1948 Sky Broncos

National Championship Team

WMU College of Aviation Hall of Honor Class of 2016

Successfully defending a national championship title is never an easy feat, but the students of the 1948 Sky Broncos Flying Club accomplished just that. On June 19^th, 1948, the five-man team of John Althouse, Reid Arnold, Loyal Bearss, Richard Kik and Lawrence Tungate earned 1^st Place at the National Intercollegiate Flying Association’s Air Meet held at the Willow Run Airport in Ypsilanti, MI. Flying their Piper J-3 Cub, the team soundly defeated 18 top aviation colleges from across the United States - winning 13 of the 15 trophies awarded at the competition. Earlier in the year, the four-man team of Althouse, Arnold, Bearss and Tungate also won the Michigan Invitational Intercollegiate Air Meet held on April 24^th, 1948 at the Kalamazoo Municipal Airport in Kalamazoo, MI. The group won the state title by defeating Wayne University, Michigan State College and the University of Michigan. Also in 1948, team member Reid Arnold became the first WMU student to be elected President of the National Intercollegiate Flying Association after serving as the Sky Broncos first president.