Warbird Information Exchange

On our way home from inspecting our new bomb trailer we stopped in Wichita and spent some time at the Kansas Aviation Museum. For those who don't know, the museum is renovating its building, the Art Deco style 1930's Air Terminal at what is now McConnell AFB. Many of the artifacts are displayed in the terminal and the large pieces are on the apron where airliners once parked. Here are a few photos of some of the military hardware.

These two photos are of the NS-1 (Model 73) Stearman Navy trainer contracted for in 1934 and delivered in '35. The airplane is displayed on the arrival/departure level of the terminal.



The one-and-only Beechcraft Model 73 "Jet Mentor".



This is the WB-47E that was acquired from the OKC fairgrounds last year. Before having a stroke at seeing how the wings were removed, be advised that the museum had a very limited amount of time and money to remove the airplane before it was thrown in the dumpster. It was originally a B-47E-55BW, serial number 51-2387.





The B-52D, 55-094.


Here is some nose art that is self-explanatory:



TV-2, Bureau Number 126583, flown by the FAA for many years as N-151:




F-84F 52-9089:


Scott

At least they saveed that B-47 I bet it could be put back together like a model, just slide some beams in the fuselage, secure them and slide the wings on and secure them from the outside. More than likely that is what will be done if they wanna put the wings back on

The place looks nice compared to when I was there in 2000 for the BirdDog reunion.
I don't have a problem with them cutting the wings off the B-47 if that is what it took to save it. It is an important addition to the museum.

Les

I had a chance to visit that museum a few months ago.


I was totally underwhelmed.
And it was quite sad to see the condition almost all those planes were in. I really expected better of the Kansas Aviation Museum. Would it be too much to put the planes indoors and at least get them out of the elements and stop the aging process?






Where in Oklahoma do you live, Scott?

G.G.,

I don't think the Museum folks have ever had a lot of money to work with. Restoration of the Terminal seems to be going forward, and they are working on cosmetics on several of the outdoor aircraft. I'm not sure if the museum has the backing of the local government and tourism entities, but it appears that the aircraft manufacturers and USAF have helped them with artifact donation. As far as hangar/indoor storage, they don't appear to have any options unless a Bill Gates-type decides to adopt them.

Oh, yeah--we live southwest of BVO.
Scott

Perhaps I was a bit harsh in my wording, because, yes, it did appear they were working and making progress.
And I know hangars/indoor storage is a $$$ issue and probably very unrealistic.

I was born in raised in Liberal, Kansas, home of the Mid America Air Museum (More than 100 aircraft on display) so maybe having such a nice museum so close to home really spoiled me and gave me some unrealistic expectations.
I do travel to Wichita a lot, so hopefully I can keep an eye on the progress they are making at this museum.


BTW, I live just north of AVK.

What ever happened to the Mid-America Air Museum? Isn't that the one owned by a Tommy Thomas?

We haven't been out there in a few years, but I believe the Mid America Air Museum is still up-and-running. I enjoyed our visit and we need to get back out there. Liberal was a HUGE B-24 pilot training base during the war, and if you are able to fly in you can't help but be impressed by the sight of six runways and the associated taxiways.

It's neat that the museum is housed in the former Beech assembly hall. The weekend we were there I visited with one of the former Beechcraft pilots. He had flown one of our trainers on its first hop after rolling off the production line.

It's interesting, Tom Thomas used to base his collection where I live (Frederick, OK) in the 1980's, at that time they called it the "Mid-America Air Group". One story that is still well known around FDR is on June 30, 1985 (his birthday), he flew all 65 aircraft that were in his collection at that time, starting at 6:00 am and finishing up around 4:30 pm. Obviously he had a lot of help getting everything ready to go, and pretty much just made a trip through the pattern and put it back on the ground.

Regards,

Andy

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WWII Airborne Demonstration Team
www.WWIIADT.org

The museum is still alive and kicking. I was there about 3 or 4 months ago.

In fact, my grandfather's '57 Thunderbird is currently on display in a '50s themed Buddy Holly exhibit/memorial:

Here are a couple more:

The Kansas Aviation Museum is still a relatively young museum. I am a volunteer and contributer. We have put together an impressive collection of aircraft (some very rare) in a short amount of time on a shoestring budget. Some of the aircraft (biplanes) are restored but await final assembly and display due to space constraints. These were painstaking restorations conducted by volunteers, sometimes with nothing more than a fuselage frame to start with. There will undoubtedly be a hanger for Doc in the not too distant future. Positive things are in the works. There is a substantial volunteer force now, working on the restoration of the terminal building, airplane projects, and museum activities.

I think that all of us in this forum have the same common goal; warbird preservation. Keep in mind that the majority of warbirds still around today spent decades outdoors before finally getting inside. Step one is to save the airframe from the scrappers, step two is building the hangers. I know of one world class museum that just got their airplanes in a building within the last decade. Please be patient.

The B-52D is a Vietnam Veteran. It arrived in Wichita in the early '70s for the rewing modification but the fuselage had other substantial damage so it was deemed a non-worthy candidate. It became a parts airplane for other B-52's receiving new wings from Boeing. It was set aside for years, then eventually reassembled for the upstart museum. For an outdoor display aircraft, it is very well maintained.

I do not feel that our museum was "hyped" in any way to cause disappointment. Some museums are further along than others, and ours is a very good museum nonetheless. Please visit us and appreciate our efforts.

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Searching for B-29A-55-BN 44-61966 photo and history!

The B-47 team will begin reassembly of the airframe next year. The reason the wings were cut is because if they are unbolted they are nearly impossible to reinstall. This was discovered when the airframes were still young and going through planned depot maintenance. Trying to reinstall the wings involves alignment of the milk bottle fittings; which is pretty much giving the whole airframe a chiropractic adjustment to get them to go in. It takes extensive tooling to be able to do it. So far the team has sourced a set of landing gear, wheels, and tires (all missing). Engineers have worked out the details on the wing splice plates. Cutting the wings and splicing them back together has been done to other B-47 static displays for the same reasons. There exists another B-47 out of our state that has had the wings removed at the fittings and now cannot be reassembled. Last I heard it will be scrapped by the Air Force.

Like it was already said, I am glad to see this saved. It was less than a month away from being turned into beer cans before the museum found out and put together an emergency response team to handle the disassembly, funding, logistics, and move to the Kansas Air Museum.

The airframe is gutted and could never be made flyable anyway. It is missing all of the systems, fuel cells, engines, and wiring. The Air Force really stripped it before they put it up on the pole.

I am excited to see this added to the museum collection to replace the one that was mounted on a pole on Highway 54 (West Wichita) but was moved to be a gate guard at McConnell AFB..

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Searching for B-29A-55-BN 44-61966 photo and history!

Thanks Edward for the clarification and updates to the museum. And welcome to the board Someday I will head up there and to Liberal. Kinda make a round robin trip.

I appreciate the efforts going on there, and I can certainly tell work is being done. As I said above, I think my language was a little harsh in my original post. I understand that almost all work is on a volunteer basis and that everything involved in restoring buildings and aircraft takes major time and major $$$.

I was VERY impressed with the work done on Doc. I got the chance to spend quite a while looking the plane over up close and visiting with the volunteers working on that project. And it's a project I'll continue to keep close tabs on as move closer to the day it will fly.

Thanks for your input, and keep up the good work.


BTW, Sheetmetalhands.... I love it!