Ernest W. Maurer, Ph.D.

Dr. Maurer is the recipient of the FAA’s Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award for “50 years of exemplary aviation flight experience, distinguished professionalism, and steadfast commitment to aviation safety.” As Orange Coast College’s Professor Emeritus of Aviation and Space, he has taught aviation and space courses at the college level since 1978. Dr. Maurer was one of the first proponents of offering space courses at the college level, when he foresaw how GPS and the glass cockpit of NASA’s Shuttle Orbiter, would spinoff to today’s commercial and general aviation flight deck displays and flight management systems. He developed and taught numerous online and in-person aviation and space courses as an adjunct associate professor of Aviation in the graduate MAS program for Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University from 1999 until 2019. He is an active pilot who owned the same Cessna R172 for over 21 years and has been flying since 1969. Dr. Maurer is the holder of a Commercial certificate-Airplane SE Land & Sea, Multi-engine Land, Instrument Airplane, Glider; Rotorcraft-Helicopter, Cessna Citation CE-500 rating, FEX(w), and Remote Pilot (sUAS). Dr. Maurer is a Certified Flight Instructor (CFII & MEI) and holds Advanced and Instrument Ground Instructor ratings. He is the author of The Dream Is Alive: Space Flight and Operations in Earth Orbit (Geosync, ©1991).