What’s Happening in Wichita

Almost 10 years since Beechcraft and Cessna joined under the Textron Aviation umbrella, the two sides of town are beginning to blend.

Julie Boatman

Friday, September 22, 2023 at 04:06 PM ET

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The Wichita metro area straddles the Arkansas River, dividing the city into clear East and West sides. [Credit: Julie Boatman]

Key Takeaways:

Textron Aviation is experiencing significant growth and has a large order backlog, requiring them to expand and train their workforce.
To address this, Textron Aviation is opening a new "Hiring and Learning Center" in Wichita.
This center will provide hands-on, paid training for new technicians using real aircraft components, streamlining the onboarding process.
The facility will also include a K-12 vestibule to engage local schoolchildren in STEM education and introduce them to aviation career opportunities.

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The West Side. The East Side. And Kellogg Avenue connects the two.

That’s the Wichita I knew when I left Kansas in 2012 to return to Colorado, leaving the Cessna Aircraft Company two years prior to the day when the news broke that Textron had purchased the assets of Beechcraft from the throes of its bankruptcy. In early 2014, we speculated that Textron had purchased Beech for the King Air line—and little else—and the outcome of the facilities surrounding the storied Beech Factory Field (KBEC) would be settled in a likely to be challenging merger.