Sounds like a movie title, but no it’s a groundbreaking new national effort by minority airline pilots to interest young children in careers in the flight and aeronautics industries. The four-week program was hosted by United Parcel Service at their air transport hub at the Ontario international Airport.

During the month of August, our students had the pleasure of being mentored by the program’s founder Willie Daniels an active airline pilot and Tony Marshall a retired aviator. The four-week program was an incredible hands on experience with exercises in aeronautics and navigation. The program culminated in a private flying lesson at Flabob Airport in Riverside hosted by the Experimental Aircraft Assocation.

Our Shades of Blue started as an effort by veteran airline pilot Willie Daniels to interest minorities in becoming pilots. The airline industry is facing the loss of 69,000 pilots that must retire in the next 10 years. Our Shades of Blue wants to young people from underserved communities to help fill this need in a lucrative and prestigious profession.

Retired pilot Tony Marshall leads the program in California. Additional istruction came from FAA investigators, and traffic controllers, and the engineers and operations people of UPS.