Metro Atlanta high schools are training the next generation of pilots and aviation workers as the industry faces a critical shortage

Aug. 19 is National Aviation Day, and the aviation industry has a growing need for more workers.

High schools across metro Atlanta are helping prepare students to fill those jobs in the coming years.

For Linda Minor, becoming a pilot seemed to be written in the stars.

"My dad, at 5 years old, knew he wanted to be a fighter pilot, and he grew up to be a fighter pilot," said Minor, the flight operations instructor at Maxwell High School in Gwinnett County. "At 16, I knew I wanted to fly."

Minor's father and brother flew, and her husband and sons also have their wings. Now, through Maxwell High School's flight operations program, she is teaching other aviation enthusiasts how to reach for the sky.

"I know that a lot of people who don't have an opportunity like this, it takes them a lot more time to be able to get their certification and learn," junior Ava Hill said. "So being able to get the opportunity as a teen is a really good opportunity. It's really important for people to have."

School districts in Fulton, DeKalb and Clayton counties also offer aviation programs.

Students use FAA-approved flight simulators to log time that can count toward earning their pilot certificates.

Graduates have gone on to become commercial and military pilots, engineers at Boeing and Lockheed Martin, and technical operations employees at Delta Air Lines.

Those graduates are entering an industry that needs more workers. Boeing projects that nearly 2.5 million new aviation professionals, including 122,000 pilots, will be needed worldwide by 2045 to keep up with demand.

"I've been thinking about being an airline pilot or a corporate pilot," Hill said.

The industry also needs engineers, cabin crew members and air traffic controllers. In an April report, the FAA said it was seeking to hire nearly 7,000 air traffic controllers over the next three years.

"There are so many careers in aviation. People think, 'Oh, aviation: pilot.' That's the smallest sector of aviation," Minor said. "In Georgia, it's actually one of the biggest employers in aviation in the nation. In the field of aviation, we have people build planes here, we have Gulfstream, we've got Lockheed, we've got people who make components, we've got great air traffic controllers and mechanics."

Minor believes her students have the skills to help meet the aviation industry's growing workforce needs.