First in Flight, Building the Future: Inside the Opening of the Senator Jim Perry Aviation Center for Excellence
“What was once an idea has now become a reality,. A state-of-the-art center that will serve our industry partners and our entire region for generations to come.”
The sound hit you before you even stepped inside.
Behind the ceremonial stage, a set of aircraft engines fired up with the low, rolling thunder that Eastern North Carolina residents have long called the sound of freedom. It rattled the chairs, shook the air, and drew grins across the crowd. Lenoir Community College President Dr. Rusty Hunt had warned the audience that it was coming. He grinned anyway.
On a warm Tuesday morning at the North Carolina Global TransPark in Kinston, hundreds of community leaders, state officials, industry partners, and students gathered for the formal ribbon-cutting of the Senator Jim Perry Aviation Center for Excellence. It was one of the most significant moments in the college’s history and, by the accounts of those who spoke from the stage, the beginning of something larger than a single building.
A Runway for Eastern North Carolina
The Aviation Center for Excellence is a 57,024-square-foot, two-story facility situated directly on the grounds of the North Carolina Global TransPark. The $25 million building includes eight classrooms, eleven maintenance labs, a 13,268-square-foot heated aircraft hangar, flight simulation space, and specialized training areas for avionics, engine work, electrical systems, sheet metal fabrication, and paint operations. It offers programs ranging from short-term credentials to full associate degrees in aviation systems technology, aviation management, and career pilot technology.
The center was years in the making, the product of advocacy, negotiation, and coalition building between state leaders, local governments, and industry partners. At the center of that effort was the man whose name is on the building.
Jim Perry, a Kinston native and Lenoir Community College graduate, served in the North Carolina State Senate from 2019 until his resignation on July 2, 2024. During his tenure, he rose to serve as Senate Majority Whip and co-chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. He was instrumental in securing the $25 million in state funding that made construction possible. The college named the building in his honor, not as a ceremony, but as an acknowledgment of who made the phone calls, sat in the budget meetings, and refused to let the project stall.
The groundbreaking took place in June 2024. By May 2026, the building was complete, the planes were on the tarmac, and students were already enrolled.
More Than Steel and Glass
Randy Smith, Chair of the Lenoir Community College Board of Trustees, opened the ceremony with remarks that set the tone for everything that followed.
“What was once an idea has now become a reality,” Smith told the crowd. “A state-of-the-art center that will serve our industry partners and our entire region for generations to come.”
He called the facility a gateway to careers, innovation, and economic growth, then thanked the coalition of educators, industry leaders, and state officials who helped bring the project to completion.
Dr. Rusty Hunt and the Promise of Staying Home
Hunt spoke carefully and deliberately about what the moment meant for the region and the people it was built to serve.
He recognized architect John Farkas of JKF Architecture, the Greenville-based firm that designed the building, noting that Farkas had received an award from the North Carolina Mason Green Contractors Association for the project that very morning. Clancy and Theys Construction Company built the facility. The Golden LEAF Foundation contributed $1 million toward the project, funding much of the equipment visible throughout the center. Congressman Don Davis helped secure an additional $300,000 in federal support for equipment and training.
Industry partners present included Airbus, Fleet Readiness Center East, flyExclusive, Mountain Air Cargo, Middleton ATP, and Aviation Workforce Solutions. Hunt noted that many students already in the programs had been hired by partners before finishing their coursework.
Then came the announcements.
In partnership with Lenoir, Greene, and Jones County Public Schools, Hunt announced the ACE Academy, a dual enrollment program allowing high school students to take college aviation courses at the center free of charge through the Career and College Promise program, with LCC scholarships available upon graduation.
He then announced expanded articulation agreements with Elizabeth City State University and East Carolina University, allowing LCC aviation graduates to complete four-year degrees without leaving the region through online and hybrid programs at both universities.
The most significant announcement involved flight training. LCC students had long been able to transfer to NC State University for a bachelor’s degree in aviation science, but flight training had to be arranged privately and off campus. Beginning that summer, Hunt announced, qualifying students would be co-admitted simultaneously to LCC and Elizabeth City State University, with ECSU providing flight training directly on the LCC campus. Graduates could then complete their four-year degree through ECSU’s online programs without ever leaving home.
Hunt also described a new technology partnership with East Carolina University. ECU had installed a LoRa, or Long Range Wide Area Network, gateway receiver on the roof of the building, capable of communicating with sensors within a ten-mile radius. The system was already collecting real-time data on sound levels, weather conditions, temperature, and humidity throughout the facility, with plans to expand its applications in partnership with the regional industry.
When Hunt looked past the partnerships and technology, he returned to the students.
“Years from now, people will look at this building and see steel, concrete, and glass,” he said. “But I hope we see something more. I hope we’ll see the student who discovers a career they never thought possible. The young person who realizes they can build a successful life without leaving this community. The parent who earns the credential that changes the future of their family.”
Where the Jobs Already Exist
Tom Hendrickson, Chairman of the North Carolina Global TransPark Authority Board of Directors, offered context that grounded the celebration in economic reality.
Across the TransPark grounds, he pointed out, a major new complex was rising on a 65-acre site. That construction represented the future home of the Fleet Readiness Center East Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul complex, where the U.S. Navy will maintain, repair, and overhaul C-130 aircraft and HH-60 Blackhawk helicopters. The facility would cover approximately 700,000 square feet across multiple structures, representing more than $400 million in investment and more than 400 new jobs, and was slated for completion in the fall of 2026.
The Aviation Center for Excellence, Hendrickson said, was a direct pipeline into that growth.
“LCC has been working hand in hand with Global TransPark tenants to understand exactly what they need and how to fill those needs,” he said. “The students no longer have to leave in search of career opportunities. The jobs are here, and more are coming.”
He praised the model’s flexibility, noting the ability to tailor programs for specific employers like Airbus and FRC East, and called it a competitive advantage for companies looking to expand and find a locally trained, job-ready workforce nearby.
“When the Global TransPark was first envisioned, its leaders dreamed of a place where innovation, education, and industry would come together,” Hendrickson said. “Today, we are seeing that vision become a reality.”
Senator Jim Perry and the Pace of Change
When Dr. Hunt introduced former Senator Jim Perry, the warmth in the room was unmistakable.
“Senator Perry has been a steadfast advocate for community colleges, workforce development, and Eastern North Carolina,” Hunt said. “He understands that education is one of the strongest economic development tools we have. His leadership and belief in Lenoir Community College turned this vision into a reality.”
Perry opened with a moment of personal privilege. He urged anyone of a certain age not to skip colon cancer screenings, thanked his wife, Rebecca, for her support during a difficult health journey, and thanked his daughters and son-in-law for being present. It was a brief, unscripted detour from the ceremony, and it worked precisely because it was unscripted.
Then he turned to the institution that shaped him.
“Lenoir Community College plays an outsized role in my life,” Perry said. “First as a student, then as a graduate, and later as a member of the Board of Trustees.”
He recalled his time on the board of trustees with characteristic self-deprecation. During a vote, he disagreed with then-President Dr. Brantley Briley’s proposed course of action and cast what he believed to be the first recorded “no” vote in the college’s history. His nameplate and parking pass disappeared the next morning. He and Dr. Briley, he noted, went on to become good friends.
“I really believe our society needs to relearn that we can disagree without being disagreeable,” Perry said.
He then spoke plainly about the pace of technological change students entering aviation would face, arguing that advancement was now moving far faster than conventional wisdom suggested. He cautioned that courses taught in a student’s first year would look nothing like what those same students encountered in their fifth.
“It’s incredibly exciting and a little scary,” he said. “But change is the one constant that we’ve all dealt with in life, and it will be the one constant in the future.”
When Perry looked at the building bearing his name, he said he did not see glass and steel.
“I see a hub of future innovation for learning and a home to our next generation of leaders.”
He closed with the directness that had defined his public life.
“Time is finite. What are you going to do with yours? Relationships matter. Never miss an opportunity to tell your family and friends you love them.”
North Carolina Bets on Aviation
North Carolina Department of Transportation Secretary Daniel H. Johnson, appointed by Governor Josh Stein in October 2025, connected the Aviation Center for Excellence to the state’s broader workforce and transportation priorities.
Having traveled extensively across North Carolina early in his tenure, Johnson said community colleges were “the backbone of opportunity for North Carolinians and a valuable resource for our business community.” He praised Dr. Hunt’s leadership and thanked the TransPark team and board for their work.
Johnson positioned the facility within the TransPark’s stated mission to serve as a hub for innovation supporting aerospace, advanced manufacturing, and the military.
“You are delivering on this mission,” he told the assembled partners.
He described the building as an engine for 21st-century jobs and connected the training pipeline to the incoming FRC East operations, noting that the students trained in the center’s labs would become the technicians and engineers supporting military readiness and the state’s aerospace economy.
“North Carolina is first in flight,” Johnson said, “and this center helps ensure we stay there.”
A Message from Raleigh
Governor Josh Stein was unable to attend in person but delivered pre-recorded video remarks played for the crowd.
“This facility represents a launching pad for the next generation of North Carolina’s aviation workforce,” Stein said.
He praised the range of career pathways offered, the ACE Academy’s early college model, and the partnership between LCC and the Global TransPark as a model for connecting students and working professionals to industry resources.
“This center will power the potential of Eastern North Carolina for years to come,” Stein said.
The Runway Remains
After the speeches, the crowd moved to the center of the hangar for the ribbon-cutting. Tours ran throughout the morning, with students stationed throughout the building to answer questions and describe their own paths to the program.
Outside, aircraft sat on the tarmac. Across the field, cranes moved above the rising FRC East complex. The runway, all 11,000 feet of it, stretched toward the horizon.
Perry had described the opportunity clearly at the center’s groundbreaking two years before.
“There’s such high demand,” he said at the time. “The timing is fantastic. It’s going to have a great impact on the growth we’re having out here at the Global TransPark.”
By noon, the speeches were over. The runway remained.
And somewhere beyond the crowd gathered at the ribbon-cutting, another engine started.