Students at B.C. Rain High School celebrated with Alabama State Rep. Barbara Drummond (D-Mobile) Monday, after she secured $350,000 in funding from the state for the school’s aviation program.

“We’ve got an extraordinary aerospace program here, that will feed Airbus for our students to go on and become workable adults in our community,” Drummond said Monday.

Drummond, who is the ranking member on the House Education Policy Committee and House Ways and Means Education Committee, secured the funding from the state’s Education Trust Fund. The money will be used to hire a professional instructor to assist students at the school in constructing an airplane, Mobile County Public School System spokesperson Rena Philips said. It will be used for other initiatives as well.

B.C. Rain was the first high school in Alabama where students fully constructed an airplane. The school works with Tango Flight, a Texas-based organization that teaches students how to build an airplane from scratch. Tango Flight also works at Gulf Shores High School and will be bringing their program to Satsuma High School next year.

Rain has had the “Rain Academy of Aviation and Aerospace” since 2013 and built their first plane in 2020. The program is part of MCPSS’ “Signature Academy” program, where each high school in the system has a vocational training program and students can choose which to attend. Other “signature academies” include the “Bryant Academy of Coastal Studies” at Alma Bryant High School in Bayou La Batre and the “Montgomery Academy of Biomedical Sciences” at Mary G. Montgomery High School in Semmes.