Two hundred schoolchildren came through the hangar last week. We had planned for a hundred and fifty.
The morning was built around a straightforward idea: most children in Freetown have watched aircraft go overhead their whole lives without ever standing next to one. Standing next to one changes the scale of the thing. It stops being a shape in the sky and becomes a machine that people built, maintain and operate, which means it becomes a machine that they could one day build, maintain or operate.
What they asked
The questions were better than the ones we get from adults. How do you know the wings will not come off. What happens if the pilot falls asleep. Who cleans it. Why is the front pointy. How much does it cost, and could you buy a house instead.
Our engineers answered all of them properly, which took considerably longer than the schedule allowed and was the best part of the day.
Why we will do it again
An airline is a large and visible thing to put in a country, and it is reasonable for people to ask what it is for beyond selling seats. Part of the answer is that aviation is a skilled industry with a long training pipeline, and pipelines start early.
We will run the open mornings termly. If you teach at a school that would like to bring a group, our team in Freetown can arrange a date.