Our Story
Based at the Las Cruces International Airport, the Aero-Knowledge Center is the cornerstone of hands-on, experiential learning for high school and college age students.
Serving students from Southern New Mexico region, the AKC provides an immersive hands-on aviation experience for youth that includes: the world of flight, shop safety, basic use of tools and equipment, aircraft engine and airframe technology basics.
We are dedicated to creating successful technical aviation programs available to qualifying students who have an interest in aerospace, and a desire to pursue careers as technicians, engineers, pilots nationwide.
The genesis of the current Aero-Knowledge Center was started in 2012 by EAA-555 members Carl Bogardous and Brett Hahn. Then called the Aerospace Engineering Group, they started a semester-long program mentoring local college students at KLRU in 2012.
After thousands of classroom & shop hours and a decade later, our graduating students have gone on the receive numerous engineering degrees from NMSU and UTEP.
Several former students are now pilots, and most are employed across Americas top tier manufacturing and aerospace institutions, including White Sands Missile Range, Lockheed, Raytheon, Guardian Glass, Yuma Proving Grounds, and the US Navy.
In June of 2024 AKC Summer Interns were invited to attend the final launch of Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity spacecraft from Spaceport America in New Mexico.
Our Founder
Dr. William (Bill) Soules is a pilot and has had a life-long passion for aviation.
He has dedicated his 40-year career educating youth in Southern New Mexico as a public school teacher and school administrator.
When he is not flying, Bill has served New Mexicans since 2013 as an education-focused Senator from District 37 in Las Cruces.
About the Logo
The AKC logo was originally conceptualized by our founder, Bill Soules, on the blank backside of an old poster.
Developing Bill’s vision was our intern 17 year old Levi Henderson, who turned the sketch into a fully formed graphic now used all over Aero-Knowledge media.
The logo represents the growth and maturation of Aerospace Knowledge from the simple, childish curiosity of a paper airplane, to a fully formed flying aircraft, a career launched through ever expanding knowledge and experience.
Levi is a life long aviation enthusiast, and historian, musician, expert aircraft and scale modeler and is working towards a career as an aerospace engineer and pilot.
