Often called the “Harvard of Aviation” due to its now prestigious reputation as one of the nation’s top programs, the Community College of Beaver County launched its aviation school in 1969. In 1972, the program moved to its permanent home at the Beaver County Airport, where CCBC’s Aviation Sciences Center houses state-of-the-art flight simulators, classrooms, labs, and one of only two facilities in the country with a student-operated control tower.

More than 50 years later, the college has placed an air-traffic controller in every tower in the country and a professional pilot in the cockpit of every major U.S. airline through industry-approved curricula taught by aviation professionals and best-in-class flight simulators.

Today, CCBC’s James M. Johnson School of Aviation Sciences has a national reputation for its high quality and standards. Named by American Airlines as a top innovative aviation organization for the second consecutive year, our globally known Aviation programs include the Aviation High School Academy, charting a course for future pilots and air traffic controllers by providing Western Pennsylvania’s high school students with transformational educational and career-related experiences.