NEWS RELEASE

Communications and Marketing Office
600 S. Clyde Morris Blvd.
Daytona Beach, FL 32114-3900

For more information, contact:
Phone: 386-226-6157
Fax: 386-226-6158

Embry-Riddle Celebrates 25 Years During Octoberwest Homecoming


Prescott, Ariz., Sept. 12, 2003 -- Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University will celebrate 25 years in Prescott during the university's Octoberwest alumni homecoming Oct. 3-5.

This year, the community is invited to learn more about Embry-Riddle, the world's leader in aviation and aerospace higher education, at events on Saturday, Oct. 4, that are open to the public. All events are free unless noted otherwise.

Embry-Riddle, the City of Prescott, and local aviation businesses and organizations will commemorate the centennial of flight by presenting Prescott Air Fair 2003, to be held 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at Love Field. The Experimental Aircraft Association will display its half-scale model of the airplane flown by the Wright brothers in 1903 at Kitty Hawk, N.C., and many Embry-Riddle alumni will return to their alma mater in military jets and helicopters.

The Air Fair will feature a static display of the Commemorative Air Force's B-17 "Sentimental Journey," a Lockheed Super Constellation, a DC-3, a Ford Tri-Motor, a variety of helicopters, and many others.

The Red Tail Project's P-51 Mustang will be on display as part of an educational program to honor the heroism of the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II. The "Tuskegee Experiment" was an Army Air Corps program that trained African-Americans to fly and maintain combat aircraft. The Tuskegee Airmen included pilots, navigators, bombardiers, maintenance and support staff, and instructors.

Also at the Air Fair, keynote speaker Scott Crossfield will present a program at 2 p.m. at Love Field titled "Onward and Upward," about research planes and the people who fly them. Crossfield was the first person to fly at Mach 2 and Mach 3 and was a test pilot for such aircraft as the T-39 and the X-15. Over the years he has been a U.S. Navy fighter pilot, chief wind tunnel operator, chief engineering test pilot, and an Apollo Program system director.

Saturday evening, Embry-Riddle will hold a USO Show/Hangar Party at 6:30 p.m. in the large hangar at the university's Flight Training Center, 6140 Airpark Drive. The event will include a 1940s-style USO Show with a sixteen-piece orchestra featuring local favorite Danny Anderson and the Big Band sounds of Swing Shift. Other performers are Java Jive and the Geritol Hipsters performing Dixieland classics. The evening will feature dinner and swing dancing along with contests for best 1940s costumes and best dancers. Summer Hinton and Jerry Levie, professional swing dancers/teachers, will demonstrate dance techniques and judge the dance contest.

The USO Show/Hangar Party is $15 per person for advance tickets or $20 at the door. Tickets may be purchased in advance at the Prescott and Prescott Valley Chambers of Commerce and at the Fry's Marketplaces on Fair Street in Prescott and Glassford Hill Road in Prescott Valley.

For more information, visit the Embry-Riddle alumni website at www.erau.edu/er/alumni or call 928-777-4771.

Embry-Riddle, the world's largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, meets the needs of students and industry through its educational, training, research, and consulting activities. Embry-Riddle educates more than 25,000 students annually through the master's level at residential campuses in Daytona Beach, Fla., and Prescott, Ariz., at more than 130 teaching centers in the United States and Europe, and through distance learning.