Boeing has been a fixture in the Wichita aerospace industry since 1929. Here’s what makes this site tick
BY SUSAN CALBECK
| Above: Two employees work on final panel closures for a B-52H modification in Wichita, Kan., where Boeing built 467 B-52 bombers between 1953 and 1962. Boeing Wichita has had a role in modernization and modification of the bomber for many years. |
In September 2003, more than 200,000 people attended the Wichita Aviation Festival, a celebration of the 100th anniversary of powered flight. The anniversary is especially meaningful to many of the attendees because it would be hard to imagine what this city of 344,000 in central Kansas would be without this extraordinary invention, the airplane, and all that it made possible.
Wichita’s aviation roots run deep. The foundation laid almost 80 years ago by the early aviation innovators and visionary leaders