Wichita, Kansas is the Air Capital of the World. The claim seemed spurious until we visited the Kansas Aviation Museum. Tens of thousands of aircraft have been manufactured here; hundreds have been designed here. We picked up a map of current and historic factories, but did not do that tour. (Although our aeronautical engineer grandson showed us a few.)
I was surprised to learn that the Waco CG-4A glider was made here (and in Kansas City). The Waco was my dad’s transportation on D-Day. We learned last year that the glider was shipped to Europe as a kit (In the Army Now, Part 2).
The museum is housed in the old Wichita Airport terminal.
Art Deco terminal interior.
Photo of WW2 assembly work.
Lots of WW2 bombers were made here.
Inquiring engineers like to see how things work – like by hand cranking landing gear open.
Inquiring engineers are also fascinated by test models like this one for radar footprint.
This engine for a Beech drone was made by McCulloch (the chain saw manufacturers) from 1955 to 1972.
This drone from Boeing never made it past the prototype stage in the 1980s (shown with wing folded).
Link trainer made using organ bellows to control pitch, roll, and yaw. 10,000 were made during WW2; over 500,000 pilots were trained on them.
In 1947, returning WW2 pilots could pick up this plane for $1995. Many did.
Famed travel blogger photographing a photograph accompanied by aeronautical engineer.
