“We don’t want to mess up the paint Steve put on the plane.”
– Retired Air Force One pilot Col. Mark Tillman commenting at Wichita Aero Club about how Secret Service agents can shoot anyone who gets too close to the plane without authorization but how no one would want to mess up Boeing Wichita site leader Steve Wade’s paint job
“Soooo, what time do you have to be back at work?”
– Machinists international president Tom Buffenbarger after no one asked questions at the end of his speech to the Wichita Aero Club Sept. 27
“If there was a Mount Rushmore of aviation communities … the first lock spot goes to the city of Wichita.”
– Roger Cohen, president of the Regional Airline Association, speaking at the Wichita Aero Club today
“It climbs like a homesick angel and makes a lot of noise on takeoff so everyone will know the general’s in the air.”
– Alex Kvassay, speaking to the Wichita Aero Club today on his successful Learjet sales pitch years ago after he learned Cessna was courting the Filipino general as well
“I’ve become a weather wimp.”
– Bombardier’s Chet Fuller, explaining to the Wichita Aero Club Monday that he’s a 50-year-old pilot who would like to be a 70-year-old pilot one day, which is why he flew Delta to Wichita instead of his own Cessna
The new Greteman Group-designed Air Capital of the World logo.
WICHITA — Wichitans still call their home the Air Capital of the World, but the Wichita Aero Club wants to make sure others call it that, too.
“There’s other cities taking a little bit of a run (at it) if you will,” says Dave Franson, Aero Club executive director.
He says there are five main aviation clusters in the world: Wichita, Seattle, Montreal, Dallas and Toulouse, France.
“We continue to hold fast to the claim that we are the Air Capital of the World,” Franson says.
So the club and KPTS, Channel 8, are unveiling a new “reclaim the name” campaign and logo tonight during the premiere of the second season of PBS’ “The Aviators” at the National Center for Aviation Training.
“We just decided, hey, nowhere else has built anywhere close to the number of airplanes we’ve built here,” Franson says. There are “over 280,000 airplanes that have been built in Wichita, Kansas, since we started building them.”
He says the new Greteman Group-designed logo is an updated version of the original Air Capital of the World logo the Wichita chamber first unveiled in 1928 following a contest.
The 1928 Air Capital of the World logo.
“We’re kind of jumping the gun a little bit,” Franson says. “We’re going to (reprise) this same act at NBAA.”
The National Business Aviation Association annual meeting is next month, and Franson says there will be a new tagline to go with the new logo.
So what does he want to tell the world then?
“Wichita has been the Air Capital of the World since at least 1928 when we first took the title . . . and we’re not giving it up anytime soon.”
“We’ve got a framed copy of your long-form birth certificate from Hawaii.”
— Wichita Aero Club executive director Dave Franson to U.S. Rep. Mike Pompeo as Franson presented him with a parting gift (which actually was a Paul Bowen book) for speaking at today’s luncheon
“I’ll take a friend or someone who ‘likes’ me these days.”
– Rep. Mike Pompeo, speaking briefly at the Wichita Aero Club Tuesday on the benefits of Facebook
“If you have time to spare, travel by air. Airlines that is.”
— Wichita Aero Club executive director Dave Franson, joking at the monthly meeting Tuesday about guest speaker and Signature Flight Support CEO Michael Scheeringa’s flight being late
“We have a Consumer Level Optimal Chronometer from Kansas. We have a C-L-O-C-K.”
— Wichita Aero Club executive director Dave Franson, joking Tuesday at the club’s luncheon as he presented a gift to NASA official Alan Weston, who has a lot of acronyms in his official bio