CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A large delivery touched down on the runway of Marshall University’s Bill Noe Flight School Thursday afternoon.
“We have a brand new Cirrus SR20 coming directly from the factory,” Bill Noe Flight Instructor and Safety Director Brendan Laughton said. “It’s coming from Knoxville, it should be coming in soon, it’s exactly like all of the other planes we have here, but nice and shiny, brand new plane for us.”
Students and staff gathered at the Charleston-based flight school near West Virginia International Yeager Airport to welcome in the brand new aircraft, and a water cannon salute from the 130th Airlift Wing Fire Department greeted it upon its landing. 
This now makes the school’s seventh aircraft to join its fleet.
Laughton said the plane comes with the best safety features in the industry for the students to learn aviation with.
“It’s great, it’s a great way to serve the people of West Virginia who want to learn to fly, it’s a technically advanced airplane, it has the best avionics that money can buy in it, and it’s the best way to stay safe here in the mountains, as well,” he said.
He said the flight school currently has 5 Cirrus planes and 1 Piper Seminole.
Laughton said they had to add the new plane to the fleet as the flight school is growing in enrollment and they needed to accommodate more students.
“As we enroll more students and more people become interested in aviation in West Virginia we have to add more to the fleet to meet that demand,” Laughton said.