A "SIM"PLY WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE

There's a place in our museum where the skies are blue, the winds are light and it's always a great day to fly.  Join our guide today, as we take a trip in our popular Constellation flight simulator. Grab a seat by the control column, set your feet on the rudder pedals, push the throttles forward, and enjoy the ride.

As you'll quickly see when you enter our museum, the Lockheed Constellation played a major role in the history and development of TWA.  Notice numerous models of the distinctive three-tailed "Connie", as well as several items related to it, in our gallery rooms. It is, however, our Constellation flight simulator that quickly catches the eye of our visitors. It's no wonder why. 

Poised on Runway 19 at Kansas City Downtown Airport (our museum's home), our Connie is ready to roll.

The beginning
The story of our simulator starts at the University of Central Missouri, in Warrensburg. There, Chris Nold, a student pursuing aviation-related studies, worked to develop air traffic control and flight simulation tools for UCM's aviation training lab. Karen Holden Young, from our museum's Board of Directors, learned of UCM's aviation department and the impressive work Chris and other students there were doing. Karen is also the granddaughter of Paul Richter, one of the three founders of TWA. She and her family had been looking to bestow a gift to a worthy aviation learning institution and approached UCM. The result was the creation of the Paul E. Richter TWA Scholarship Fund at the University of Central Missouri. Chris applied and was among the first students to be granted funds from the scholarship. Shortly thereafter, a grateful Chris came down to the museum to meet everyone, and it was there that he offered to build an interactive flight simulator exhibit for the museum's visitors to use and enjoy. To show their appreciation to the Richter family, Chris and UCM provided the materials and time to research, develop and construct the simulator.


About the simulator
Using Microsoft's FSX as a platform, Chris developed customized enhancements to design a simulator that would work well in our museum environment. After successful prototype testing in a St. Joseph, Missouri garage, Chris installed the real thing in our museum. With help from family members, the cockpit consoles and enclosure (seen in the photo above) were built and we were airborne! Over the past three years. the simulator has been used by hundreds of museum visitors without skipping a beat, clearly a tribute to Chris' skill and design talents.Three years, however, is a long time in the world of computer design, and Chris (now a member of our museum's Board of Directors) has begun development of a next-generation simulator which will offer our visitors an even more realistic flying experience. Stay tuned.

Chris Nold in front of our museum's flight simulator

Let's fly!
A typical flight on our simulator begins with the Connie poised and ready to roll, at the threshold of the southbound runway at the museum’s home, Kansas City Downtown Airport (MKC). Push the four throttles forward, accelerate to rotate (or lift-off) speed of 100 knots (115 miles per hour), gently pull back on the control column and you’re airborne. As you retract your landing gear, downtown Kansas City appears off your left side. As you fly over Kemper Arena, it's just about time to make a wide right turn to the northwest and head up to Kansas City International Airport (MCI), about 25 miles away. Should you lose your visual point of reference at any time in your flight, a modern-era GPS display will confirm your position (your trusty museum guide will be keeping an eye on your whereabouts, as well). We have two ways to get you to MCI. One is a quick hop to either of the northbound runways at MCI and the other, a longer "downwind" approach to the southbound runways. The latter involves more turning and handling of the airplane. In either case, as the airport starts coming into sight, it's time to start configuring the Connie for landing by reducing your power and lowering initial approach flaps. As the runway starts to appear in front of you, there's more work to be done. Carefully watch your speed, rate of decent, flap settings, and oh yeah, don't forget to lower the landing gear! That set of four red and/or white lights ahead of you on the side of the runway you're headed for is known as PAPI (Precision Approach Path Indicator).Your goal is to see two white and two red lights. Then you'll know your altitude is just right. Your guide will help you to adjust your approach altitude, as PAPI transmits its sequence of lights to you. Remember, the lights are there to guide your altitude only. Be sure to keep your plane headed for that center line of the runway. Finally, the sound of screeching tires signifies your landing. Push the tops of the rudder pedals for braking. You made it!

Sounds easy, right? Well... maybe. To be honest, it can be challenging, especially for first-time pilots. So, we're here to help the whole way. To start, your guide will give you a pre-flight briefing to familiarize you with the Connie's controls and instruments, and the route of your upcoming journey. Among the highlights of the briefing:

• Have a good time. Flying our Connie is really a fun experience. 
• Go easy. Like any airplane, our Connie responds best to a light and confident grip on the controls. And the Connie really does WANT to fly... Working with the aircraft will produce the best results. 
• You'll probably hear your guide repeating the statement "watch your altitude" during your flight. You don't want to be soaring like an eagle, when the runway appears in your view.
• Landing the Connie is the most difficult part of your flight, so don't expect perfection. Don't be surprised if the big bird does a few bounces before settling down. In fact, some simulator pilots don't quite make the runway and end up on streets and in backyards even we're not familiar with. Luckily the Connie is very forgiving and will get you safely down on (or through) most anything. 
• We have a perfect safety record. We have never lost a guest (or a guide) in a simulator flight mishap. If an unpleasant meeting with the ground looks imminent, we know where the simulator's reset button is! 

Flying our Connie simulator has universal appeal. On any given day, our "pilot roster" includes people from age five through ninety-five. Some are (or were) pilots by profession, but many have never flown an airplane before. You might even catch one of our guides taking the Connie for a quick spin, during a break. We do it to keep our skills up. But between us, we mostly do it because it’s really fun!

Retired TWA pilot (and museum guide) John Coleman prepares for take-off, during
some down time.  Although John never flew a Constellation for TWA,
he began his career in aircraft maintenance, working on several of them.

Guiding you along
Museum guide Art Lujin has flown with hundreds of visitors on our simulator. His career with TWA spanned over 25 years, mostly in aircraft systems engineering. Art spent the latter part of his career in the aircraft acceptance office, acquiring new and used aircraft for TWA's fleet. He's also no stranger to aircraft simulators, having spent time in real, multi-million dollar simulators at TWA training facilities and at the Boeing factory. Although not a pilot, Art has learned a great deal from his fellow volunteers who were TWA pilots.

Art especially enjoys helping guide first-time simulator pilots and shares their excitement when they land successfully. Art's advice is to take it slow and easy. “Most people will over-control, climbing or descending too quickly or turning too sharply,” he says. Sometimes, a visitor may forget it's just a simulator. Art recalls one guest who tensed up to the point where he had to ask Art to hit the reset button to end the flight. “He just wasn’t enjoying it," recalls Art. “It's best flown if you're enjoying yourself." Fortunately, most all of our visitors have a great time with Art and our other guides, flying the Connie.

Our visitor pilots benefit from Art Lujin's knowledge, friendliness
and sense of humor.

While we enjoy flying with everyone, it's most rewarding to fly with our younger guests. We're often impressed by their level of interest and enthusiasm. Giving young people the opportunity to learn about commercial aviation and the TWA legacy is a great part of our work here at the museum. After observing them taking control of the Connie, we're pretty certain we'll be seeing some of them in a real cockpit someday.

A recent visitor to the museum, 10 year-old Carson is at the controls.  He informed us he
is interested in pursuing a career in aviation. We have a feeling he'll succeed.  

Some info about the real thing
Our simulator is the Lockheed Constellation model 1049G (also known as the "Super G"). TWA flew several Connie models from 1946 through 1967. Twentry-eight of them were the Super G. This later-generation model first flew in 1955, throughout the U.S. and across the Atlantic Ocean. The Super G was eventually retired in the mid 1960s. We hope our simulator will spark your interest in the history of the Constellation and its legendary career with TWA. For example, many of our visitors are surprised to learn that Howard Hughes was instrumental in TWA's decision to acquire the Constellation or that the Constellation was the last propeller-powered aircraft TWA flew as the transition was being made to jet aircraft. These and many other stories are told in Constellation-related displays and photographs we have, at the museum. There's no doubt, however, that taking her for a spin is one of the best ways to learn about and appreciate this great aircraft. 

A 1956 flight attendant graduating class poses in front of a Super G.
(photo courtesy of TWA Museum Archives) 

So, now that you've met our Constellation simulator and a few of our great guides, come on down to the museum and fly with us. Of course, we hope you'll stick around for a while to enjoy the many other wonderful exhibits on display at the museum, here at the Kansas City Downtown Airport.

You're always in good hands when retired TWA Captain Frank von Geyso guides you on your flight.
Frank flew several types of TWA jets within the U.S. and across the Atlantic.

On a final note
The Paul E. Richter TWA Scholarship Fund at the University of Central Missouri commemorates not only the memory of Paul Richter, but his dedication to the importance of sharing aviation knowledge. To date, the scholarship has granted funds to eight deserving aviation studies students at UCM. The funds help defray the costs of tuition, books, flying time and other related educational items.


Article written by Wayne Hammer
Edited by Larry Dingman
Additional material provided by Art Lujin and Larry Dingman
Copy editing by Pam Tucker


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In over 75 years of operation, safety and reliability were the highest priorities at TWA.  In meeting these goals, TWA provided its pilots with superior training facilities and tools. Visitors to the museum experience this firsthand, as they are taken into our Education Center to visit the pilot training  "boards".  As you'll read, our guide thinks this "hands-on" exhibit is a highlight of any visit to the museum.


After visiting our two main galleries, a short walk will bring you to our Education Center.  It's sometimes said the journey is half the fun and that may very well be the case as your short walk will take you through an active aircraft hangar operated by Signature Aviation, a fixed base operator at the airport.  This very hangar served as TWA's first aircraft maintenance facility in Kansas City in the early 1930s.  While today occupied by sleek business jets, picture the hangar as it was over 80 years ago, filled with several TWA DC3s, lined up for servicing with teams of TWA mechanics tending to them. Can't quite picture it?  No problem, we have the photographs!  Now, let's take a left turn into the Education Center.

Our large Education Center room offers a display of items TWA used to train flight crews, predominantly through the 60s and 70s.  Most notable?  Interactive simulator panels, known commonly as the "boards”.  We recently acquired ten of them, of which five are exact reproductions of flight engineer panels from Boeing 707 and 727 aircraft, down to each dial, gauge and switch. For training purposes, they were designed slightly larger than on the actual aircraft.

On the narrow side of each flight engineer panel board, notice concealed rows of small switches, which allowed an instructor to  simulate operational and/or emergency situations.   On the Boeing 707 electrical system simulator for instance, an instructor could simulate a generator failure, challenging a student to take corrective action. After "fixing" the problem, students observed the effect of the correction on the instrument panel and on a large back-lit schematic display, which was located to the right. The really neat thing is that some of the boards still function!  Our guides can  activate a board for you, showing what pilot training was really like.

Retired TWA Captain Ray Rowe, one of our guides, demonstrates the Boeing 707 electrical

system panel.  Captain Rowe trained on this very board, in 1965!

As you can probably tell above, these boards are large!  The flight engineer panel boards are over seven feet long and stand over seven feet high.  They were manufactured by the Gemco Corporation, in Tulsa Oklahoma.  In addition to the five flight engineer panels, there are boards to simulate landing gear systems, autopilot operation and wing and tail control surface operation.  Feel free to turn the control yoke and watch the ailerons on a Boeing 707 wing move accordingly

Boeing 707 spoiler, aileron and flap settings board

Our boards were originally installed at TWA’s Transportation Training Center. Opened in 1957 and located at 13th and Baltimore Streets in downtown Kansas City, the Center occupied five floors comprising 45,000 square feet. It was considered “the gold standard of airline training” at the time. Thousands of pilots, flight attendants, and other employees learned and trained on—for the time— the most modern, comprehensive learning tools.  The facility also contained early-generation cockpit simulators (before the advent of computer-generated graphics). Over time, improvements in technology and the need for larger and/or more decentralized facilities resulted in the Transportation Center being phased out.  The building was eventually demolished.

Photo of the Transportation Training Center.  Based on the tour bus advertisement, this photo
was likely taken in the early 1970s.  Note the pilot flight bags standing on the sidewalk, 
on the right.  (photo courtesy of TWA Museum Archives)

Interesting tidbit:
Before the days of computer simulation, visual cockpit simulation  at the Transportation Training Center was provided by a maneuverable television camera mounted on a track, above a model landscape of an airport runway and its surrounding area.  The model landscape, similar to that you might find on an electric train set, offered trees, hangers, and other cues designed to make the scenario lifelike.  One of our museum guides remembers touring the simulator as a small boy in the late 50’s. The instructor conducting the training flight that day was in a somewhat playful mood and uprooted a fake tree, replanting it in the middle of the runway. The landing resulted in a life-like airplane/tree collision and some colorful language was heard from the Convair 880 simulator pilot.  Our guide does not recall if his parents covered his ears.

Museum note:
Our Education Center also provides a break in the tour, as you’re invited to relax in our MD-80 seats. We have 24 economy class seats, laid out in 4 rows.  No need worry about leg room.  Unlike an actual MD-80, we set up our "cabin" with a comfortable 38”-40” seat pitch.

Have a seat while viewing the boards.  No need to fasten your seat belt!

About the displays:
So how did we acquire the boards? Often times, the story behind how we obtain items is as interesting as the items themselves.  So it is with the boards. Upon their removal from the Transportation Training Center, the boards moved for a time to TWA’s training facilities in St. Louis. TWA then donated them to Central Missouri State University. The university then donated them to the Nicholas Beasley Museum in Marshall, Missouri.  TWA Museum Director Pam Blaschum recalls that representatives from that museum contacted us, told us about the boards and lamented how they were running out of room to “store” them.  A group led by Pam headed out to Marshall, finding the boards sitting idly in rows, in a dark and cold hangar. Arrangements were quickly made and the boards came in out of the cold, and back to life in our Education Center. Museum volunteers maintain them, keeping as many as possible operational. If you're in the Kansas City area or will be visiting, we hope you'll spend some time with us in the Education Center, as well as the seeing the many other great exhibits at our museum.


Article written by Wayne Hammer
Additional research and editing by Larry Dingman
Copy editing by Pam Tucker


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