Kansas Aviation Museum, Aviation museum in Wichita, United States.
The Kansas Aviation Museum is an aviation museum housed in the former terminal building of Wichita's old municipal airport, displaying aircraft and equipment from across the history of flight. The building is two stories tall and retains much of its original 1930s Art Deco design, making the structure itself part of what visitors come to see.
The terminal was built in 1934 through a federal public works program and served as the main airport for Wichita for several decades. When the city opened a new airport in the 1950s, the old terminal continued operating in a reduced role before eventually becoming a museum in the 1990s.
The museum pays particular attention to the role of women in aviation history, with displays dedicated to pilots and engineers who are rarely mentioned elsewhere. Walking through the galleries, visitors can see personal objects and photographs that bring these stories close.
The museum sits on the south side of Wichita and is easiest to reach by car, with parking available on site. Allow at least a couple of hours to see the indoor displays and the aircraft parked outside on the grounds.
Wichita was for many years one of the top cities in the US for aircraft manufacturing, and several of the planes on display at the museum were actually built nearby. This connection between the city's factory floors and the exhibited aircraft gives the collection a local thread that most aviation museums do not have.
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