Laughlin Air Force Base STEM Expo Draws 1,300 Students, Inspires Future Aviators

More than 1,300 students and community guests converged on Laughlin Air Force Base on March 27 for the base's second bi-annual STEM Expo, an event built around hands-on access: T-6 and T-38 cockpit walkthroughs, T-6 flight simulators and a SHOCKWAVE VR 4D experience that put students inside aviation careers rather than simply describing them.

The 47th Flying Training Wing organized the expo as part of the 2026 Fiesta of Flight, drawing students and teachers from San Felipe-Del Rio CISD and Brackettville ISD into exhibits spanning aviation, engineering, cybersecurity and military medicine. Del Rio High School's robotics team, Team 4063 TriKzR4Kidz, staffed its own exhibit alongside Laughlin Airmen, the F-35A Lightning II Demonstration Team, U.S. Border Patrol and Department of the Army recruiting teams, giving students a concentrated look at STEM fields operating right inside Val Verde County.

Master Sgt. Michael Kent, the communications squadron operations flight chief who coordinated the expo, said he observed "a great deal of genuine interest from students throughout the expo." A Living History exhibit displaying historical Air Force uniforms and artifacts ran alongside the career-facing displays, grounding the day's programming in the institution's longer story.

Col. Tyler Ellison, commander of the 47th FTW, said the event was an opportunity to inspire "soon to be engineers, scientists and pilots." The base's interest in that outcome is direct: Laughlin's civilian hiring and long-term workforce pipelines run through the same school districts whose students were working the simulator controls on March 27.

Families interested in future Laughlin outreach and community STEM programming can track upcoming Fiesta of Flight events and base announcements through the 47th Flying Training Wing's public affairs office and the base's official website.