Compton teen makes history by flying plane across the country

Kimberly Anyadike reportedly flew a single-engine Cessna plane from Los Angeles to Newport News, Virgnia, according to KTLA News in Los Angeles. Anyadike stopped several times along the way to the east coast, but she completed the flight and returned home to a hero's welcome at Compton's Woodley Airport.

"I wanted to inspire other kids to really believe in themselves," Anyadike told the press after the flight.

Anyadike was reportedly accompanied by an adult safety pilot and by Levi Thornhill, an 87-year old former Tuskegee Airman who served during World War II. She wanted to use the flight to honor the famed Tuskegee Airmen for their service during World War II and she met with dozens of the original members of the Tuskegee Airmen during her stops along the way. The Airmen autographed her plane.

"They left such a great legacy. I had big shoes to fill," Anyadike said. "All they wanted to do was to be patriots for this country. They were told no, that they were stupid, that they didn't have cognitive development to fly planes. They didn't listen. They just did what they wanted to do."

Anyadike also made a stop in Gary, Indiana, the birthplace of Michael Jackson, and she posted news about it on her Facebook page. She learned to fly in an after-school aviation training program for at-risk youth, according to KTLA.

The historic flight comes five months after crew members from Atlantic Southeast Airlines entered the record books as the first all-black female flight crew in U.S. history. 

Anyadike says she never remembers a time in her fifteen years she wasn't interested in flying, and explains that her passion for aviation began with a 20-minute demo flight at Tomorrow's Aeronautical Museum, the flight school and youth mentoring center in Compton that eventually trained her.

Anyadike worked her way up to pilot lessons by washing airplanes and performing other tasks. The well-rounded Anyadike has a flair for adventure and spent five years as a junior lifeguard at Venice Beach, where she learned how to surf, according to her Facebook page.

She attended the Lula Washington Dance Academy, where she took ballet, hip-hop and tap dance classes. And she learned how to read music at her church, and is learning how to play piano, violin and guitar. And she's already taking college classes in Los Angeles and hopes to attend Stanford, Yale or Harvard University when she graduates from high school in 2012. And when she's not busy with all that, she volunteers in her free time.

She wants to become a cardio-vascular surgeon with a pilot's license.