Jerry Moran: “last month, we celebrated National Aviation History Month. We celebrated that across America, and I want to make certain…”

“last month, we celebrated National Aviation History Month. We celebrated that across America, and I want to make certain that we recognize the air capital of the world and the State of Kansas and their contributions to the aviation industry both historically and still today. My home State of Kansas is an aviation hub. It has a rich history in aviation manufacturing. This tradition dates back to a gentleman named Albin Longren, who developed Kansas's first aircraft, the Longren Flyer, which was fully designed, produced, and successfully tested in Topeka in 1911, less than a decade after the Wright Brothers' first historic flight. Clyde Cessna went on to develop his pioneering aircraft, the Silverwing, in 1911, which was designed and built in Kingman County, KS. Clyde Cessna, Lloyd Stearman, and Walter Beech partnered to found the Travel Air Manufacturing Company, which would later be spun off into three companies with global recognition--the Cessna Aircraft Company, Stearman Aircraft, and the Beech Aircraft Company, all of Wichita, where they were headquartered. Cessna, Stearman, Beech, and over a dozen other aviation entrepreneurs in Wichita produced 120 airplanes each week at the outset of Wichita's aviation dominance in the late twenties.…”