Wings Over Salina

When Location is Key

The original location was intended to be at the center point of the Salina Airport’s runway. The smells, sights and sounds of today’s active aircraft would add to the stimulation and anticipation for all visitors. With direct access to the runway, arriving pilots and visitors traveling by aircraft can taxi and park directly in front of the facility’s fly-in entrance.

The building, with its 2-story glass atrium and sweeping entry canopies creates a dramatic symbolic gesture toward aviation and flight. A larger-than-life bronze tribute of aviation hero Steve Fossett punctuates the museum’s main entry plaza. Fossett made the first solo nonstop unrefueled fixed-wing aircraft flight around the world from the Salina, Kansas Airport on February 28, 2005. A full-scale silhouette of the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer, that he flew during the non-stop flight, is inlaid into the plaza paving.

Visitor Experience

The guest experience is organized in a logical, user-friendly progression as visitors move through the interior spaces of the attraction complex. A wide variety of exhibit features including a central interactive timeline, eight perimeter sub galleries, an interactive flight lab, and a multi-media theater all make-up what could potentially be a full day of activities for visitors.

Floating high above the Lobby, is a suspended full-scale replica of the Glenn L. Martin experimental flyer, commemorating the first machine powered flight in Saline County on November 1, 1911. On the lobby’s floor, you’ll find a graphic representation of the City of Salina municipal map, Circa 1911, executed in colorful terrazzo. A mezzanine level allows guests a chance to view the Glenn Martin Flyer up close and personal as it appears to soar over the 1911 map of Salina.

Once inside the museum doors, the guests will come face to face with an interactive timeline, which is a multi-dimensional presentation that delivers core information regarding the historical aspects of both civil and military aviation of Salina. The aircraft mezzanine also delivers it’s own chronology of aviation history, but focuses primarily on the flying machines themselves. Each exhibit on this upper floor is located in such a way as to coordinate with the historical decades of the galleries below. A collection of scaled aircraft models are suspended at eye level from the ceiling above.

After being immersed in the aviation history of Salina, guests can enjoy a variety of interactive flight themed exhibits in the Interactive Flight Lab. This colorful, eye-popping animated spaces is designed to make learning fun! The Flight Lab gives everyone a chance to learn and experience more about flight and other aviation topics.

As the climax to their museum visit, guests are invited to take a seat in the state-of-the-art Global Flyer Theater and experience a special presentation about the historic world record set by J. Stephen Fossett and the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer.

The facility also features a premier restaurant, The Runway Restaurant, right within the complex. Situated immediately adjacent to the airport runway, this dining experience is unlike any other. With expansive glass walls and roof, and architecture that mimics the wing construction of historic aircraft flyers, it offers guests the “best seat in the house” in terms of watching incoming and outgoing aircraft while dining.