We have the main engine start. Go fly like an eagle. Go. We are at the Flight Simulator building at purdue university. This is where a lot of things started in aviation. The Purdue Program was the first in the country to offer bachelors degrees to pilots in the mid1960s. Today, it continues to be one of the best, most finest flight programs in the country. We have so many people who have been so important. I can tell you that, going back to the beginning, some of the countrys most important figures Billy Mitchell, who was world war i commander of air forces trained to fly by purdue graduates. The first guy who got involved in flight from purdue was a guy named cliff. He graduated in 1908. His father sent him here from dayton, ohio. Paid outofstate tuition for his son to come here and learn about internal combustion engines. We had Great Research going on in mechanical engineering. By the time cliff left, he said he knew more about the engines. The plan was for him to go back to dayton with his father, and they were going to build motorcycles. And they did. Now, i read cliffs records in the smithsonian in washington , d. C. He says, in the evening near my house, i used to take long walks after dinner. I used to go past the workshop where the Wright Brothers were working, and i got to know them and everything. I dont believe a word of that. Cliff, at that time, was a 22yearold guy. He loved internal combustion engines. He loved the smell of oil and grease. He loved the noise. He loved to make engine smaller and more powerful. He knew the Wright Brothers, in 1908, were working on airplanes. He made a beeline for the workshop. When they found out he was a purdue engineer, they hired him. They needed him. They needed his technical experience. So, cliff helped improve the engines and improve their controls. Then, guess what . He wasnt satisfied with that. He wanted to fly. Wilburille and trained him to fly. He had to go to his father and say, dad, you know the money you invested in my Purdue Education so i could build motorcycles with you . Well, im going to fly airplanes with these guys down the block. And his dad said, okay, i guess i would do the same thing if i was you. A short time later, the Motorcycle Company was bankrupt, and cliff was one of the most famous people in the country. These exhibitions made headlines in the new york times, wherever they were. They demonstrated flight to 200,000 people in chicago or 5000 people at a county fair. They boxed them up in crates, transported them by train, and took them out and showed people what they can do. No one would believe it until they saw themselves. Every article i read about people seeing flight for the first time says when the plane left the ground, there was absolute silence. Absolute silence. And then just a huge roar came up as they realized what they were seeing for the first time. Cliff got out of flight. He had a terrible accident in seattle. His airplane ended up going up into the crowd. People were killed. He was injured. The next day, his best friend was injured. That was about 1915. And he never got onto an airplane again, although he lived into the spaceage. From there, we can go on and talk about george haskins. George was a world war i pilot. He continued in the air force after world war i. He was stationed in dayton. In 1919, he flew an airplane out of the campus, landed it right here at purdue. He came with a petition, waving a petition. It was at the board of trustees meeting. It was june. He said, we should start an Aeronautical Program here at purdue. Within a couple years, they did start an Aeronautical Engineering Program as part of mechanical engineering. Mechanical engineering has been the root of so many fields of engineering. He was one of the first in the country. It was one of the first in the country. It was one of a handful of Aeronautical Engineering Programs. George haskins eventually left the air force, came to purdue, and headed up that program, which was floundering. All the records say that he just worked day and night to build that program into one of the greatest programs in the country. When world war ii started, he was taken back to the military. He never returned to purdue, but he had built Something Special here. After world war ii, aeronautical engineering was separated from mechanical engineering, and became its own program, its own school. It is now one of the best in the country. George haskins lived a long life. July, in 1969, he was in his home, retired, in pasadena, california. And he watched this man, who was born in the 1890s before flight happened was a world war i pilot watched a man walk on the moon, neil armstrong, who had been through the program he created here at purdue. Im going to step off. That is one small step for man. One giant leap for mankind. John some people, like Billy Mitchell and george haskins, realized the importance that air travel was going to play. As we go on, it continues with purdue graduates. By 1924, a purdue graduate Frederick Martin was the most experienced pilot in the army air force. He headed up a group of four planes. The plan was to fly around the world. This was three years before lindbergh. They were going to stop every night. They would fly so far, and they would stop. They were able to go through land areas and to various points. It ended up taking them over 150 days to do this. The whole trip was planned and organized by Frederick Martin. Unfortunately, he was lost in a huge blizzard in alaska and was not able to finish the trip. In a way, you might think he lost his place in aviation history. But he didnt. December 7, 1941. Guess who is in charge of all air corps in hawaii . Frederick martin. It turns out that Frederick Martin and his counterpart in the navy had written a report predicting the attack of the japanese on pearl harbor to the letter. The time it occurred, the day of the week it would occur. They had it all down. Some of the most exciting things started happening in aviation at purdue before and after the war. In 1937, a man comes here from delaware. He wants to be a pilot. He doesnt finish at purdue, he finishes in the army. He is drafted, goes into the army, becomes a pilot. December 7, 1941, he is in hawaii. His plane is at a rural airfield. Frankly, he was out all night. He was out all night playing poker and having fun. George came back to his barracks just as the attack started. Outot into a car and waste to his airplane and the remote airfield, which was portrayed in the movie pearl harbor. They look like jets. I didnt even know the jets would soar at us. Get me to my god damn airplane. And he got up, and he was able to shoot down four japanese airplanes that day. He became quite the hero. Flight is one of the most incredible stories in human history. We went from december 17, 1903, july 20, 1969, kitty hawk to the moon in less than 60 years. Purdue and m. I. T. Has graduated more astronauts than any nonmilitary university. We have gone back and forth with this at first, but purdue and m. I. T. Have just held a lead in this among public universities for quite a while. Many of our astronauts were rotc. Neil armstrong, when he came here, he was already a pilot. He learned to fly at 16 years old. But if they didnt learn to fly here, they flew into this airport from their homes and from business trips they had. Our estimates come back frequently. Neil armstrong was very, very close to purdue. They come here, they have been through these facilities, they talk to the students. They are pilots. Before they were spacemen, they were pilots. They love airplanes and they love to fly. Now what are we doing . We are landing crafts on mars. By the way, purdue graduates are very much involved with those missions to mars. Nearly a third of all u. S. Spaceflights have involved astronauts graduating from perdue diversity. As nasa prepares for its first launch of u. S. Astronauts since 2011 this wednesday, we will go back to its beginnings. To 1979, astronauts trained at morehead planetarium, where they learned celestial navigation techniques. At morehead, we still talk about the role we played on the front lines of the cold war, because the space race was a major, Major Initiative within the cold war. T minus 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0. Ignition. We are in the campus of the university of North Carolina at chapel hill. I amnd