As part of its continuing support for youth aviation education projects, Epic Aircraft announced this week at EAA AirVenture it will sponsor the first 2,000 members of EAA’s new Student Membership program. The new initiative to provide kids younger than 17 with their own membership to EAA officially begins in October, but a pre-launch by Epic will provide complimentary charter memberships at this year’s convention in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

The EAA’s new Student Membership is designed to work with the Young Eagles program, which has provided more than 1.3 million children their first flight in a general aviation aircraft. The new membership offers a way to keep participants interested and engaged after their initial introduction to flying.

The Student Membership includes a copy of the high-tech X-Planes flight simulation software, a DVD with great moments from the long history of EAA’s AirVenture fly-ins and access to $100,000 worth of aviation scholarships offered by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Student members can also complete an aviation education tutorial online and qualify for a second Young Eagles flight.

In October when the EAA begins its formal launch of the Student Membership program, the package will have a retail value of $10. Thanks to Epic Aircraft, the first 2,000 kids to take advantage of the program will do so for free.

"The new EAA Student Membership program is exactly the kind of thing we’re interested in at Epic," said the company’s CEO Rick Schrameck. "This is a program all of us in aviation should be supporting, and I hope to see other companies following in our footsteps."

"It’s a great thing what Epic is doing for young people," EAA’s Vice President of Marketing Richard Larson said. "This kind of support from the aviation community is critical to the program’s success."