Welcome To Wichita SAFeDATA

Wichita (pronounced /`w?t??t??/), also known as the Air Capital of the World, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas, as well as a major aircraft manufacturing hub and cultural center. In July of 2006, CNN/Money and Money magazine ranked Wichita 9th on its list of the 10 best big cities to live in the US. The city is home to six major aircraft manufacturing companies and McConnell Air Force Base. Wichita is located in South Central Kansas on the Arkansas River, and is the county seat of Sedgwick County. It is also the home of a National Weather Service Forecast Office which serves portions of central, south-central, and southeast Kansas.

The city`s populus was 344,284 at the 2000 census, and it was estimated to be 357,698 in the year 2006, making it the 50th largest in the US. The Wichita Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), which encompasses Sedgwick, Butler, Harvey, and Sumner counties, has a 2004 estimated populus of 584,671 persons residing in 245,159 households, making it the 82nd largest MSA in the US. The Wichita-Winfield Combined Statistical Area also includes Cowley County and has an estimated populus of 618,641.

The site on the two rivers has served as a trading center for nomadic peoples for the last 11,000 years. The area was visited by Francisco Vásquez de Coronado in 1541, while he was in search of the fabulous "cities of gold." While there, he encountered a group of Indians whom he called Quiviras and who have been identified by archeological and historical studies as Wichita Indians. By 1719 these people had moved south to Oklahoma, where they met French traders. The first lasting settlement in Wichita was a collection of grass houses inhabited by the Wichita Indians in 1863. They had moved back to Wichita from Oklahoma during the Civil War due to their pro-Union sentiments. The city was officially incorporated in 1870. Shortly thereafter it became a railhead destination for cattle drives from Texas and other southwestern points, from whence it has derived its nickname of "Cowtown." It rapidly gained a wild reputation, and had numerous well known lawmen pass through, employed to help keep the rowdy cowboys in line. Among those lawmen was Wyatt Earp.

Wichita reached national fame in 1900 when Woman`s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) member Carrie Nation decided to carry her crusade against alcohol to Wichita. On December 27 of that year she entered the Carey House bar in downtown Wichita and smashed the place with a rock and a pool ball. She had visited all the bars in Wichita the night before and demanded that they close their doors. However, the painting by John Noble of Cleopatra at the Roman Bath in the Carey House had drawn her particular wrath.

Travel Air with Walter Beech at the helm grew to the point of employing over 600 workers and working in a huge factory complex constructed from 1927 to 1929. Employing so many workers at such a large complex and being a few miles outside the city limits it was tagged "Travel Air City" by Wichita residents. The company merged with the huge Curtis Wright Corporation in the Roaring Twenties` heyday of company buyouts and takeovers just two months before the Stock Market crash in 1929. Workers were laid off by the 100`s during 1930 and more so in 1931. By the fall of 1932 all workers were let go in Wichita, equipment was sold and the entire Travel Air plant sat empty.

In March 1932 Walter quit Curtis Wright to form Beech Aircraft with his wife Olive Ann and hired Ted Wells as his chief engineer. The first four or 5 "Beechcraft" were built in the vacant Cessna Aircraft plant which was also closed during the depression. Beech later leased and then bought the Travel Air plant from Curtis Wright and men, machinery, and an airplane or two were moved from the Cessna plant. The first aircraft was the Model 17, later dubbed the "Staggerwing" which was first flown on Nov 5, 1932. The aircraft that would propel the small company into a huge corporation was the Model 18 "Twin Beech," of which thousands were built from 1937 to 1969. The Staggerwing production ended in 1946 with approximately 750 built and a few more assembled from parts in 1947. The Staggerwing production was replaced by the Beechcraft Bonanza, although there are still nearly 100 Staggerwings in existence, most in usable condition.