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The Air Capital Of The World

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In 1928 Wichita began to promote themselves as the “Air Capital.” Most of the population agrees that Wichita is and always will be the “Air Capital of the World.” The way that we built the industry is amazing. Yet there are those few individuals who do believe that we should no longer name ourselves as the “Air Capital.” We have multiple aircraft factories and aircraft is the center of our employment. We have grown our industries and continue to produce more and more aircraft through the decades. By analyzing all the data that was gathered, I will now give a few reasons why Wichita has been named “Air Capital” in the 1920s and why we will keep that title.
Wichita began its journey in the aircraft industry in the 1910’s. Clyde Cessna was …show more content…

Shortly after that, in 1928, “The Air Capital” was Wichita’s new nickname. As Wichita went on to grow, so did the industries. In 1932, Walter Beech and his wife Olive formed Beech Aircraft company. Their first aircraft was the Model 17R also know as the “staggerwing.” It took its first flight in November of that year. The Model 18 “Twin Beech” aircraft was just what the company needed to boom. It turned Beech Aircraft into a huge corporation. The Staggerwing production was ended in 1946 and replaced by the Beechcraft Bonanza. The first airport began its production in 1930 but was not finished until 1935. Its name was The Wichita Municipal Airport. After seventeen years, the Air force built a base and began to use the airport for their own operations. Also in 1935, the “world’s most efficient airplane” began its production. It was named the Cessna Airmaster.
World War II was a huge deal for Wichita 's aviation. The population exploded almost overnight. We had around 70,000 new residents within the span of four years. We were drawing in workers from around the state and even outside the state. We were one of the major manufacturing centers for military aircraft. 4.2 bombers were being produced daily in Wichita by 1945. Ever since then, Wichita’s employment in the aircraft industry has remained high. 40,000 people were employed by aircraft industries in Wichita by the end of 2008. 4,000 more were employed by subcontractors to provide supplies. Surprisingly most

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