Located at the Greenville Downtown Airport, Runway Park is the perfect combination of fun and education for children of all ages. The park features an aircraft themed playground, part of a Boeing 737 airplane, an airport hangar that can be rented out and its newest addition, 17 educational signs.
“Almost 900 children toured our airport last summer,” stated Joe Frasher, Airport Director of the Greenville Downtown Airport (GMU) in South Carolina. “People of all ages and genders are very interested in learning about aviation and our main terminal facility just can’t handle the number of people that want to visit. This coupled with the fact that our industry predicts that many career jobs will be widely available in the future, is why we were inspired to create Runway Park with an educational emphasis. When thinking about careers in aviation, most people think of pilots, if an individual doesn’t want to be a pilot, then our industry is often dismissed. We want people to know that there are many more employment opportunities that they can consider. These are just two of the reasons why we have created, designed and installed these unique learning stations throughout our park.”
The 17 signs took over two years to design and produce. The signs cover topics that include careers in aviation, how runways are numbered, features of an airport, air traffic control, parts of aircraft, how planes achieve flight, why aviation is important, weather and some aviation history. The South Carolina Aeronautics Commission, South Carolina Aviation Association, Michelin and Lockheed Martin sponsored the sign project.
The GMU staff worked with Pannier to produce the 17 Fiberglass Embedded panels and Double Pedestal exhibit bases. Pannier’s panels were perfect for the South Carolina weather and the Double Pedestal exhibit bases allow for easy visitor viewing.
“We took notice of some great looking signs that Pannier produced for Conestee Nature Park, which is also in Greenville. The staff there highly recommended Pannier, so we went with them and have been very pleased with the signs and Pannier’s great service”, stated Lara Kaufmann, Public Relations Director, Greenvile Downtown Airport.
The signs can be used by the general public for free whenever the park is open. “We have over 400 children scheduled to take a guided park tour this summer. In addition to seeing the signs, they will have the opportunity to climb inside of a real aircraft that was donated to Runway Park”, Frasher said. “We have also ordered kid friendly weather instruments that will be incorporated into their educational visit.”
Contact Pannier for more information.