Montgomery HS students to conquer the skies with plane constructed in class

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) -- Thanks to an aerospace program at Montgomery High School, a group of students is getting the opportunity to build an airplane from top to bottom.

The students are in the process of building an experimental RV-12 airplane that came to their school in thousands of pieces.

"We saw all the boxes on the first day of school, and we were just like, this seems like so much work," a student said. "I didn't think that I would be building an airplane."

Joe Waltz, an Air Force veteran and former commercial pilot for Continental and United Airlines, is helping the students with their project.

"Our goal here is to empower students. We want to get them ready for those situations in their lives that they are going to have to reach down and say, 'I can do this,'" Waltz said.

With the help of their mentors, the students have the skeleton of the wings constructed as well as the fuselage in place.

The students are working hard to finish Bear Force One in hopes of one day flying it around Montgomery County.

Southwest Airlines heard about the students' passion to fly and invited their class to an exclusive behind the scenes look at Southwest Airlines maintenance facility at Hobby Airport.

Also, their campus reach team wants to talk to the students about careers and internships at Southwest Airlines.