WHAT:
Kent State University will celebrate the Flying Flashes, Peyton Turner and Laura Wilson, who defended the team’s title by winning the 2023 Air Race Classic. Turner and Wilson competed in the four-day, 2,685-mile, all-women pilot race with the best score to win the overall, collegiate, fastest Cessna and fastest Women in Aviation International (WAI) team competitions. The Flying Flashes competed against 43 other teams from across the country. The 46th annual race started in Grand Forks, North Dakota, and ended in Homestead, Florida.
Turner is a junior aeronautics major from Chicora, Pennsylvania, and Wilson, of New Richmond, Ohio, is a 2022 Kent State graduate who currently serves as a certified flight instructor at the Kent State University Airport. Wilson was one half of the reigning team that won last year’s Air Race Classic.
Kent State will also highlight Holly Csaszar of Webster, New York, who won the 2023 Certified Flight Instructor of the Year Award at the National Intercollegiate Flying Association’s SAFECON competition. Csaszar graduated from Kent State in May 2023 and now serves as a certified flight instructor at the Kent State University Airport.
Kent State President Todd Diacon, Senior Vice President and Provost Melody Tankersley, and university community members will be present to congratulate and honor the three Kent State pilots.
WHEN:
Thursday, July 20
2-3 p.m.
WHERE:
Kent State University Airport
4020 Kent Road
Stow, OH 44224
Parking is available at the airport in the lot next to the FedEx Aeronautics Academic Center building.
MEDIA RSVP:
Members of the media who plan to attend and cover the celebration event are asked to RSVP to Emily Vincent at evincen2@kent.edu or 330-672-8595.
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Photo Caption:
The Flying Flashes, Laura Wilson (left) and Peyton Turner (right), hold their trophies from the 2023 Air Race Classic.