What My Dream Is…
By Thomas Nielsen
My name is Thomas Nielsen, I am 11 years old and I will be in 6th grade. I have just successfully completed the requirements for my first rank in the Boy Scouts of America.
My dream is to be a pilot one day. I have a dream of becoming a pilot because aircraft are interesting to see fly, be maintained, crafted, and taking off. A type of pilot I would like to be is a military aircraft pilot. My dream of becoming a military pilot is here because it is interesting to see the design on fighter jets, and how 1 Boeing C-17 can hold several tanks. The other side of my dream is becoming a passenger plane pilot, piloting from small passenger planes, to piloting enormous jumbo jets.
I will achieve my dream by traveling around the world, and while on an aircraft to my destination, I will study the plane I am on. As soon as I get to the airport, I will compare it to another one around the world. But that’s not all, I’ll study future planes that I may operate one day. Going to flight school will also be necessary so I know how to pilot a plane, at least the basics of flying a plane. I would also love to talk to a pilot and get their opinion even before going to flight school.
Education has the most important role of all in making my dream a reality. There is the classroom and books kind of education, and also there is hands on practical training. Even now in elementary school I should be working hard make sure that I have a good start. I have about
10-15 books that are related to aviation. On a cross-country trip I was on last summer, I was also lucky enough to visit two big air museums.
The first one is the Museum of the Air Force in Dayton, Ohio where they have the Enola Gay, which the US used to drop a bomb in Hiroshima in Japan. The other aviation museum is in Chantilly, Virginia and it’s named Udvar-Hazy Center. Amazingly, it had the first space craft to land on the moon, the Apollo 11, which made Neil Armstrong famous. I also saw the NASA Discovery Shuttle, which hauled satellites and helped Hubble Space Telescope missions. That’s me and my cousin under the Discovery Shuttle in the picture.

I also got to see the very first airplane ever made, the Wright brothers aircraft. That one is in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC. These museums teach people about history and aviation.
Once I have attained my dream, I would like to help the world flying supplies across the world to the kids and people who need it. In addition to helping people, I will also teach kids, such as myself, and if trainee pilots need help, I will help them. I’ll fly passenger planes so that people can get to their meeting in Denver on time.
I do love airplanes and I can identify most planes (with a little help from Flightradar 24 and my books) flying above Hillsboro airspace. Sadly I have only been inside airplanes a few times, about 7. I would love it to the ends of the earth if you chose me! You should choose me to be on a stunt aircraft because it will carry on my interest in planes, and I will remember it forever.
Thank you for reading my essay!