Martinez Renewable Fuels invests in USS Hornet Aircraft Museum

Community News

A docent (volunteer) from the USS Hornet speaks to local students through the museum’s educational programming. The students pictured here are making gliders to land on the Flight Deck.

 

  • The Martinez Renewable Fuels facility in California donated $10,000 to the USS Hornet Sea, Air and Space Museum.
  • The museum program highlights the science, technology and history behind the ship and allows people to experience it in person.
  • Since 2018, Marathon has given $80,000 to the museum for educational programs.

While Marathon Petroleum’s refinery in Martinez, California, continues its conversion to a renewable fuels facility, so has its investments in the local community. Recently, the Martinez Renewable Fuels team awarded a $10,000 grant to the USS Hornet Sea, Air and Space Museum, in support of the museum’s Step into Technology STEM High School vocational program, which teaches local high school students about the various scientific applications of the different technologies that exist on a WWII-era aircraft carrier.

“The goal of this program is not only to highlight the science and history behind this storied ship, but also to give these students a real-life and hands-on experience of what it was like to operate one,” said Charlotte Rodeen-Dickert, Director of Institutional Advancement at the USS Hornet Sea, Air and Space Museum.

Marathon’s donation will help fund the one-of-a-kind program for up to 1,000 students in Alameda County where the USS Hornet is docked.

“Marathon is proud of our longstanding partnership with the USS Hornet,” said Nichol Carranza, Advanced Community Investments Rep. at Marathon Petroleum. “We share the Museum’s goal of providing students in Alameda County and beyond with educational opportunities they may not otherwise have access to and to ready them for a possible career in the STEM field.”

Since 2018, Marathon Petroleum has given $80,000 to the museum for educational programs, including virtual field trips for students during the pandemic.

 

  • Elementary student learning about the four forces of flight.
  • USS Hornet’s Bridge and Pilot House, located inside of the conning tower. This is where the helmsman, the person who steers the ship, was stationed. The large gold circle is the ship’s steering wheel, and the ship’s accelerator is next to it.
  • USS Hornet hydraulic catapult. The cables behind the red posts were connected on one end to the large horizontal brass cylinder containing a piston, and to an aircraft up on the flight deck on the other end. When the pressure was released in the brass cylinder, it pulled the cables with tremendous force, flinging the aircraft along the flight deck and into the air at a high initial speed.
  • USS Hornet’s engine room.
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