MACON, Ga. — Middle Georgia State's aviation program gives opportunities to students like Ty Templeton, who's wanted to be a pilot ever since he was a young boy.
"My dad used to take me and my brother up to the cell phone lot at Hartsfield-Jackson and just watch planes take off constantly and constantly. That kind of manifested into me just having a love for flying," he said.
School of Aviation Dean Adon Clark says the new aircraft will double the amount of spots they have in their bachelor's program, going from 60 student pilots to 120.
"It'll be brand new Piper Archers with a state of the art glass cockpit, G-1000 cockpit, couple of engines which is huge for our program here in Macon," Clark said.
Ken Fincher, Vice President of Institutional Advancement, says the money came from the Jones Family Foundation and had been in the works for over a year.
"We were honored and humbled that they gave us a gift of $800,000 so that we could purchase two additional piper aircraft to train our students here," Fincher said.
"When students are looking at other schools and universities with everybody having a waiting list to get in and allowing us to open up slots here, it will make us more attractive to students," Clark said.
"It is, overall, just the perfect training aircraft and Piper makes such a great product and we're lucky to fly them," Templeton said.
The new planes will add to the school's fleet of 30 aircraft.
Clark says they're being built now and expects to have them delivered by Spring 2020.