Ricci Foundation Helps Able Flight, Program Graduate Soar Higher | Aviation International News

Training and Workforce

Ricci Foundation Helps Able Flight, Program Grad Soar

Foundation donates Sky Arrow sale proceeds and matching funds to Able Flight

Elizabeth K. Ricci and Sam Mahoney with the Sky Arrow adaptive airplane

By Amy Wilder • Writer

November 25, 2025

The Ricci Family Foundation sold an adaptive Sky Arrow aircraft to an Able Flight graduate and donated the proceeds—along with a matching contribution—to Able Flight’s training programs for people with physical disabilities. The aircraft, which the Ricci Foundation originally loaned to Able Flight in 2015, was designed with hand-controlled flight systems that allow pilots with limited lower-body mobility to fly independently.

Samuel Mahoney, a 2019 Able Flight graduate, purchased the Sky Arrow. After a fall that cost him the use of his legs, he had learned to fly in the same aircraft. Mahoney plans to base the airplane at his home airfield near Green Bay, Wisconsin, and continue the organization’s mission “on a grassroots level” by introducing others with physical disabilities to aviation at local events and regional gatherings, including EAA AirVenture.

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