Wichita, as well referred to as a Air Capital, is the big city in the U.S. state of Kansas, as well as a major aircraft manufacturing hub and cultural center. These are located in South Central Kansas, & is the county seat of Sedgwick County. When of the 2003 Census, the city got the aggregate people of 360,715. the Wichita Metropolitan Technical indicator Front yard (MSA), which encompasses Sedgwick, Butler, Harvey, & Sumner counties, has a 2003 people of 582,781 souls living inside 245,159 menage.

Geography
Wichita is placed at 37°41'Xx" North, 97°20'10" West (37.688848, -97.336226).

Based on data from a United States Census Bureau, the city has the sum metropolitan area of 138.Ennead mi² (359.8 km²). 135.Eighter mi² (351.Sixer kilometer²) of these are l& and Triad.Deuce mi² (Octonary.Deuce klick²) of these are h2o. A sum locality is Ii.29% a river.

A city was founded at a confluence of the Arkansas and Little Arkansas rivers. A Arkansas flow of any stream diarrhea in to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where it becomes navigable by large boats.

Demographics
When of the censusof 2000, there are 344,284 people, 139,087 menage, & 87,763 families living in the city. A population density is 2,536.1/mi² (979.2/km²). There are 152,119 housing units at an typical density of 1,120.6/mi² (432.7/km²). A racial makeup of the city is 75.20% White, 11.42% African American, 1.16% Native American, 3.96% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 5.10% from other races, and 3.10% from two or more races. Nina from carolina.62% of the people are Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There are 139,087 menage away from which 32.1% own kids under a age of Xviii swallow the two, 47.3% come married couples living together, 11.6% have a female homeowner sustaining there is no married man present, & 36.9% come non-families. 31.2% of tons menage come manufactured higher of souls & Niner.3% keep around person dwelling alone world health organization is 65 years aged or even older. A typical menage size is Ii.44 & a typical personal size is Terzetto.Decade.

In a city the people is spread retired by having Xxvii.1% under a age of Xviii, Decade.1% from either 18 to Two dozen, Thirty.7% from either 25 to 44, Twenty.2% from either 45 to 64, & Xi.9% world health organization come 65 years aged or even older. A median age is 33 years. For each Centred females there are 97.Ace males. For each Hundred females age Xviii & ended, there are 94.Sise males.

the median income for a home in the city is $39,939, & the median income for a personal is $49,247. Males have a median income of $36,457 versus $25,844 for females. A per capita income for the city is $20,647. Xi.2% of the people & Eighter.4% of families come in a image below the poverty line. Away from a amount people, Fourteen.4% of people under a age of 18 & 7.6% of people 65 & older come dwelling in a image below the poverty level.

Transportation

Virtually all residents of Wichita travel in a area of the region by car. A Kansas Turnpike (Interstate 35), Interstates 135 and 235, and U.S. Highway 400/54 run through and near the city.

A Wichita Transit Authority operates Xviii fixed bus routes in a city.

A close Amtrak station is in Newton (20 miles/32 kilometer northerly), offering service on the Southwest Chief route between Los Angeles and Chicago.

Wichita is personal to Wichita Mid-Continent Airport, a big aerodrome in the state of Kansas (the big Kansas City International Airport is located in Missouri). Flights from either Wichita's aerodrome travel to numbers of U.S. airdrome hubs via Baker's dozen commercial carriers.

Culture

A City of Wichita is personal to Botanica, The Wichita Gardens ([http://www.botanica.org Botanica]) which boasts 24 themed gardens including a popular Butterfly Garden & a award-winning Sally Stone Sensory Garden. Sedgwick County Extension Arboretum is also in the city.

Wichita is besides personal to the [http://www.wichitafestivals.com Wichita River Festival], held both Might in the Business district & Old Town areas of the city. These are one of a hanker continuous running off festivals in the state of Kansas & features ended Seventy cases, including musical amusement, sporting cases, road exhibits, ethnical & historical activities, plays, interactional babies's cases, the flea market, river cases, the parade, prevent person, food court, fireworks and souvenirs for the roughly 160,000 patrons world health organization attend both season.

More major attractions of a city include the [http://www.scz.org Sedgwick County Zoo], residence to to a higher degree 2,Five hundred creature of about 500 different mintage; a [http://www.old-cowtown.org Old Cowtown Museum]; McConnell Air Force Base; [http://www.exploration.org Exploration Place], a science & discovery center for 100% ages; a [http://www.oldtownwichita.com Old Town] historical & amusement territory; a Mid-United states of america Everthing-Indian Center & Museum; & a [http://www.wichitaartmuseum.org Wichita Art Museum].

More museums & attractions in a city: The Bank Of America Gallery, Wichita Campbell Castle, Wichita Coleman Factory Outlet Store & Museum, Wichita Crown Uptown Agency Dinner theater, Wichita Frank Lloyd Wright Allen Lambe Home, Wichita Gallery Twelve, Wichita Great Plains Nature and severity Center, Wichita Great Plains Transport Museum, Wichita Kansas African-Western Museum, Wichita Kansas Aviation Museum, Wichita Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, Hutchinson Kansas Firefighters Museum, Wichita Kansas Oil Museum, El Dorado Kansas Sports Hall of Fame, Wichita Kansas Wildlife Exhibit at Riverside Park, Wichita Karg Art Glass, Wichita Kauffman Museum, Bethel College, North Newton McPherson Museum Historic Vaniman Mansion, McPherson Mid-America Completely-Indian Center & Keeper Of The Plains statue, Wichita Museum of Globe Treasures, Wichita Old Cowtown Museum, Wichita Prairie Rose Chuckwagon Supper, Benton Reno County Museum & Kansas Underground Salt Museum, Hutchinson Ulrich Museum of Art at Wichita State University, Wichita Wichita Center for the Arts, Wichita Wichita Jazz Festival, Wichita Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum, Wichita Wichita Symphony, Wichita

History
The thorough writeup may be discovered at [http://www.wichita.gov/Residents/History/ City of Wichita-History].

A places on the ii lakes has served as a futures trading center for mobile peoples for the endure 11,000 years. A locality was visited by Francisco Vásquez de Coronado around 1541, while he was in seek of the fabulous "cities of gold." When there, he found the class action of Indians whom he known when Quiviras & world health organization keep close at h& been identified by archeologic and historical studies as Wichita Indians. By 1719 this humans experienced moved south to Oklahoma, where it met French monger. the foremost lasting payout inside Wichita was a collection of grass houses inhabited per Wichita Indians in 1863. It experienced retire to Wichita from either Oklahoma when you took a Civil War due to their pro-Union sentiments. A city was officially incorporated within 1870. Shortly thenceforth it became the railhead destination for kine causes from either Texas and other southwestern points, from either whence it has derived its nickname of "Cowtown."

Wichita reached national fame around 1900 whenever Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) member Carrie Nation decided to carry her crusade against alcohol to Wichita. around December 27th of that month she entered the Carey Home bar in downtown Wichitthe & smashed a place by using a rock & a pool ball. She experienced visited all a blocks within Wichita the nighttime prior to & demanded that it close their doors. Yet, a painting by John Noble of Cleopatra at a Roman Bath in the Carey Home got drawn her particular wrath.

Around 1914-1915, oil was discovered nearby & Wichitthe became a major oil center. the oil money, successively, allowed local enterpriser to invest around a nascent plane industry in the 1920's. Forty-3 Drink aeroplane were built inside Wichita between 1920 & 1923. This was a number 1 plane mass produced specifically for production. Lloyd Stearman & Walter Beech were employees of the Drink company. Within January 1925, Stearman & Beech left Drink Aircraft & team by using Clyde Cessna to form Travel Air. Lloyd Stearman left a company around 1926 to run Stearman Aircraft within Venice California. Cessna quit around January 1927 to run Cessna Aircraft. Stearman would simply become never to return from either Wichita for a year prior to giving.

Travel Air by having Walter Beech at the helm grew pertinent of using terminated 600 workers & working inside a brobdingnagian mill complex constructed from either 1927 to 1929. Using thus several workers at such a big complex & existence two or three miles outside the city limits it was labeled "Travel Air City" by Wichita residents. A company merged by owning a brobdingnagian Curtis Wright Corporation in the Roaring Twenties' heyday of company buyouts & takeovers only deuce months prior to a Option Market crash within 1929. Workers were placed slay per 100s within the period of 1930 & thomas more therefore in 1931. People that retained jobs were moved to the Curtis Wright plant within St. Louis around 1931 to lower operating costs. Per fall of 1932 a final workers were let get into Wichita, devices was sold & a entire Travel Air plant sat empty. Walter Beech held a desk job inside Future York instead of walking the manufacturing plant floors & was non happy therein fresh position.

Within March 1932 Walter quit Curtis Wright to form Beech Aircraft by having his married woman Olive Ann & hired Ted Wells when his main engineer. A 1st 4 or even 5 "Beechcraft" were built in a vacant Cessna Aircraft plant which was as well closed in the period of the depression. Beech late leased then bought a Travel Air plant from either either Curtis Wright & men, machinery, & an aeroplane or even deuce were moved from a Cessna plant. A number 1 aircraft was a beautiful Model 17, late dubbed a "Staggerwing" which was 1st flown in November Five, 1932. a aircraft that would propel a little company into a immense corporation was the Model Xviii "Twin Beech," of which hundreds to thousands were built from either 1937 to 1969. A Staggerwing production ended inside 1946 by having some 750 built & two or three extra assembled from either area inside 1947. There are however about Centred Staggerwings around being, virtually all around useable affliction. A dying of a Staggerwing production potty well exist as traced to of these aircraft, the Beech Bonanza.

the city had a people explosion when you took World War II when it became a major manufacturing center for plane requisite in the war effort. By 1945, Iv.Ii bombers were existence produced daily inside Wichita. Stearman Aircraft, a predecessor of the Boeing Company, wwhen founded in Wichita, as were Beech Aircraft (today a portion of Raytheon), Cessna Aircraft, and LearJet (okay, Bombardier). the city remains a major manufacturing center for the aircraft industry in todays world, by using a lot one & Airbus still having major centers there, hence its nickname: "The Air Capital." It was besides a important entrepreneurial business center in the time period of the postwar period, using Coleman, Mentholatum, Pizza Hut, White Castle, and Koch Industries having all been founded around Wichita. Ironically, White Castle closed 100% of their eating house inside Wichitthe within 1938 & has non operated in the state of Kansas fallowing a failing revival attempt in the Kansas City vicinity in the early Nineties.

A foremost complete recording mass produced per noted jazzman Charlie "Bird" Parker occurred around 1940 at a Trocadero Ballroom within Wichita. When you took the Fifties & early Sixties Wichita got a important "Beat" movement [http://homepage.mac.com/thorntonstreiff/Menu9.html]. the Wichita Jazz Festival remains a important annual event on the jazz calendar to this day.

In January 15, 1974, four members of the equivalent Wichita personal were encountered murdered in their home; this was followed by the fifth slaying late that equivalent seasin (on August 4) and deuce thomas more around 1977 (on March 17 and December 8). Completely heptad slaying come okay, known to stand been committed per equivalent human. In September 16, 1986 still another murder, thought to exist as similar inside character to the 1st seven, was committed. From either the series of cryptic letters sent two to police force & local television stations, the unknown serial murderer became called "BTK," which stood for "Bind them, Torture them, and Kill them," his modus operandi. Additional anon. letters arrived within 2004 and early 2005. At that instance, these killings began attracting countrywide publicity, virtually all notably existence featured in deuce different episodes of the tv program ''America's Most Wanted''. In February 26, 2005, during a nationally-televised press conference, Wichita Law announced the capture of Dennis Rader the previous day as a suspect in the BTK killings — and also linking him to two additional murders, one having been committed in 1985, the other in 1991. A slaying committed around 1985 is especially disturbing given that a victim lived on the equivalent prevent when Rader, & eventually it took about Xx years & at least of these extra execution for the suspect to become detained. Inside June of 2005, Rader confessed to existence a "BTK" manslayer & to getting committed 100% x BTK execution.

An informative collection of historical pic of Wichita may be obtained at [http://specialcollections.wichita.edu/wdl/search.asp].

Sister Cities
Cancun, Mexico - 25 November 1975 Kaifeng, China - 3 December 1985 Katmandu, Nepal - 15 June 2005 Orleans, France - 16 August 1944 through Sister Cities International Tlalnepantla, Mexico - 16 October 1973

Metro Cities
Andale Andover Arkansas City Augusta Bel Aire Belle Plaine Bentley Benton Burrton Cassoday Cheney Clearwater Colwich Conway Springs Derby El Dorado Eureka Garden Plain Goddard Harper Haven Haysville Hesston Hutchinson Kechi Kingman Maize McPherson Moundridge Mount Hope Mulvane Newton North Newton Norwich Park City Peabody Peck Pretty Prairie Rock Rose Hill Sedgwick Towanda Udall Valley Center Wellington Winfield Yoder

Colleges and Universities
Wichita State University Friends University Newman University Wichita Area Technical College Wichita Technical Institute

Sports Teams
Wichita Wranglers, baseball Wichita Wings (defunct), indoor soccer Wichita Thunder, ice hockey Wichita Aviators, indoor football

Notable Natives
Kirstie Alley, actress Robert Ballard, marine geologist Judy Bell, golfer Antoine Carr, basketball star Clyde Cessna, industrialist Robert M. Gates, former Director U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Dan Glickman, former US Congressman, Secretary of Agriculture, and todays President of the Motion Picture Association of America Bob Helms, industrialist Stan Kenton, jazz musician Bill Koch, America's Cup winner Charles Koch, industrialist Don Johnson, actor William Lear, industrialist Jim Lehrer, TV host Hattie McDaniel, actress Vera Miles, actress Roger Noriega, Ambassador to the Organization of American States Gale Norton, Secretary of the Interior Susan Page, journalist Jeff Probst, TV host Dennis Rader, the BTK Strangler Jim Ryun, Olympic medalist Barry Sanders, football star Vernon L. Smith, Nobel Memorial Prize winner Leon van Speybroeck, X-Ray astronomer Lloyd Stearman, industrialist Deb Stover, author John Cameron Swayze, announcer Darnell Valentine, basketball star Joe Walsh, musician Lynette Woodard, basketball star