WICHITA, KS – JANUARY 11, 2012

Tom Aikens works on adjusting the nose bay doors on a Premiere 1A aircraft in Hanger 4 at Hawker Beechcraft Wednesday morning. Aikens has been assembling aircrafts for 16 years at Hawker Beechcraft.
The city of Wichita, KS is tied closely to the aircraft industry. Over the past century, Wichita has been the home to most of the large aviation manufacturers. Some people equate Wichita and aviation to Silicon Valley and the computer chip. However, over the past three years Wichita has seen many layoffs in the aircraft sector including the most recent news by Boeing that they will be leaving the city for good after over 8 decades of doing business in the city.