This Kansas City Mama: Weekend Fun - Airline History Museum

Friday, January 21, 2022

If you are anything like my family, you are over winter! You miss outdoor activities that don't require six layers of clothing. However, there are some fun things to indoors that won't break that bank and I'm going to try and bring those ideas to you every Friday. Over winter break, we visited the Airline History Museum in downtown KC. We've been before, but with McKinley being heavily into aviation at the moment, we thought it would be fun to reacquaint ourselves.

It's not a huge museum, but it does house some incredible planes inside the hanger. There is a brief video on the history of aviation and how it involves Kansas City. And it's kind of cool to sit in vintage first class seats during the film. From there, you enter the small display of relics. What I find incredibly cool are the old uniforms on display, the requirements for flight attendants (then stewardess), and the amenities on flights back in the day. Remember getting a full meal on a long flight? Remember the smoking section in the rear of the plane that was separated by a thin curtain? Remember when it was a privilege to fly and passengers dressed accordingly? I remember those days fondly.

The self-guided tour then takes you out into the hanger. Dress warmly! During that last wind storm, part of the hanger wall was torn away, leaving plenty of room for the winter wind to howl through! And masks must be worn the whole time. But that's okay, it kept us that much warmer. There are two different TWA models you can walk through. Make sure to spend some time inside the Constellation, or Connie as it's referred to, and note the way first class passengers traveled. How cool would it have been to fly in the sleeper? I remember the last time we flew and I fell asleep upright in my seat. My neck hurt for days and I'm pretty sure I did the open mouth snore during part of the flight!

The Martin 404 is the other TWA aircraft you can walk through. This is a much smaller version than the Constellation, but take note of the curtains around the windows versus pulldown blinds, and the fact that the overhead bins don't have doors.

And for those of you who remember Harrison Ford's plane crash in 2015, the museum just happens to have the crashed plane! See what the plane looks like in one piece and the pieces of the plane that Ford crashed.

The museum is open Wednesday's through Saturday's. Check their websites for possible closures and events before headed down. Admission for those under $12 is free. Adults are $10. We spent roughly an hour or so inside the museum. If you haven't been, it's a quick little adventure. But while down there, check out the TWA Museum also located in the downtown airport area.