Things to Do in Kansas City: The Aviation History Museum

Remember those old black and white pictures of your grandparents descending from an airplane onto the tarmac at some exotic destination? Or the old movies with the stars, cigarette in hand, gracefully gliding down similar steps to adoring fans? If you do remember, and would like to step inside the world they inhabited for just a while, visit the Airline History Museum, at the old Kansas (Charles Be Wheeler) Downtown City Airport. It's a really fun thing to do -- and a great activity for the entire family-- while visiting Kansas City.

Here sit three rare antique airliners of days gone by, a DC-3, A Martin 404, and a Super Constellation or "Connie".

There you can visit the museum exhibits, which consist of three rooms each dedicated to a different theme, and then step into the hanger behind and take a walk onto history and a tour through three historical passenger liners.

When I arrived at the Airline History Museum, I was pressed for time. I actually had to catch a modern jet flight at the new and modern Kansas City Airport in two hours. So I was prepared to take the supersonic tour and breeze through about 80 years of aviation history in a half hour or so.

But my newly added tour companions had a different idea. They were determined to get their money's worth by extending the tour for at least half a day. Seconds before my private tour of the planes was to start, a woman in pig tails (at 50) and a lumbering hulk of a man appeared out of nowhere. She looked like Rebbecca of Sunny-brook farm, and he like an amiable double for Frankenstein, dressed all in black.

I had quickly made my way through the three rooms of the museum, pausing briefly to read about Charles Lindbergh and his being present at the dedication of the old airport, then at a display of log books and items from the early days of mail express, and then, in a case, a six foot section of the tri-motor plane that was torn from the Ford Tri-Motor that Knute Rockne, the famous Notre Dame Foot ball coach, died in. A dissected radial propeller engine hunkered in one corner of a room, and if you had any ideas about being a do it yourself repair guy on this, you could forget it.

Another room was dedicated entirely to flight attendants. In your parents day they were stewardesses and in your grandparents day, stewards, as the early "flight attendants" were male.

Soon I was joined with my tour companions and our guide, and we threw the door back and entered the hanger.

The first thing to catch your eye is the polished aluminum of the DC-3, which is backed into one corner and undergoing restoration. I had seen a glimpse of the old bird through a partially opened hanger door while parking my car.

This DC-3 was built in 1941 and delivered to Transcontinental and Western Airlines (TWA), in Kansas City that same year, according to our guide. Unlike many DC-3's, this one was not conscripted for military service during World War II. It's a rare bird indeed, as it is one of the few existing 24-passenger 8 window DC-3's left in the world, according to the Airline History Museum web site.

The DC-3 is the latest restoration effort of volunteers associated with the Museum. Eventually, the plane will be restored to flying condition. Some of the older volunteers and members, many of whom were affiliated with TWA (Kansas City was TWA headquarters for many years), had actually logged time flying the old DC-3. The plane was rescued from the New Mexico desert, so it was a welcome homecoming for an old friend.

During the restoration it was determined that the entire aluminum skin had to be replaced, so in a tray aside the airplane are small squares of the old airplane skin that you can buy for a dollar, with the funds going toward the ongoing restoration. I purchased two squares, so I can now say I own a piece or two of a DC-3.

Off to the side was a stubby old commuter plane, the Martin 404. Only 103 of these two engine planes were built, and anybody who flew short hops between cities in the 1950, especially on Eastern Airlines, which purchased the majority of the planes, flew on a Martin. This plane was more restored than the DC-3, and we were able to enter through the tail (the only way), and walk up the aisle of aviation history.

It was here that I first became aware of the preponderance of questions being tossed at our guide by my female tour companion. She had been rapid firing question to our sometimes bewildered guide, whose only response sometimes was, "That's a really good question, and nobody has really asked that". She was a private pilot. He boyfriend, a Brit, was in charge of photographing Ms. Rebbecca Pilot in every possible position relative to the airplanes.

While going up the stairs of the Martin, he lagged behind with me and, exasperated, muttered softly, "She's a handful. 'S amazing we've lasted this long". I replied that she was, and it was.

The Super Constellation was next. She was a real star, literally --and has even been in several movies, including the "Aviator", with Leonardo DiCaprio starring as Howard Hughs, and also Jim Carrey's "Ace Venturea: When Nature Calls."

In 1986, though, the "Connie" was a derelict hulk in Arizona. It was rescued by Kansas City volunteers, many of whom had worked for TWA, and in eight weeks made airworthy and flown, like "Flight of the Phoenix", out of the desert and to Kansas City's historical old airport.

As I inched towards the Connie, which was outside the hanger on the tarmac, Ms. Pilot talked and talked and talked, and broke off talking only long enough to direct Mr. Brit to take another picture of her posing as a flight attendant on the exit steps of the Martin.

Finally, we climbed the metal steps to the interior of the Constellation. This is a large plane, the last propeller job before jets took over. The Super Constellations were in service with the airlines from 1945 to 1978, according to Wiki.

The interior of this Connie, the "Star of America" has been fitted to look like a typical passenger plane of the time, even though this plane only saw service as a cargo plane. Oddly, the first class compartment is in the rear of the plane. An elaborate embroidered map is above the first class seating on both sides of the plane. It was rescued by a TWA employee years ago, and was donated to the Star of America. Perhaps as a hold over from the day of rail, there are sleeping bunks in first class as well. Curtains hide the presumably well off and slumbering passenger from the traffic down the narrow aisle.

Our guide flipped the armrest ashtray lids back and forth and said that he gets questions from younger visitors about what the little hatches are all about. Of course, in the flying hay day of the Super Constellations, cigarette smoking was a necessary accessory for glamour.

Over all, the cabin of the Connie looked like the bad interior of a 1950's lounge, with a green paint scheme and the horizontal lines that reminded me of various doctors waiting rooms of my youth. However, in the 1950's, this was state of the art. Remember, folks, this Connie still flies, and makes the rounds of the air shows across the country, including the mother of all shows, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

The small navigators station behind the cockpit reminded me of how far we've come as far as navigation goes. Modern aircraft no longer have navigators, but when the Connie was cruising at 350 mph cross country, the navigator took a modified sextant --same as used by sailors crossing the seas in wooden boats-- an stuck it up a tube on the roof of the plane. When this plane was rescued and flown back from Arizona, they piloted by compass and following well known roads.

Finally, I had to break away from my tour, just as Ms. Pilot was striking a pose beneath one of the huge Rolls Royce propeller engines. Mr. Brit was dutifully snapping her picture. I left hoping to never end up with her as the captain of a plane I was flying on, given how distracted she was by the smallest things.

I breezed through the gift shop, which contains model airplanes (including the Star of America), and raced off to catch my own flight.

Charles B. Wheeler Airport is now used only for general aviation, but is a working airport. The planes of the Airline History Museum are housed in a real working hanger. Restoration is an ongoing process, and tours of the antique airplanes must be done with a guide. The three rooms of the museum, though, are self guided. For hours and information, see the web site, Airline History Museum.