Talk:Kansas Aviation Museum

News

 * http://www.kansas.com/news/local/article131825844.html • Sbmeirow  •  Talk  • 09:19, 10 February 2017 (UTC)

A building does not an "aviation museum" make
A building does not an "aviation museum" make. But this article -- which emphasizes the KAM building, and utterly ignores the aircraft and aviation exhibits (except a perfunctory partial list in the lede) -- reflects the core thinking that has crippled and dogged the Kansas Aviation Museum since its inception.

This is a result of the circumstances of its founding and organization -- a KAM board joining the Wichita Aviation Historical Association (WAHA) with the local Historic Preservation alliance/board. The latter was obsessed, solely, with the museum as a piece of architecture (essentially emphasizing the box, rather than the contents).

The building-preservation activists overpowered the aviation historical members, resulting in such fiascoes as leaving historic aircraft and artifacts out in the weather because there was not room in the precious building, and the building-advocates would not accept anything less than a fully authentic recreation of the 1930's art-deco hangar to shield them (at a cost wildly beyond any KAM resource.) As a very predictable, disastrous result, many of the Museum's historic aircraft were heavily damaged by classic Kansas storms, and their repair has taken decades.

Yet this shallow thinking about this "aviation museum" has crept into this Wikipedia article, as well -- which goes on ad nauseum about the box, with scarcely any mention of the contents, let alone programs, personalities, politics, or purpose. Incredibly, the article doesn't even mention that this is the home of the Kansas Aviation Hall of Fame!

The article needs to be overhauled to reflect that this is an aviation museum -- not simply a historic building. Look at the Wikipedia articles for other aviation museums, for comparison, including those with equally historic buildings.


 * ~ Zxtxtxz (talk) 00:12, 19 September 2023 (UTC)