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Spartan School of Aeronautics & Technology

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Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology (Spartan) is a private for-profit aviation college in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was originally established to provide pilot and technicians for Spartan Aircraft Company but outlived its parent company and continues to train pilots and mechanics into the 21st Century.

William G. Skelly, a Tulsa oilman and owner of Spartan Aircraft Company, founded the Spartan School in 1928. Initially, the purpose of the school was to promote sales of aircraft manufactured by the company. The school was located initially across Apache Street from Tulsa International Airport.

During the early 1930s, Skelly pledged his share of Spartan Aircraft Company as collateral for a loan from J. Paul Getty, but Skelly's finances became overextended during the Great Depression. As a result, Getty obtained control of Spartan Aircraft, including the Spartan School in 1935. In 1942, Getty personally took over management of Spartan Aircraft and its school.

The Spartan School was activated as a U. S. Army Air Corps (USAAC) facility on August 1, 1939, as an advanced civilian pilot training school to supplement the Air Corps' few flying training schools. The Air Corps supplied students with training aircraft, flying clothes, textbooks, and equipment. The Air Corps also put a detachment at each school to supervise training. Flying training was performed with Fairchild PT-19s as the primary trainer. The Air Force also supplied several PT-17 Stearmans and a few P-40 Warhawks. Spartan furnished instructors, training sites and facilities, aircraft maintenance, quarters, and mess halls.

Students from the Royal Air Force entered the school on June 7, 1941. The U. S. Army Air Forces officially designated Spartan as a British Refresher School.

In 1943, the school reorganized into a College of Aeronautical Engineering, School of Flight, School of Mechanics, School of Meteorology, School of Communications, and School of Instruments.[6] In November 1943, the school was selected by the Department of State and the Civil Aeronautics Administration as a training facility for the Inter-American Aviation Mechanic Training program. The first class under this program included 67 students from 12 Latin American countries.

Spartan Aircraft Company reorganized after World War II, renaming itself as Spartan Aero Repair in 1946. It ceased to produce aircraft, though it continued to operate the school. For the next 15 years the parent company made Spartan Trailers instead of aircraft. It closed the Tulsa manufacturing plant in 1961 and renamed Minnehoma Insurance Company. The Spartan tradename was sold to the Spartan School. In 1967, the former Spartan interests were bought by Automation Industries, Inc., who sold them to National Education Corporation, the parent company of National Education Center, Inc. in 1972.

In 1997, National Education Corporation became a subsidiary of Harcourt General Corporation.

In 2004, Spartan School of Aeronautics changed its name to Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology to represent its current offering of college degree programs and technology diversity.

Spartan Aviation Industries, Inc. was formed in 2005 by Spartan's management team and was purchased from Harcourt General Corporation.

In 2013, Spartan Education Industries Inc, was formed and acquired the college from Spartan Aviation Industries, Inc.

In 2014, Spartan acquired the Crimson Technical Institute, an Airframe & Powerplant focused college located in Inglewood, California. The Crimson Technical College was founded in 1930 as The California Flyers Inc. and eventually became Northrop University and then Northrop Rice Aviation Institute of Technology (NRAIT).

On March 31, 2015, Crimson Technical College became an additional campus location of Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology. In April 2016, Spartan College acquired Redstone College in Broomfield, Colorado.

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