Wichita's Legacy of Flight PDF Download

Author: Jay M. Price
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 9780738531809
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 132

View

Book Description
Known as the "Air Capital of the World," Wichita, Kansas, has been continuously associated with aviation longer than any city in the world. The city's inventive and entrepreneurial spirit made an early mark on the aviation and aerospace industries. From the first hot air balloons floating over the wheat fields to the major aviation corporations that still call the city home, Wichita has been associated with the wonder of flight, which celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2003. The images in this book document the evolution of flight and its subsequent effect on the cowtown that dared to dream it could become an international center for aviation.

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780981518206
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

View

Book Description
This book commemorates Wichita's role as Air Capital of the World. It takes readers from the early birds and barnstormers to the pioneers and entrepreneurs who established dozens of aircraft and associated factories in the 1920s. The story continues with the founding of Cessna, Beechcraft and Stearman (which became Boeing Wichita, then Spirit AeroSystems) and the massive build-up during World War II. Robust post-war growth got another boost when Bill Lear came to town and launched the business jet revolution with his Learjet. Today Wichita remains at the center of global aviation design and manufacturing with Textron Aviation, Spirit AeroSystems, Bombardier Learjet, Airbus and many dozens of smaller aviation manufacturers, suppliers and support organizations.What made Wichita the Air Capital? Flat prairies resembled one enormous landing field. Southwesterly winds added extra thrust to get and stay aloft. Farming and small manufacturing provided a legion of imaginative, industrious problem-solvers. Local boosters latched onto and promoted anything that flew. The city's central location provided an ideal refueling stop for coast-to-coast airmail routes. And oil generated a class of savvy, starry-eyed entrepreneurs who both used aircraft and had money to invest. Wichita brought it all together. The people. The promise. The planes.On Sept. 2, 1911, Albin Longren became the first person to build and fly an airplane in Kansas. His pusher-type biplane lifted off from a hayfield with a four-gallon gas tank and "flight instruments" that consisted of a pocket watch and barometer. The first plane built in Wichita rolled out of production in 1917, when Clyde Cessna assembled his Comet. Wichita's first commercial aircraft, the Swallow, came from the E.M. Laird Airplane Co. in 1920. By 1928, Wichita was general aviation's manufacturing grand central, producing 120 airplanes a week - a quarter of all U.S. output. A Chamber of Commerce Air Capital logo contest celebrated the city's 16 aircraft manufacturers, six aircraft engine factories, 11 airports and dozen flying schools. Wichita produces more airplanes - almost 300,000 to date - and offers more skilled aviation workers than any other city. Aviation forms Wichita's heritage and future.

Author: D. W. Carter
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1625845081
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 191

View

Book Description
The little-known story of a major catastrophe in a 1960s African American community: A “commendable, if unsettling, account.” —Richard Kluger, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Simple Justice On the cold Saturday morning of January 16, 1965, a U.S. Air Force KC-135 tanker carrying thirty-one thousand gallons of jet fuel crashed into a congested African American neighborhood in Wichita, Kansas. When the fire and destruction finally subsided, forty-seven people—mostly African American children—were dead or injured, homes were completely destroyed and numerous families were splintered. As shocking as it may sound, the event was seemingly omitted from the historical record for nearly fifty years. Now, historian D. W. Carter examines the myths and realities of the crash while providing new insights about the horrific four-minute flight that forever changed the history of Kansas. Includes photographs

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Aeronautics
Languages : en
Pages : 1064

View

Book Description
Two-volume collection of case studies on aspects of NACA-NASA research by noted engineers, airmen, historians, museum curators, journalists, and independent scholars. Explores various aspects of how NACA-NASA research took aeronautics from the subsonic to the hypersonic era.-publisher description.

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 1070

View

Book Description

Author: Victoria Foth Sherry
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 9780738577173
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 132

View

Book Description
Wichita, a city of entrepreneurs, offered an ideal home for Middle Eastern Christians who started arriving in the 1890s. Initially identifying themselves as Syrians, they operated as peddlers across southern Kansas and northern Oklahoma. Peddling rapidly gave way to wholesale, grocery, and dry goods companies. Patriarchs such as N. F. Farha and E. G. Stevens established themselves in local business and civic circles. Primarily Eastern Orthodox, the Lebanese established two churches, St. George Orthodox Church and St. Mary Orthodox Christian Church, that became focal points of community life. After World War II, entrepreneurs responded to new opportunities, from real estate to supermarkets to the professions. In recent decades, an additional wave of immigrants from war-torn Lebanon has continued the entrepreneurial tradition.

Author: Steve A. Larsen
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1439636923
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 132

View

Book Description
Beginning from its earliest days as an empty parcel of pasture that became a major hub airport for transcontinental air travel to its present use as the busiest refueling operation in the U.S. Air Force, the slice of land known as McConnell Air Force Base is inextricably connected to aviation to nearly the dawn of manned flight. Its military history began in 1941 with the arrival of the Air National Guard, and the base grew to a multifaceted operation that extends air power globally through intelligence and air refueling missions performed by its three partner units: the 22nd Air Refueling Wing, the 184th Intelligence Wing, and the 931st Air Refueling Group. This book offers a glimpse into the military history of McConnell Air Force Base through many rarely seen or previously unpublished images drawn primarily from the repository of the 22nd Air Refueling Wing Office of History and the Kansas Aviation Museum.

Author: Roger L. Ringer
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1439668493
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 176

View

Book Description
Kansas has tales as extraordinary as its plains, although the stories behind the legends are sometimes lost to time. Discover the history of the state's world-class violinist, homemade airplane and alleged volcano. Iola's Mad Bomber blew up the town's saloons after a hangover. The bulletproof and most "extinctest" creature lurked in sinkholes outside Inman. Hunters in Stafford County learned to leave out enormous quantities of food for local hermit Pelican Pete. Join author Roger Ringer as he delves into these and other facts behind the myths of the Sunflower State.

Author: Vanessa Whiteside
Publisher: Reedy Press LLC
ISBN: 1681063573
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 156

View

Book Description
Wichita, aka “Doo-Dah,” is a midsize city with attractions that easily rival the nation’s largest metropolises in entertainment value. Fun awaits for all who come to discover it! 100 Things to Do in Wichita Before You Die is a bucket-list book filled cover to cover with timeless destinations and lesser known places. Dig into the burgeoning arts scene with tips for the First Friday Gallery Crawl or the Tallgrass Film Festival. Find out the story behind the 44-foot-tall Keeper of the Plains statue in downtown. Root, root, root for the home team, the Wichita Wind Surge at Riverfront Stadium. Outdoor activities, delicious dining, shopping, concerts, and a thriving arts scene scratch the surface. As they say, “Wichita is what you make it,” and around every corner is an experience waiting for you. Wichita native and travel writer Vanessa Whiteside is your personal guide to her favorite places in her much beloved hometown. Crack the spine on this book and choose an adventure in the city!

Author: Jay M. Price
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 9780738539713
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 134

View

Book Description
In 1915, workers struck oil at a well in Butler County, Kansas, called Stapleton #1. Over the next several years, civilian and military demand for oil transformed what had once been the farm towns of Augusta, Towanda, and El Dorado (pronounced El Dor-AY-do in local parlance) into petroleum communities. Risk-taking entrepreneurs supported drilling and exploration that brought wealth to some and loss to others. Teams of geologists, using what were still novel and experimental techniques, fanned out across the prairie to find the right places to drill. Workers found employment that was hard and dangerous but offered excitement and opportunity. Families of those workers set up new lives in company towns such as Oil Hill and Midian. Drilling, refining, and related industries supported a wide range of activities. Oil money financed the budding aviation industry in neighboring Wichita, which literally launched the resources from under the ground into the sky. While the petroleum industry changed in the years that followed, the Butler County oil boom has lived on in the companies, the people, and the very landscape of the region.