978-1-4222-3326-9

30

Lower Plains: Kansas, Nebraska

View of Wichita, Kansas, on the Arkansas River.

19th century, Wichita turned into the “Air Capital of the World.” The city gave itself that grandiose title in the 1920s and 1930s, when a large num- ber of aircraft companies set up busi- ness here. During World War II, Wichita was a manufacturing base for Boeing B-29 bombers. Today, the city remains an important hub of the U.S. aircraft industry. A whopping 2.34 million people live in the Kansas City metropolitan

Kansas also has a smaller propor- tion of residents born in a foreign country—almost exactly half the national average. Mexico, Germany, and Vietnam are the most common countries of origin for foreign-born Kansans. Major Cities More than 380,000 people make their home in Wichita , Kansas’s largest city. From being a major cowtown in the