Theme by nostrich.
Welcome Aboard. KC Airline History Museum.
Human beings have been fascinated with flying since the beginning of written history. From Daedalus and Icarus to DaVinci, the dream of flight has captured imaginations for thousands of years.
There is something so spellbinding about the image of man soaring through the air that it compels every generation to sing, talk, dream and write about flight. The Greeks had Hermes with his winged sandals; we have Superman (and the Lockheed Super G Constellation).
The early days of commercial air travel were exciting times. It was quite literally a new frontier, full of romance and possibility.
In the 1930’s TWA was on the cutting edge, testing experimental aircrafts and offering one of the first coast-to-coast trips by plane (with an overnight stop in Kansas City). By 1946, TWA had gone global and was flying a transatlantic route with the sleek and sophisticated Lockheed Constellation, or “Connie” for short.
A Connie could cross the U.S. in less than 7 hours, and had a top speed that was unmatched even by military fighter planes. It was an aircraft that would make the winged gods of mythology proud. An aging Orville Wright took his last flight in a Connie and noted that the plane’s wingspan exceeded the distance of his first flight!
The advent of jet technology meant extinction for the elegant Connie, and eventually for TWA.
You can tour a fully restored and flight-ready Lockheed Super G Constellation at the Kansas City Airline History Museum. A tour guide will take you through the Connie and several other historic airplanes that are housed in the enormous hanger, sharing intriguing facts and tidbits along the way.
These awesome planes are undoubtedly the museum’s main draw, but their collection of artifacts and memorabilia from the glory days of TWA is also worth a good look.
As technology advances, so does the scope of our dream. Who knows, in 50 years we may have a museum dedicated to space tourism.
For evoking the allure and adventure of human flight, the Kansas City Airline History Museum is high on my list of hidden gems.
