© 2024 KMUW
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

New Boeing Wing Opens At Kansas Aviation Museum

David G. Keith/Wikimedia--Creative Commons

The Kansas Aviation Museum opens the new Boeing Science, Math and History Learning Center in southeast Wichita Saturday.

The hands-on education experience is designed for students to work individually or in groups. The learning center has been five years in the making and features four learning stations with computers that will run interactive programs on things like flight and weather conditions.

“One of the computers is set up primarily for high school students and it has a CAD program,” says Lon Smith, the executive director of the museum.

“That will allow them to design a wing foil and then they can take that wing foil and test it in a virtual wind tunnel.”

The centerpiece of the learning center is a Cessna 210 that has been converted into a flight simulator.

“A child can get in and actually fly what feels like a real plane,” Smith says.

A mock control tower allows other students to communicate with the pilot in the simulator.

Smith says he hopes students, including those who are home-schooled, will find the learning center both fun and educational.

Saturday’s opening event will be from 10 am to 5 pm at the Kansas Aviation Museum, 3350 S. George Washington Blvd, Wichita.