Cessna, Beech, and Stearman are all airplane manufacturers that had their beginnings in Wichita.
We went to visit the Kansas Aviation Museum in search of some of that history. There were numerous displays depicting the evolution of aviation and we enjoyed our visit.
The Museum is located at the old airport terminal building which also housed the old control tower.
It was a beautiful building that fit your mental image of what old time airline passengers must have experienced at the beginning or end of their first airplane ride. This internet photo shows what it looked like.
Inside were many interesting displays.
They had a beautifully restored Stearman. They found it in a scrap yard.
After bringing it to their restoration hangar, they cleaned and straightened the airframe.
The next step was to find and overhaul an engine.
The final product looked like it just rolled off the assembly line back in 1931.
The control tower at the top of the building gave a great view back to the original Stearman factory, and all around the airport including the static museum displays.
Static Display
When we left Wichita, we headed to Dodge City. When we got there, we realized we were too late in the season and most of the shops were closed.
We walked around and Suzie met Wyatt Earp.
She also saw James Arness who was here because the old TV show Gunsmoke was filmed here.
From Dodge City, we headed on to Grand Junction, Colorado. The drive through the Rockies was beautiful. We lucked out and had dry roadways but a beautiful dusting of snow.
The trip through Colorado was beautiful and put us into Grand Junction in anticipation of going back to the Yampa Spa.
We hope you get a chance to get out there and see some of our great country and we will keep you posted on our travels.
Tom & Suzie
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