Lafayette Aviation FBO at Historic Purdue University Airport Joins Phillips 66® Aviation
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., November 10, 2011 – Serving the airport where Amelia Earhart prepared for her round-the-world flight attempt, Lafayette Aviation has joined the Phillips 66® Aviation-branded dealer network.
Lafayette aviation is the sole fixed base operator at the 81-year-old Purdue University Airport, a national historic site and the second busiest airport in Indiana. The FBO, owned by Jeff Pittard, participates in all Phillips 66 Aviation dealer programs, including the WingPoints® Rewards Card that rewards pilots, plane owners, flight schedulers and dispatchers for fuel purchases.
“Lafayette Aviation is known for expert aircraft maintenance, and we’re proud to have them as part of our Phillips 66 Aviation network,” says Bruce Youtsey, Regional Account Manager, Phillips 66 Aviation. “The airport is stepped in aviation legacy, so it’s appropriate that one of aviation’s original innovators, Phillips 66, is now fueling flights there.”
An hour northwest of Indianapolis, Lafayette Aviation provides oxygen service, flight training, hangars, and aircraft rental, in addition to a pilot’s lounge and passenger terminal.
Aviation Pioneer Wiley Post Connection
With Lafayette Aviation now a Phillips 66 FBO, the Purdue University Airport has come full circle, so to speak, with one of the industry’s legendary companies. In 1935, altitude pioneer Wiley Post – whose record-setting flight attempts were funded by Phillips Petroleum founder Frank Phillips – descended from the Indiana skies to make an emergency landing at the Purdue airport.
Post’s breath-stealing landing was recounted in “The Story of Purdue Engineering” by H.B. Knoll:
(The spectators) saw, actually, a landing made with such skill that they could hardly believe their eyes. Post looked like a man from Mars in his stratosphere suit and demanded of student fliers who rushed to his plane, “Get me out of this.” About 40 wing nuts had to be loosened before they could remove his helmet.
For more information about Lafayette Aviation and Purdue University Airport, visit www.lafayetteaviation.com, or call toll free (877) 435-9524.
Or visit phillips66aviation.com.
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About Phillips 66 Aviation
For 84 years Phillips 66 Aviation has been making and supplying fuel for aviation. Phillips 66 Aviation supports the nation’s largest branded dealer network. Currently, Phillips 66 Aviation supplies jet fuel and avgas to a network of 775 Fixed Base Operations. More information is available at www.phillips66aviation.com. Phillips 66 is a trademark of ConocoPhillips Company or one of its subsidiaries.