Mid-America Air Museum

The Mid-America Air Museum is an aerospace and aircraft museum located at the Liberal Mid-America Regional Airport in Liberal, Kansas, United States.

Mid-America Air Museum
Mid-America Air Museum is located in Kansas
Mid-America Air Museum
Location within Kansas
Mid-America Air Museum is located in the United States
Mid-America Air Museum
Mid-America Air Museum (the United States)
Established1988; 36 years ago (1988)[1]
Location2000 W 2nd Street
Liberal, KS
United States
Coordinates37°02′21″N 100°57′04″W / 37.0391°N 100.9512°W / 37.0391; -100.9512
TypeAviation museum
Visitors12,000 / year[2]
FounderTom A. Thomas Jr.
DirectorBob Immell
WebsiteMid-America-Air-Museum
An external picture of the Mid-America Air Museum

The Mid-America Air Museum is the largest aircraft museum in Kansas. It has on display over 100 aircraft (both within the museum's primary building and on the adjacent tarmac), a gift store, and several displays of photographs and ephemera relating to the history of aviation in the region.

History

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The museum is on Liberal Mid-America Regional Airport, originally known as Liberal Army Air Field that served as a B-24 Liberator training base during the Second World War.[3]

The museum is located within a hangar that formerly belonged to Beech Aircraft, where Beech produced Beech Musketeer, Beechcraft Baron, and Beechcraft Duchess light airplanes, in the 1960s and 1970s.[3][4]

The museum started with the donation, by the late Colonel Tom Thomas, Jr., of his personal collection: over 50 aircraft (valued at over $3 million) to the City of Liberal.[1][3]

It originally opened as the Mid America Air Group Flying Museum in 1984 in Ada, Oklahoma with 38 planes.[5]

Collection

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The Mid-America Air Museum's collection includes:[6]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "MAAM Foundation - About us". MAAM Foundation. MAAM Foundation. Archived from the original on 2015-06-30. Retrieved 27 June 2015.
  2. ^ Boy, Michele. "Eye on Kansas - Mid America Air Museum". Eye on Kansas. Archived from the original on 2015-06-29. Retrieved 27 June 2015.
  3. ^ a b c Skip, Burroughs. "The Mid-America Air Museum in Liberal, KS". SW Aviator. Archived from the original on 2015-06-26. Retrieved 26 June 2015.
  4. ^ "Beechcraft "sport" B19". The Skytamer Archive. Archived from the original on 2015-07-02. Retrieved 27 June 2015.
  5. ^ Johnson, James (28 June 1984). "Wartime Ace's Dream Come True: Ada Air Museum to Open with Show". Daily Oklahoman. p. 11. Retrieved 29 April 2024.
  6. ^ "Mid-America Air Museum". aviationmuseum.eu. Retrieved 2 May 2016.
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