “Operation Bootstrap” and saw local volunteers and borrowed trucks used to transport equipment, while planes were flown back to their new base. The move consolidated previously scattered activities and created space for a more established campus. In 1968 the institution received academic accreditation and in 1970 became Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. In 1978, a second residential campus was founded in Prescott.
Besides its residential growth Embry-Riddle developed education for those who could not go to a conventional campus. In 1970, a teaching site established at Fort Rucker, Alabama, helped establish the foundations of its Worldwide Campus. This branch grew out of the service to military personnel into a wider network of distance and online education.
Today, Embry-Riddle’s teaching and research extend beyond flight training into a broad range of scientific and technical disciplines, getting a Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Diploma means that you will obtain a background linked through teaching and research to wider scientific and technical fields. Students and faculty work on research, and partnerships with organizations such as NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing link academic work to practical industry questions. Although its educational scope has expanded dramatically from the flying school it started out as, aviation remains at the heart of the institution’s identity.