History of Wichita, Kansas
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Wichita, Kansas Wichita ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 397,532. The Wichita metro area had a population of 647,610 in 2020. It is located in ...
from its initial settlement in the 1860s to the present day.


Prehistory and exploration

The site at the confluence of the Arkansas and Little Arkansas Rivers has served as a trading center and meeting place for nomadic hunting people for at least 11,000 years. Human habitation in the Wichita area has been dated, in archeological digs, as far back as 3,000 B.C. 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 Native Americans whom he called Quiviras and who have been identified by archaeological and historical studies as the Wichita. By 1719, these people had moved south to Oklahoma, where they met French traders. The first permanent settlement in Wichita was a collection of grass houses inhabited by the Wichita tribe in 1864. They had moved back to Wichita from Oklahoma during the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
because of their support for the Union.


Pioneer cowtown

Pioneer trader
Jesse Chisholm Jesse Chisholm (''circa ''1805 - March 4, 1868) (Cherokee) was a Cherokee fur trader and merchant in the American West. He is known for having scouted and developed what became known as the Chisholm Trail, later used to drive cattle from Texas to ...
, a half-white, half-Native American who was illiterate but who spoke multiple Native American languages, established a trading post at the site in the 1860s, and Chisholm traded cattle and goods with the Wichita tribe at points south along a trail from Wichita into present-day Oklahoma (and eventually into Texas) that became known as the Chisholm Trail, which soon became legendary in Western lore. Chisholm was soon eclipsed in the area by three astute businessmen: commercial buffalo hunters and traders James R. Mead (of Iowa), William Greiffenstein (a German immigrant merchant), and Buffalo Bill Mathewson (not to be confused with
Buffalo Bill Cody William Frederick Cody (February 26, 1846January 10, 1917), known as "Buffalo Bill", was an American soldier, bison hunter, and showman. He was born in Le Claire, Iowa Territory (now the U.S. state of Iowa), but he lived for several years in ...
); these men led the initial commercial development of the area, becoming key landowners of what became the city of Wichita. Hunters, farmers and Native Americans in the area all turned to the newborn tiny settlement as a principal trading center for the area, while Wichita's entrepreneurs began an aggressive sales campaign to lure more settlers (their future customers and tenants) to the area, with the "boosterism" typical of successful early prairie settlements. The city, on the east bank of the Arkansas River, was officially incorporated in 1870. Among the signatories on the town charter was a lone woman, the town laundry operator, Catherine "The Widow" McCarty, whose elder teenage son, after leaving Wichita, would become the infamous gunman,
Billy the Kid Billy the Kid (born Henry McCarty; September 17 or November 23, 1859July 14, 1881), also known by the pseudonym William H. Bonney, was an outlaw and gunfighter of the American Old West, who killed eight men before he was shot and killed at th ...
. Wichita's position on the Chisholm Trail made it a destination for cattle drives headed north to access railroads to eastern markets. The Chisholm Trail ran along the east side of the community from 1867 to 1871. In late 1872 the Wichita and Southwestern Railroad completed a 27-mile branch line from Wichita to the
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The railroad was chartered in February 1859 to serve the cities of Atchison, Kansas, Atchison and Top ...
at Newton. As a result, Wichita became a railhead for cattle drives from
Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
and other south-western points, from which it has derived its nickname "Cowtown." Wichita's neighboring town on the opposite (west) bank of the Arkansas River,
Delano Delano or DeLano may refer to: Places in the United States * Delano, California * Delano, Wichita, Kansas, a neighborhood in Wichita and former community before merging with Wichita * Delano, Minnesota * Delano, Nevada * Delano, Pennsylvania * De ...
, a village of saloons and brothels, had a particular reputation for lawlessness, largely accommodating the rough, visiting cattlemen. The Wichita/Delano community gained a wild reputation, however, the east (Wichita) side of the river was kept more civil, thanks to numerous well-known lawmen who passed through, employed to help keep the rowdy cowboys in line. Among those was
Wyatt Earp Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp (March 19, 1848 – January 13, 1929) was an American lawman and gambler in the American West, including Dodge City, Deadwood, and Tombstone. Earp took part in the famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral, during which l ...
. Following the incorporation of the city in 1870, rapid immigration resulted in a land boom involving speculation into the late 1880s. Wichita annexed Delano in 1880. By 1890, Wichita had become the third-largest city in the state (behind Kansas City and
Topeka Topeka ( ; Kansa: ; iow, Dópikˀe, script=Latn or ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the seat of Shawnee County. It is along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, in northeast Kansas, in the Central Uni ...
), with a population of nearly 24,000. After the boom the city suffered from 15 years of comparative depression and slow growth. '' The Wichita Eagle'', which began publication in 1872, is the city's major daily newspaper. It was founded and edited for forty years by Marshall Murdock (1837-1908), a major player in local and state Republican politics, as well as doubling as postmaster. Wichita reached national fame in 1900 when
Woman's Christian Temperance Union The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is an international temperance organization, originating among women in the United States Prohibition movement. It was among the first organizations of women devoted to social reform with a program th ...
(WCTU) member
Carrie Nation Caroline Amelia Nation (November 25, 1846June 9, 1911), often referred to by Carrie, Carry Nation, Carrie A. Nation, or Hatchet Granny, was a radical member of the temperance movement, which opposed alcohol before the advent of Prohibition. Nat ...
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. Although she had visited all the bars in Wichita the night before, demanding that they close their doors, the
John Noble John Noble (born 20 August 1948) is an Australian actor. He is known for his roles as Denethor in the ''Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy, Dr. Walter Bishop on the science fiction series ''Fringe'', Henry Parrish on the action-horror series '' ...
painting ''Cleopatra at the Roman Bath'' in the Carey House had drawn her particular wrath. An island in the middle of the Arkansas River, named
Ackerman Island Ackerman Island was a sandbar island located in the Arkansas River in downtown Wichita, Kansas, United States. It was located on the north side of the Douglas Street Bridge. History The sandbar started to form in the 1870s, supposedly due to a d ...
, was home to an amusement park and a dance pavilion. The island was connected to the West Bank of the river through a
Work Projects Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, in ...
(WPA) project in the 1930s.


Oil boom

In 1914-1915 oil and gas were first discovered in nearby Butler County. These discoveries form part of the vast
Mid-Continent oil province The Mid-continent oil field is a broad area containing hundreds of oil fields in Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. The area, which consists of various geological strata and diverse trap types, was discovered and e ...
. Several local producers established headquarters, refineries, and retail outlets, in Wichita as it was the nearest large city. Archibald L. Derby (1875-1956) participated in oil booms in Southeast Kansas, Oklahoma, and in 1916 he drilled a successful well in Butler county. He went on to found Derby Oil Company that owned a refinery in Wichita at 21st and Washington Street. and had gas stations throughout the region. In 1955 Derby Oil was acquired by Colorado Oil & Gas, a subsidiary of Colorado Interstate Gas, which became part of
Coastal Corporation Coastal Corporation was a diversified energy and petroleum products company headquartered at 9 Greenway Plaza (Coastal Tower) in Greenway Plaza, Houston, Texas. The company was founded in 1955 by Oscar Wyatt and incorporated in 1955 as Coasta ...
in 1973. John (Jack) Vickers (1891-1940) was another Wichita oil mogul who got his start in the Butler oil fields. Founder of
Vickers Petroleum Vickers Petroleum Company was an oil company founded by John A. (Jack) Vickers, Sr. In 1918, Vickers established a refinery in Potwin, Kansas to process the output of recently discovered oil fields in Butler County. Wichita Vickers basketball ...
, in 1920, he built a refinery in Potwin Kansas about 20 miles northeast of Wichita. In 1934, at 8500 E Central, he built one of the largest mansions (named Vickridge) seen in Kansas up to that time. In 1961 the estate became the new site for the
Kapaun Mt. Carmel High School Kapaun Mt. Carmel Catholic High School, sometimes called Kapaun, is a private, four year, co-educational, secondary school operated by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wichita. It is located in the east side of Wichita, Kansas. The school colors a ...
. By 1917 there were five refineries operating in Wichita. Seven more were built in the 1920s. But only three were still operating at the end of that decade. The Coastal-Derby refinery was the last to close in 1993 with none remaining thru 2010. It was demolished in 2004. In 1925 Fred C. Koch, a chemical engineer, joined a fellow MIT classmate, P.C. Keith, at Keith-Winkler Engineering in Wichita. Following the departure of Keith in 1925, the firm became Winkler-Koch Engineering Company. In 1927, Koch developed a more efficient thermal cracking process for turning crude oil into gasoline which allowed smaller players in the industry to better compete with the oil majors. The larger oil companies quickly sued in response, filing 44 different lawsuits against Koch, and embroiling him in litigation for years. Koch was to prevail in all but one of the suits (which was later over-turned due to the fact that the judge had been bribed). This extended litigation effectively put Winkler-Koch out of business in the U.S. for several years. Koch turned his focus to foreign markets, including the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
, where Winkler-Koch built 15 cracking units between 1929 and 1932. Koch and his family would go on to become the wealthiest residents of both Wichita and the state of Kansas.


"Air Capital of the World"

Wichita's principal industry is aircraft manufacturing, as it has been for several decades. The city claims the title "Air Capital of the World" based on having produced more aircraft than any other city, anywhere—an estimated over 250,000 aircraft in the last 100 years. The city produces approximately one-fifth of U.S. civilian aircraft, and has generally been the world leader in the production of light aircraft and business jets, in addition to substantial production of military and commercial aircraft, and their subassemblies, and related products. In the 20th century, aviation pioneers such as
Clyde Cessna Clyde Vernon Cessna (; December 5, 1879 – November 20, 1954) was an American aircraft designer, aviator, and early aviation entrepreneur. He is best known as the principal founder of the Cessna Aircraft Corporation, which he started in 1927 i ...
and
Walter Beech Walter Herschel Beech (January 30, 1891 – November 29, 1950) was an American aviator and early aviation entrepreneur who co-founded the Beech Aircraft Company (now called Beechcraft) in 1932 with his wife, Olive Ann Beech, and a team of three o ...
began projects that led to Wichita's establishment as the "Air Capital of the World". The aircraft manufacturers
Laird Laird () is the owner of a large, long-established Scottish estate. In the traditional Scottish order of precedence, a laird ranked below a baron and above a gentleman. This rank was held only by those lairds holding official recognition in ...
,
Swallow The swallows, martins, and saw-wings, or Hirundinidae, are a family of passerine songbirds found around the world on all continents, including occasionally in Antarctica. Highly adapted to aerial feeding, they have a distinctive appearance. The ...
,
Travel Air The Travel Air Manufacturing Company was an aircraft manufacturer established in Wichita, Kansas, United States in January 1925 by Clyde Cessna, Walter Beech, and Lloyd Stearman. History The company initially built a series of sporting and tr ...
, Stearman, Cessna,
Mooney Mooney is a family name, which is probably predominantly derived from the Irish Ó Maonaigh, pronounced Om-weeneey. It can also be spelled Moony, Moonie, Mainey, Mauney, Meaney and Meeney depending on the dialectic pronunciation that was angli ...
, and
Beechcraft Beechcraft is an American brand of civil aviation and military aircraft owned by Textron Aviation since 2014, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. Originally, it was a brand of Beech Aircraft Corporation, an American manufacturer of general avi ...
were all founded in Wichita in the 1920s and early 1930s—leading to the city's rise to the nation's highest-volume producer of aircraft by 1929. Under those companies, and subsequently with added aircraft factories of
Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and p ...
, Learjet,
Bombardier Aerospace Bombardier Aviation is a division of Bombardier Inc. It is headquartered in Dorval, Quebec, Canada. Its most popular aircraft included the Dash 8 Series 400, CRJ100/200/440, and CRJ700/900/1000 lines of regional airliners, and the newer CS ...
,
Raytheon Raytheon Technologies Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense conglomerate headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. It is one of the largest aerospace and defense manufacturers in the world by revenue and market capitali ...
,
Culver Culver may refer to: Places United Kingdom *Culver Down, Isle of Wight United States *Culver, Indiana, a town in northern Indiana * Culver, Kansas, a city in north-central Kansas * Culver, Kentucky, an unincorporated community * Culver, Misso ...
,
Belite Belite is an industrial mineral important in Portland cement manufacture. Its main constituent is dicalcium silicate, Ca2SiO4, sometimes formulated as 2 CaO · SiO2 (C2S in cement chemist notation). Etymology The name was given by Törnebohm in ...
, and others, Wichita eventually produced over a quarter-million aircraft, and aircraft manufacturing remains its principal industry today. In 1914 and 1915,
oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...
was discovered nearby and Wichita became a major oil center. The money derived from oil allowed local entrepreneurs to invest in a nascent airplane industry. In 1917 the Cessna Comet became the first aircraft to be built in Wichita. In 1920, oilmen Jacob M. "Jake" Mollendick and Billy Burke invited young Chicago barnstormer and aircraft builder Emil Matthew "Matty" Laird to come to Wichita to build his new airplane design, backed by their money. The Laird Swallow became an instant success, the first successful "commercial" airplane manufactured in the United States; Laird built 43 of them between 1920 and 1923. When Matty Laird returned to Chicago, the Wichita enterprise was renamed
Swallow Airplane Company The Swallow Airplane Company was an early manufacturer of airplanes. History In January 1920, the E.M. Laird Aviation Company Ltd. was started with the purchase of the six-month-old Wichita Aircraft Company, its aircraft and the factory of the Wa ...
.
Lloyd Stearman Lloyd Carlton Stearman (October 26, 1898 – April 3, 1975) was an American aviator, aircraft designer, and early aviation entrepreneur. Biography Stearman was born in Wellsford, Kansas. From 1917 – 1918, he attended Kansas State Coll ...
and
Walter Beech Walter Herschel Beech (January 30, 1891 – November 29, 1950) was an American aviator and early aviation entrepreneur who co-founded the Beech Aircraft Company (now called Beechcraft) in 1932 with his wife, Olive Ann Beech, and a team of three o ...
were both employees of the Swallow Company, but in January 1925 they left Swallow and teamed up with
Clyde Cessna Clyde Vernon Cessna (; December 5, 1879 – November 20, 1954) was an American aircraft designer, aviator, and early aviation entrepreneur. He is best known as the principal founder of the Cessna Aircraft Corporation, which he started in 1927 i ...
to form
Travel Air The Travel Air Manufacturing Company was an aircraft manufacturer established in Wichita, Kansas, United States in January 1925 by Clyde Cessna, Walter Beech, and Lloyd Stearman. History The company initially built a series of sporting and tr ...
, whose airplanes soon outsold Swallow's. Stearman left Travel Air in 1926 to start
Stearman Aircraft Stearman Aircraft Corporation was an aircraft manufacturer in Wichita, Kansas. Although the company designed a range of other aircraft, it is most known for producing the Model 75, which is commonly known simply as the "Stearman" or "Boeing ...
in
Venice, California Venice is a neighborhood of the city of Los Angeles within the Westside region of Los Angeles County, California. Venice was founded by Abbot Kinney in 1905 as a seaside resort town. It was an independent city until 1926, when it was annexed by ...
, and Cessna quit in January 1927 to start
Cessna Aircraft Company Cessna () is an American brand of general aviation aircraft owned by Textron Aviation since 2014, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. Originally, it was a brand of the Cessna Aircraft Company, an American general aviation aircraft manufacturing c ...
in Wichita. In 1927, Stearman relocated his factory back to Wichita. By 1929, at least a dozen more Wichita aircraft manufacturers arose (most producing small—even singular—quantities of aircraft). In 1927, ground on the southeast side of town was purchased to use as the site for the
Wichita Municipal Airport Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport is a commercial airport west of downtown Wichita, Kansas, United States. It is the largest and busiest airport in the state of Kansas. Located south of US-54 in southwest Wichita, it covers 3,24 ...
. However, the Great Depression interrupted construction. The terminal and runways were finished as
WPA WPA may refer to: Computing *Wi-Fi Protected Access, a wireless encryption standard *Windows Product Activation, in Microsoft software licensing * Wireless Public Alerting (Alert Ready), emergency alerts over LTE in Canada * Windows Performance An ...
projects in the 1930s. In the 1940s the Municipal Airport site also hosted the Wichita Army Airfield and Boeing Airplane Company Plant No. 1. In the 1950s the military took full control of the site and named it
McConnell Air Force Base McConnell Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located four miles (6 km) southeast of the central business district of Wichita, a city in Sedgwick County, Kansas, United States., effective 2007-12-20 The airbase was named in ...
. In 1954, civilian airline service moved to the new Wichita Mid-Continent Airport (now known as the
Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport is a commercial airport west of downtown Wichita, Kansas, United States. It is the largest and busiest airport in the state of Kansas. Located south of US-54 in southwest Wichita, it covers 3,24 ...
) on the west side of town. Other airports in Wichita include the
Colonel James Jabara Airport Colonel James Jabara Airport is a public airport located northeast of the central business district of Wichita, a city in Sedgwick County, Kansas, United States. It is named in honor of World War II and Korean War flying ace James Jabara, an ...
and Beech Field. From 1927 to 1929,
Travel Air The Travel Air Manufacturing Company was an aircraft manufacturer established in Wichita, Kansas, United States in January 1925 by Clyde Cessna, Walter Beech, and Lloyd Stearman. History The company initially built a series of sporting and tr ...
, with Walter Beech at the helm, grew to over 600 employees and operated from a huge factory complex constructed a few miles outside the city. Due to so many employees working at such a large complex, it was dubbed "Travel Air City" by Wichita residents. The company merged with the huge
Curtiss-Wright Corporation The Curtiss-Wright Corporation is a manufacturer and services provider headquartered in Davidson, North Carolina, with factories and operations in and outside the United States. Created in 1929 from the consolidation of Curtiss, Wright, and v ...
in the
Roaring Twenties The Roaring Twenties, sometimes stylized as Roaring '20s, refers to the 1920s decade in music and fashion, as it happened in Western society and Western culture. It was a period of economic prosperity with a distinctive cultural edge in the ...
' heyday of company buyouts and takeovers just two months before the Stock Market crash in 1929. Workers were laid off by the hundreds during 1930 and 1931 and by the fall of 1932, the remaining Travel Air employees were let go, the equipment was sold, and the entire Travel Air plant sat empty. By 1928, Wichita's varied aircraft industry was producing the highest volume of aircraft of any city in the United States (927 airplanes that year) and established Wichita as the nation's "Air Capital"—a title officially accorded to Wichita in 1929 (for 1928 production), by the American airplane manufacturers' national
trade association A trade association, also known as an industry trade group, business association, sector association or industry body, is an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry. An industry trade association partic ...
, then known as the
Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce Aeronautics is the science or art involved with the study, design, and manufacturing of air flight–capable machines, and the techniques of operating aircraft and rockets within the atmosphere. The British Royal Aeronautical Society identifie ...
. In sidebar "About Monocoupe Production Numbers". Continuing to produce aircraft in exceptional quantities, until the present, Wichita has never relinquished the title, and eventually began claiming the title "Air Capital of the World", outproducing all other cities in the world in total aircraft production by the late 1960s. In the late 1920s, Wichita University, under engineering professor Alexander N. Petroff, became only the third college in the nation to offer a degree in
aeronautical engineering Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is sim ...
. By the end of the 1930s, the college had extensive facilities, including a wind tunnel. (The school, now
Wichita State University Wichita State University (WSU) is a public research university in Wichita, Kansas, United States. It is governed by the Kansas Board of Regents. The university offers more than 60 undergraduate degree programs in more than 200 areas of study in ...
, eventually expanded to offer master's and doctoral degrees in aeronautical engineering, and other related engineering disciplines. Its facilities expanded to include numerous engineering facilities, including multiple wind tunnels, and in recent decades a research alliance with the neighboring National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR).) In March 1932, Beech quit the Curtiss-Wright Corporation to form
Beech Aircraft Beechcraft is an American brand of civil aviation and military aircraft owned by Textron Aviation since 2014, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. Originally, it was a brand of Beech Aircraft Corporation, an American manufacturer of general aviati ...
, along with his wife Olive Ann, and hired Ted Wells as his chief engineer. The first few "Beechcraft" were built in the vacant Cessna Aircraft plant, which had also closed during the depression; Beech later leased and then bought the Travel Air plant from Curtiss-Wright and moved his factory to this plant. Beech's first aircraft, the Model 17 (later dubbed the "Staggerwing"), was first flown on November 5, 1932. Nearly 100 Staggerwings are still in existence, many in flying condition. However, 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 longest continuously produced aircraft in the world when production ended. Staggerwing production ended in 1946, replaced by general aviation's first successful, fully modern light aircraft, the V-tailed, four-seat, single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza. Approximately 750 were built and sold in the first year, despite a recession and a devastating aviation industry shakeout. In various forms, the Bonanza has now become the world's longest continuously produced aircraft, still in production in a straight-tailed, six-seat version. Other models evolved from the Bonanza, ultimately culminating in the twin-turboprop Beechcraft King Air and
Beechcraft Super King Air The Beechcraft Super King Air family is part of a line of twin-turboprop aircraft produced by Beechcraft. The Model 200 and Model 300 series were originally marketed as the "Super King Air" family; the "Super" designation was dropped in 1996 ...
, the world's most popular turbine-powered business aircraft. The Beech line added imported business jets from Britain and Japan, a military trainer from Switzerland, and also produced military drones. On February 8, 1980, Beech Aircraft Corporation was purchased by the
Raytheon Corporation The Raytheon Company was a major U.S. defense contractor and industrial corporation with manufacturing concentrations in weapons and military and commercial electronics. It was previously involved in corporate and special-mission aircraft unti ...
and later sold to Onex Corp., which renamed it
Hawker Beechcraft Hawker Beechcraft Corporation (HBC) was an American aerospace manufacturing company that built the Beechcraft and Hawker business jet lines of aircraft between 2006 and 2013. The company headquarters was in Wichita, Kansas, United States, with ...
. Major problems followed both takeovers, including troubled developments of the advanced business turboprop
Beechcraft Starship The Beechcraft Starship is a twin-turboprop six- to eight-passenger pressurized business aircraft produced by Beech Aircraft Corporation. Development Development of the Starship began in 1979 when Beech decided to explore designs for a succe ...
and jets, and by late 2012 / early 2013 the company entered bankruptcy proceedings—emerging without its troubled business-jet line, as
Beechcraft Beechcraft is an American brand of civil aviation and military aircraft owned by Textron Aviation since 2014, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. Originally, it was a brand of Beech Aircraft Corporation, an American manufacturer of general avi ...
Corp., focused solely on its popular line of propeller-driven aircraft and military drones. In 2014, Cessna parent company
Textron Textron Inc. is an American industrial conglomerate based in Providence, Rhode Island. Textron's subsidiaries include Arctic Cat, Bell Textron, Textron Aviation (which itself includes the Beechcraft, and Cessna brands), and Lycoming Engin ...
acquired Beechcraft and combined both Cessna and Beechcraft (including the Hawker brand) into a new division known as
Textron Aviation Textron Aviation Inc. is the general aviation business unit of the conglomerate Textron that was formed in March 2014 following the acquisition of Beech Holdings which included the Beechcraft and Hawker Aircraft businesses. The new business uni ...
. After the 1929 stock market crash, Stearman and Boeing were acquired by
United Aircraft and Transport Corporation The United Aircraft and Transport Corporation was formed in 1929, when William Boeing of Boeing Airplane & Transport Corporation teamed up with Frederick Rentschler of Pratt & Whitney to form a large, vertically-integrated, amalgamated firm, ...
(UATC). In 1934, antitrust action broke up UATC, and Boeing was spun off to house all UATC manufacturing subsidiaries west of the Mississippi river, including Wichita's Stearman. That same year, the Wichita plant began production of the successful
Boeing-Stearman Model 75 The Stearman (Boeing) Model 75 is a biplane formerly used as a military trainer aircraft, of which at least 10,626 were built in the United States during the 1930s and 1940s. Stearman Aircraft became a subsidiary of Boeing in 1934. Widely known ...
"Kaydet" Navy and Army - Air Corps primary biplane trainer. After the crash of the Boeing XB-17 prototype in 1935, Wichita banker Arthur Kinkaid (IV National Bank of Wichita) supported Boeing and ensured that the Boeing-Stearman plant would remain in Wichita. By mid-2014, Boeing had wound down its Wichita operations and put its remaining facilities in the city up for sale. The city experienced a population explosion during World War II when it became a major manufacturing center for the
Boeing B-29 The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is an American four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the B-17 F ...
bombers needed in the
war effort In politics and military planning, a war effort is a coordinated mobilization of society's resources—both industrial and human—towards the support of a military force. Depending on the militarization of the culture, the relative si ...
. By 1945, an average of 4.2 bombers were being produced daily in Wichita. For several decades, Boeing was Wichita's (and Kansas') largest private-sector employer, and Boeing-Wichita was Boeing's largest factory complex outside
Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
State, and one of the nation's largest factories of any kind. Wichita saw some of its fastest population growth of the 20th century during the peak of the Cold War when Wichita was the headquarters for the
Boeing Military Airplane Company Boeing Defense, Space & Security (BDS) is a division (business unit) of The Boeing Company based in Arlington, Virginia. It is responsible for defense and aerospace products and services. It was formerly known as Boeing Integrated Defense Systems ...
and home to the
McConnell Air Force Base McConnell Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located four miles (6 km) southeast of the central business district of Wichita, a city in Sedgwick County, Kansas, United States., effective 2007-12-20 The airbase was named in ...
. BoMAC produced all
Boeing B-47 Stratojet The Boeing B-47 Stratojet (Boeing company designation Model 450) is a retired American long- range, six-engined, turbojet-powered strategic bomber designed to fly at high subsonic speed and at high altitude to avoid enemy interceptor aircraft ...
aircraft and 63% of the Boeing B-52 Stratofortresses in Wichita. At various times McConnell Air Force Base hosted the 3520th Combat Crew Training Wing (ATC) and 4347th Combat Crew Training Wing (SAC) B-47 training units, the
381st Strategic Missile Wing Space Delta 1 (DEL 1) is a United States Space Force unit responsible for space training. It runs the Space Force's basic military training, weapons school, and other advanced training courses and exercises. It was established on 23 August 2 ...
that controlled various
LGM-25C Titan II The Titan II was an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) developed by the Glenn L. Martin Company from the earlier Titan I missile. Titan II was originally designed and used as an ICBM, but was later adapted as a medium-lift space l ...
missile silos around Wichita, the
388th Tactical Fighter Wing The 388th Fighter Wing (388FW) is a United States Air Force unit assigned to the Air Combat Command Fifteenth Air Force. The unit is stationed at Hill Air Force Base, Utah. Units 388th Operations Group (388 OG) *4th Fighter Squadron (4 FS) : ...
, 23d Tactical Fighter Wing,
91st Air Refueling Squadron The 91st Air Refueling Squadron is part of the 6th Air Mobility Wing at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida. It operates the Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker aircraft conducting air refueling missions. The squadron was first activated in January 1941 ...
, 384th Air Refueling Wing/Bombardment Wing, and the
Kansas Air National Guard The Kansas Air National Guard (KS ANG) is the aerial militia of the State of Kansas, United States of America. It is, along with the Kansas Army National Guard, an element of the Kansas National Guard. As state militia units, the units in the K ...
184th Tactical Fighter Training Group. Wichita's mid-continental location made it ideal for basing strategic assets, allowing maximum time to react to a Soviet missile attack launched over the north pole or from oceangoing submarines. Several aircraft from McConnell AFB crashed in the city, including: * On March 28, 1956 a
Boeing B-47 Stratojet The Boeing B-47 Stratojet (Boeing company designation Model 450) is a retired American long- range, six-engined, turbojet-powered strategic bomber designed to fly at high subsonic speed and at high altitude to avoid enemy interceptor aircraft ...
, ''51-2175'', of the 3520th FTW suffered an explosion in a bomb bay fuel tank and shed its wings over East Wichita crashing four miles (6 km) NE of the city, killing three crew. * On January 16, 1965 a fuel-laden Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker (''57-1442'', c/n 17513) crashed after an engine failure shortly after takeoff from McConnell. It incinerated an area near the intersection of 20th and Piatt in north-central Wichita, killing 23 on the ground plus the 7 crew members; the largest non-natural disaster in Kansas history. The site of the crash was turned into Piatt Memorial Park. A monument was erected at the park in 2007.. * On March 5, 1974 a Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker (''57-1500'', of the 91st Air Refueling Squadron, 384th Air Refueling Wing) carrying 136,000 pounds of fuel crashed 3,000 feet from the main runway, after it apparently lost power. Two of the seven crew were killed. In 1962, the Lear Jet Corporation was established when the Swiss American Aviation Corporation brought the tooling for building a failed ground-attack fighter to Wichita, with the objective of converting it to a business jet, and opened a plant at Wichita's airport. On February 7, 1963, assembly of the first Learjet aircraft began and the following year, the company was renamed the Lear Jet Corporation. The Lear Jet (later "Learjet") was an instant success, the nation's first "popular" business jet, selling over 100 units within two years, quickly becoming the global generic image of the business jet, and the popular icon of the glamorous, upper-class "
jet-set In journalism, jet set is a term for an international social group of wealthy people who travel the world to participate in social activities unavailable to ordinary people. The term, which replaced "café society", came from the lifestyle of tra ...
" lifestyle—while establishing Wichita as a successful jet-aircraft design center. The company was acquired by a series of investors, particularly Gates Rubber Company which acquired the company in 1967, and renamed the enterprise Gates Learjet. Following three years of suspended aircraft production, the company was acquired in 1987 by a venture firm, Integrated Resources, which renamed the manufacturer Learjet Corporation, and resumed production. In 1990, the Canadian aircraft manufacturing firm
Bombardier Aerospace Bombardier Aviation is a division of Bombardier Inc. It is headquartered in Dorval, Quebec, Canada. Its most popular aircraft included the Dash 8 Series 400, CRJ100/200/440, and CRJ700/900/1000 lines of regional airliners, and the newer CS ...
purchased Learjet. By the end of 1999, Wichita had produced over 2,000 Learjets, and the factory was still producing aircraft as of mid-2017. Development of the Lear Jet stimulated Wichita planemakers Cessna and, much later, Beechcraft, to get into selling business jets: * Cessna launched its successful line of Citation business jets in 1970, with the Cessna Fan Jet 500, later renamed
Cessna Citation The Cessna Citation is a family of business jets by Cessna that started in 1972 with the entry into service of the first model. In the fifty years following the 1969 first flight, more than 7,500 Citations were delivered, forming the largest b ...
I. Though small and slow, it was much safer, easier to fly, and less expensive to purchase and operate than the Learjet, and quickly gained prominence. Stretched versions followed, and eventually produced larger, faster business jets matching or exceeding Learjet performance and capacity. Today, Cessna business jets are the world's most popular, with over 3,000 flying. * Beechcraft, too, sold business jets, but not successfully at first. Eventually, Beech acquired the Mitsubishi Diamond I design from Japan, and later acquired the Hawker Business Jets division of
British Aerospace British Aerospace plc (BAe) was a British aircraft, munitions and defence-systems manufacturer. Its head office was at Warwick House in the Farnborough Aerospace Centre in Farnborough, Hampshire. Formed in 1977, in 1999 it purchased Marcon ...
(producing the Hawker 700), modifying and selling those products successfully under "Beech" and "Hawker" brands. In the 1970s, airplane designer/entrepreneur
Jim Bede James R. Bede (April 17, 1933 – July 9, 2015) was an American aircraft designer. He designed well over a dozen aircraft starting in the 1960s, but a string of business failures kept most of these designs out of widespread use. Bede Avia ...
— an aeronautical engineering graduate of
Wichita State University Wichita State University (WSU) is a public research university in Wichita, Kansas, United States. It is governed by the Kansas Board of Regents. The university offers more than 60 undergraduate degree programs in more than 200 areas of study in ...
who had just developed the
Bede BD-1 The Bede BD-1 was a two-seat, single-engine, low-wing monoplane, the first design of American aeronautical engineer Jim Bede. The BD-1 was designed in 1960 as a kit-built aircraft intended for home assembly by amateur builders. Design goals includ ...
into the American Yankee in Cleveland, Ohio, leading to the popular Grumman-American light aircraft line — returned to the Wichita area to develop and market his
Bede BD-5 The Bede BD-5 Micro is a series of small, single-seat homebuilt aircraft created in the late 1960s by US aircraft designer Jim Bede and introduced to the market primarily in kit form by the now-defunct Bede Aircraft Corporation in the early 19 ...
micro-
kitplane Homebuilt aircraft, also known as amateur-built aircraft or kit planes, are constructed by persons for whom this is not a professional activity. These aircraft may be constructed from "scratch", from plans, or from assembly kits.Armstrong, Kenn ...
in nearby Newton, Kansas. Bede's chief aeronautical engineer was
Burt Rutan Elbert Leander "Burt" Rutan (; born June 17, 1943) is a retired American aerospace engineer and entrepreneur noted for his originality in designing light, strong, unusual-looking, and energy-efficient air and space craft. He designed the recor ...
—who, in the 1980s (with his brother, test pilot
Dick Rutan Richard Glenn Rutan (born July 1, 1938) is a retired United States Air Force officer and fighter pilot, test pilot, and record-breaking aviator who in 1986 piloted the Voyager aircraft on the first non-stop, non-refueled around-the-world flight w ...
) helped Wichita's Beechcraft develop the world's first government-certified all-
carbon-fiber Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (American English), carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers (Commonwealth English), carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-fiber reinforced-thermoplastic (CFRP, CRP, CFRTP), also known as carbon fiber, carbon compo ...
composite Composite or compositing may refer to: Materials * Composite material, a material that is made from several different substances ** Metal matrix composite, composed of metal and other parts ** Cermet, a composite of ceramic and metallic materials ...
airplane, the
Beech Starship The Beechcraft Starship is a twin-turboprop six- to eight-passenger pressurized business aircraft produced by Beech Aircraft Corporation. Development Development of the Starship began in 1979 when Beech decided to explore designs for a succe ...
. In the late 1980s two Boeing 747s were modified at Boeing-Wichita to become
VC-25 The Boeing VC-25 is a military version of the Boeing 747 airliner, modified for presidential transport and commonly operated by the United States Air Force (USAF) as ''Air Force One'', the call sign of any U.S. Air Force aircraft carrying the p ...
s to serve as Air Force One. at Boeing's military aircraft conversion center. In August 1997, Boeing merged with
McDonnell Douglas McDonnell Douglas was a major American aerospace manufacturing corporation and defense contractor, formed by the merger of McDonnell Aircraft and the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1967. Between then and its own merger with Boeing in 1997, it pro ...
. The company relocated the headquarters of the BMAC division to McDonnell Douglas'
St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
facility. In the 1990s, Boeing responded to conflict with labor unions by eventually selling off most of its commercial-aircraft subassembly factory, and its operations, to a newly created subcontractor,
Spirit AeroSystems Spirit AeroSystems Holdings, Inc., based in Wichita, Kansas, is the world's largest first-tier aerostructures manufacturer. The company builds several important pieces of Boeing aircraft, including the fuselage of the 737, portions of the 787 fu ...
(initially largely owned by Boeing, itself), which continued the extensive Boeing jetliner manufacturing operations there—but without the financial burden of the original Boeing labor-union contracts. The facility continues as the supplier of major parts for all Boeing jetliners, including the front end of all Boeing jetliners, and 75% of Boeing's most popular plane, the
Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Boeing Renton Factory, Renton Factory in Washington (state), Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the Boeing 707, 7 ...
, including the entire fuselage of that plane, which is shipped by rail to Seattle for final assembly. Other subassemblies for other Boeing aircraft (particularly engine nacelles), are built by Spirit at the Wichita factory. In the early 21st century, Wichita aircraft manufacturing saw a return to its roots with the development of a small aircraft-manufacturing enterprise,
Belite Belite is an industrial mineral important in Portland cement manufacture. Its main constituent is dicalcium silicate, Ca2SiO4, sometimes formulated as 2 CaO · SiO2 (C2S in cement chemist notation). Etymology The name was given by Törnebohm in ...
Aircraft Corp., at a local private airstrip (the Wichita Glider Port, northeast of town). Belite's initial product was the relabeled single-seat version of the popular
SkyStar Kitfox The Denney Kitfox is a series of small side-by-side, two-seat, high-wing, single engine kit aircraft, designed and originally manufactured by Dan Denney and his company Denney Aerocraft of Boise, Idaho. The aircraft is amateur-built and ...
, a metal-framed and fabric-skinned
light sport aircraft A light-sport aircraft (LSA), or light sport aircraft, is a fairly new category of small, lightweight aircraft that are simple to fly. LSAs tend to be heavier and more sophisticated than ultralight (aka "microlight") aircraft, but LSA restrictio ...
. However, at the start of the century, Boeing-Wichita remained the city's (and the state's) largest single private-sector employer, with about 12,000 workers. The factory built Boeing jetliner subassemblies (including whole fuselages of Boeing's most popular plane, the 737, and nose sections of all other Boeing planes). Labor unrest, however, created friction. A declining economy, followed by the 9/11 terrorist-hijacked airliner attacks, and subsequent war, drove the aviation industry into a depression, and Wichita was among the cities hardest hit. Of the 48,000 Wichita aircraft workers employed in 2000, nearly a quarter—11,000—were laid off within the following two years, with several thousand more scheduled for layoff or furlough. In 2004, following a contentious workers' strike, and claiming economic necessity, Boeing announced it would sell off its commercial aircraft manufacturing operations in Wichita—the bulk of its operations there. In 2005, the factory continued to operate, same as before, but under "
Spirit AeroSystems Spirit AeroSystems Holdings, Inc., based in Wichita, Kansas, is the world's largest first-tier aerostructures manufacturer. The company builds several important pieces of Boeing aircraft, including the fuselage of the 737, portions of the 787 fu ...
"—an entity Boeing created with Toronto-based Onex Corporation—technically a separate entity from Boeing, allowing Boeing to discard its Wichita union contracts and obligations, and force factory workers' wages back down. Eventually, Boeing sold its stake in Spirit, but Spirit retains its role as Boeing's largest subcontractor—while also branching out to support other manufacturers (particularly Boeing's chief rival,
Airbus Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft throughout the world. The company has three divisions: ' ...
) at factories elsewhere, particularly in Oklahoma. In 2006, Spirit became a publicly-traded company, and in 2014 Onex announced it was selling off its remaining stock. Boeing retained ownership of much of the original Boeing-Wichita complex, however, and continued to operate its dwindling Military Division facilities there, with around 2,000 workers, chiefly performing aircraft modifications. Angling for an
Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an ...
contract to replace its own, aging
KC-135 The Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker is an American military aerial refueling aircraft that was developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype, alongside the Boeing 707 airliner. It is the predominant variant of the C-135 Stratolifter family of transpo ...
aerial tanker Aerial refueling, also referred to as air refueling, in-flight refueling (IFR), air-to-air refueling (AAR), and tanking, is the process of transferring aviation fuel from one aircraft (the tanker) to another (the receiver) while both aircraft a ...
s, Boeing promised Wichita thousands of related jobs, if Wichita leaders would pressure Congress and the federal government to give Boeing the contract. Though Wichita leaders complied, and Boeing won the contract, Boeing then promptly announced it would close its remaining Boeing-Wichita facilities, and leave the city permanently by late 2013—ending an 85-year presence in the city—a stunning shock to the city. However, Wichita remains a major manufacturing center for the aircraft industry today, with Textron (Cessna, Beechcraft and Textron Aviation) and Bombardier (Learjet) having major manufacturing centers in town, as well as design and engineering facilities run by
Airbus Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft throughout the world. The company has three divisions: ' ...
, the international Bombardier Flight Test Center, numerous aerospace subcontractors and parts manufacturers, and several aerospace technology training centers, schools and research facilities.


Entrepreneurial hub

Wichita was also a significant entrepreneurial business center during the pre- and post-war period, with the Garvey Organization,
Koch Industries Koch Industries, Inc. ( ) is an American privately held multinational conglomerate corporation based in Wichita, Kansas and is the second-largest privately held company in the United States, after Cargill. Its subsidiaries are involved in the ...
, Coleman,
Mentholatum The Mentholatum Company, Inc. is a maker of non-prescription health care products founded in 1889 by Albert Alexander Hyde in the United States. It was bought out by Rohto Pharmaceutical Co., a Japanese health care company, in 1988. The Ment ...
, White Castle,
Pizza Hut Pizza Hut is an American multinational restaurant chain and international franchise founded in 1958 in Wichita, Kansas by Dan and Frank Carney. They serve their signature pan pizza and other dishes including pasta, breadsticks and dessert a ...
, Taco Tico,
Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers is an American fast-casual restaurant chain based in Wichita, Kansas. Its menu includes steakburgers, Vienna Beef hot dogs, and chicken sandwiches, and the company provides frozen custard with a variety o ...
, and having all been founded in Wichita. (Ironically, White Castle closed all of their restaurants in Wichita in 1938 and has not operated in the state of Kansas after a failed revival attempt in the Kansas City area in the early 1990s.) The entrepreneurial spirit of Wichita led to the creation of one of the first academic centers to study and support entrepreneurship at the
Wichita State University Wichita State University (WSU) is a public research university in Wichita, Kansas, United States. It is governed by the Kansas Board of Regents. The university offers more than 60 undergraduate degree programs in more than 200 areas of study in ...
Center for Entrepreneurship. Davis Manufacturing invented and mass-produced a popular trenching machine in the 1960s—the ''Ditch Witch''—and was later acquired by J. I. Case, who gradually turned the factory towards producing the company's
skid-steer loader A skid loader, skid-steer loader, SSLs or skidsteer is a small, rigid-frame, engine-powered machine with lift arms that can attach to a wide variety of buckets and other labor-saving tools or attachments. Skid-steer loaders are typically four-whee ...
s—which it does today for Case's parent company,
Case New Holland CNH Industrial N.V. is an Italian-American multinational corporation with global headquarters in Basildon, United Kingdom, but controlled and mostly owned by the multinational investment company Exor, which in turn is controlled by the Agnelli ...
(CNH), under both "Case" and "New Holland" names. Another large Wichita industrial facility, Chance Manufacturing became a national leader in amusement park rides, including ferris wheels, and remains active today. Chance has also manufactured trolley-styled busses and miniature trains. In addition to Chance's vehicles, Wichita has been home to Big Dog Motorcycles. In October 1932, orchestra leader Gage Brewer introduced the electric guitar to the world from Wichita using an instrument developed by what would later become known as the
Rickenbacker Rickenbacker International Corporation is a string instrument manufacturer based in Santa Ana, California. The company is credited as the first known maker of electric guitars – a steel guitar in 1932 – and today produces a rang ...
Guitar Company. Recent history has seen increased development in downtown and to the east and west sides of Wichita. In June 2005, Sedgwick County voters approved a sales tax raise to build a new arena downtown to replace the aging
Kansas Coliseum Kansas Coliseum was an entertainment complex in unincorporated Sedgwick County, Kansas, United States. It was located north of Wichita, Kansas, Wichita at the intersection of I-135 and 85th Street North. It hosted sporting events, concerts, show ...
, located north of the city. This is considered by some as a stepping stone to launch new development downtown.


Segregation

The Dockum Drug Store sit-in, in Wichita, was one of the first organized lunch-counter sit-ins for the purpose of integrating segregated establishments in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
. The protest began in July 1958; the Dockum Drug Store, part of the old
Rexall Rexall was a chain of American drugstores, and the name of their store-branded products. The stores, having roots in the federation of United Drug Stores starting in 1903, licensed the Rexall brand name to as many as 12,000 drug stores across th ...
chain, refused to serve African Americans at its lunch counter. Protesters occupied all the seats at the counter, effectively shutting it down. Some days they sat at the counter all day, until the store closed. There were taunts from white counterprotesters. The sit-in ended three weeks later when the owner relented and agreed to serve black patrons, 18 months before the better-publicized
Greensboro sit-ins The Greensboro sit-ins were a series of nonviolent protests in February to July 1960, primarily in the Woolworth store—now the International Civil Rights Center and Museum—in Greensboro, North Carolina, which led to the F. W. Woolworth Comp ...
in January 1960. A -long bronze sculpture, first announced in 1998 at a cost of $3 million, marks the site of the successful sit-in, with a lunch counter and patrons depicting the protest.


Infamous crimes

From 1974 to 1991 serial killer
Dennis Rader Dennis Lynn Rader (born March 9, 1945) is an American serial killer known as BTK (an abbreviation he gave himself, for "bind, torture, kill"), the BTK Strangler or the BTK Killer. Between 1974 and 1991, he killed ten people in Wichita and Par ...
murdered 10 victims in and around the Wichita area. Until his identity was finally discovered by police, he was known as the "BTK killer". Rader was particularly known for sending taunting letters to police and the media. In 2005 a letter that Rader sent on a floppy disc included meta-data that led police to identify and arrest him. Wichita became the scene of a robbery and mass murder in 2000. Brothers Jonathan and Reginald Carr robbed, raped, and killed five people. In August 1976, Michael Soles, an unemployed welder from
Sand Springs, Oklahoma Sand Springs is a city in Osage, Creek and Tulsa counties in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. A western suburb of Tulsa, it is located predominantly in Tulsa County. The population was 19,874 in the 2020 U. S. Census, an increase of 5.1 percent from ...
, set up a sniper position on the roof of the Holiday Inn Plaza, then the tallest building in downtown Wichita. Over the course of an eleven-minute shooting spree, he killed three people and wounded six. The gunman was wounded by police and taken into custody.


See also

* Timeline of Wichita, Kansas


References


Bibliography

{{Wichita, state=collapsed History of Kansas Wichita, Kansas Wichita, KS Metropolitan Statistical Area