Editing Wichita, Kansas (section)

===Aircraft manufacturing===
[[File:NASA-2000Starship.jpg|thumb|right|[[Beechcraft Starship]] were built in Wichita from 1983 to 1995.]]

From the early to late 20th century, aircraft pioneers such as Clyde Cessna, Emil Matthew "Matty" Laird, Lloyd Stearman, [[Walter Beech]], [[Al Mooney]] and [[Bill Lear]] began aircraft-manufacturing enterprises that led to Wichita becoming the nation's leading city in numbers of aircraft produced, earning Wichita, in 1928, the 1929 title "Air Capital City" from the nation's [[Aerospace Industries Association|Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce]] — a title the city would claim permanently.<ref name="we_built_2018_09_smithsonianmag" /><ref name="borne_south_wind">Rowe, Frank J. (aviation engineering executive) & Craig Miner ([[Wichita State University]] Dept. of History). ''Borne on the South Wind: A Century of Kansas Aviation'',  [[Wichita Eagle|Wichita Eagle and Beacon Publishing Co.]], Wichita. 1994 (the standard reference work on Kansas aviation history)</ref><ref name="sampler_air">Penner, Marci, editor, and Richard Harris, contributor, in "[http://www.kansassampler.org/8wonders/commerceresults.php?id=131 Wichita Aviation Industry]" in "8 Wonders of Kansas Commerce" on the ''Kansas Sampler'' website of the Kansas Sampler Foundation, sponsored by the Kansas Humanities Council for the Kansas 150 Sesquicentennial, 2010–2011.</ref><ref name="wichita_av_hist_2020_03_31_thesunflower">[https://thesunflower.com/50981/news/wichitas-aviation-history-is-rich-but-the-industry-faces-unprecedented-challenges/ "Wichita's aviation history is rich, but the industry faces unprecedented challenges,"] May 1, 2020, ''The Sunflower,'' [[Wichita State University]], retrieved March 31, 2023</ref>

The aircraft corporations [[Swallow Airplane Company|E. M. Laird Aviation Company]] (the nation's first successful commercial airplane manufacturer), [[Travel Air]] (started by Beech, Stearman, and Cessna), [[Stearman Aircraft|Stearman]], [[Cessna]], [[Beechcraft]], and [[Mooney Airplane Company|Mooney]] were all founded in Wichita between 1920 and early 1932.<ref name="borne_south_wind" /><ref name="sampler_air" /><ref name="wichita_av_hist_2020_03_31_thesunflower" /><ref name="wbj_back" /> By 1931, [[Boeing]] (of [[Seattle]], Washington) had absorbed Stearman, creating "Boeing-Wichita", which would eventually grow to become Kansas' largest employer.<ref name="capital_story">Harris, Richard, "[http://harris1.net/hold/av/avhist/wichita/aircap_x.htm  The Air Capital Story: Early General Aviation & Its Manufacturers]", reprinted from ''In Flight USA'' magazine on author's own website, 2002/2003</ref><ref name="the_wichita_four">Bissionette, Bruce, ''The Wichita 4: Cessna, Moellendick, Beech & Stearman'' (from interviews with Matty Laird, Lloyd Stearman, Olive Ann Beech, Dwayne Wallace, Rawdon, Burnham, and other principals), Aviation Heritage Books, Destin, FL, 1999.</ref><ref name="boeing_sells_2023_02_23_spokesman">[[Associated Press]]: [https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2005/feb/23/boeing-sells-wichita-plant/ "Boeing sells Wichita plant,"] February 23, 2005, ''[[Spokesman-Review]],'' retrieved March 31, 2023</ref>  During [[World War II]], employment peak at Boeing-Wichita was 29,795 in December 1943.<ref name="WOK">{{cite web |title=Boeing Wichita History |url=https://wingsoverkansas.com/legacy/a375/ |website=Wings Over Kansas |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230102000841/https://wingsoverkansas.com/legacy/a375/ |archive-date=January 2, 2023 |date=November 28, 2004 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Today, Cessna Aircraft Co. (the world's highest-volume airplane manufacturer) and Beechcraft remain based in Wichita, having merged into [[Textron Aviation]] in 2014, along with [[Learjet]] and Boeing's chief sub-assembly supplier, [[Spirit AeroSystems]]. Airbus maintains a workforce in Wichita, and [[Bombardier Aerospace|Bombardier]] (parent company of Learjet) has other divisions in Wichita, as well. Over 50 other aviation businesses operate in the Wichita MSA, as well as over 350 suppliers and subcontractors to the local aircraft manufacturers. In total, Wichita and its companies have manufactured an estimated 250,000 aircraft since Clyde Cessna's first Wichita-built aircraft in 1916.<ref name="capital_story" /><ref name="ks_av" /><ref name="borne_south_wind" /><ref name="sampler_air" /><ref name="we_built_2018_09_smithsonianmag" />

In the early 2000s, a national and international recession combined with the after-effects of the [[September 11 attacks|September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks]] to depress the aviation subsector in and around Wichita. Orders for new aircraft plummeted, prompting Wichita's five largest aircraft manufacturers, Boeing Co., Cessna Aircraft Co., Bombardier Learjet Inc., [[Hawker Beechcraft]], and [[Raytheon|Raytheon Aircraft Co.]]—to slash a combined 15,000 jobs between 2001 and 2004. In response, these companies began developing small- and mid-sized airplanes to appeal to business and corporate users.<ref name="wichitakansas.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.wichitakansas.org/ |title=Wichita Chamber of Commerce |publisher=Wichitakansas.org |access-date=July 15, 2013}}</ref>

In 2007, Wichita built 977 aircraft, ranging from single-engine [[light aircraft]] to the world's fastest civilian jet; one-fifth of the civilian aircraft produced in United States that year, plus numerous small military aircraft.<ref name="sampler_air" /><ref name="ks_av">Harris, Richard, (Chairman, Kansas Aviation Centennial; Kansas Aviation History Speaker, Kansas Humanities Council; Amer. Av. Historical Soc.), [http://ks100aviation.org/story_detailed.htm#ks_av_now "Kansas Aviation History: The Long Story"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170808154322/http://ks100aviation.org/story_detailed.htm#ks_av_now |date=August 8, 2017 }}, 2011, [http://ks100aviation.org/ Kansas Aviation Centennial website] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181229200102/http://ks100aviation.org/ |date=December 29, 2018 }}</ref><ref name="gama_stats_2007">[[General Aviation Manufacturers Association]] (GAMA), ''GAMA Statistical Databook & Industry Outlook 2007'', Washington, D.C.GAMA ([[General Aviation Manufacturers Association]]), ''[http://www.gama.aero/files/GAMA_DATABOOK_2011_web.pdf GAMA Statistical Databook & Industry Outlook 2010] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722001714/http://www.gama.aero/files/GAMA_DATABOOK_2011_web.pdf |date=July 22, 2011 }}'', Washington, D.C. (which includes historical data for previous 10 years)</ref> In early 2012, Boeing announced it would be closing its Wichita plant by the end of 2013,<ref name="boeing_sells_2023_02_23_spokesman" /><ref>{{cite web|title=Boeing to close Wichita Facility by end of 2013|url=http://boeing.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=2090|access-date=February 18, 2012}}</ref> which paved the road for [[Spirit AeroSystems|Spirit Aerosystems]] to open its plant (actually, the Boeing-Wichita factory, still producing the same aircraft assemblies for Boeing, but officially under a different corporation).<ref name="we_built_2018_09_smithsonianmag" /><ref name="legacy_spirit_aerosystems">[https://www.spiritaero.com/company/overview/history/ "A Legacy of Innovation: Our Heritage,"] [[Spirit AeroSystems]], retrieved March 31, 2023</ref>