Wichita is the only city in Kansas — and one of 19 nationwide — to receive this honor

Wichita’s factories built thousands of planes that turned back Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.

Now those efforts are being recognized with a designation allowed for only one city in a state: Wichita has been named an American World War II Heritage City.

The announcement was made Monday by the National Parks Service. Wichita, along with 17 other communities received the accolade, according to an NPS news release.

Seventeen other communities across the country also received the designation, joining Wilmington, North Carolina, which was the first city named in 2020.

The designation “honors the contributions of local towns, counties and their citizens who stepped into the workforce to support America’s war effort during World War II,” the release said.

Wichita’s contribution came in the form of aircraft, which was still relatively new and proved to be a major component in the Allied powers’ defeat of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.

“We were a huge contributor to this,” said Jay Price, a professor and chair for the department of history at Wichita State University. “They (the U.S. military) didn’t quite understand the significance of aviation really until the end of World War I.”

“By the 1930s aviation was now really emerging as a key element of our defense system — and that’s exactly where Wichita comes in,” Price said.

Aviation companies in Wichita, including Boeing, received defense contracts and grew dramatically. Stearman Aircraft, which became a subsidiary of Boeing, had around 556 employees in 1939. By October 1940, it grew to 4,500, according to Price.

The new workforce produced over 1,600 Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers, which were instrumental in the victory over Japan.

The work drew people from surrounding states.

Wichita’s population rapidly increased, and there was a spike in women joining the workforce, said Andrea Wilson, an adjunct professor at Wichita State University.

“These weren’t the kind of workers you would expect at the time,” Wilson said. “Many men were going overseas to the war effort, so you had a lot of women and older people coming into these new fields and learning new skills.”

With the influx of people, neighborhoods such as Planeview and Hilltop Manor were established to house workers and their families, Wilson said.

Wichita had rightfully earned the title of “Air Capital of the World.”

“I think the war really solidified Wichita as an airplane manufacturer,” Wilson said. “You have whole neighborhoods that are still in existence because of that. It’s become a part of our culture.”

After the war, defense contracts wound down and left aviation companies questioning their next move.

“There was a real fear that ‘OK, now that the defense contracts are gone, who’s going to need this anymore?’” Price said.

Then in the late 1940s, that fear went away with the start of the Cold War. “That’s what really saved our bacon,” Price said.

“There was a fear of the Cold War, the Soviets and the communist threat that we really ramped up again,” Price said.

“That really set us up for the future,” Price said. “We really held onto our aviation companies by the skin of our teeth.”