New exhibit honors Rip Gooch and other Black aviators

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — There is a new reason to visit the Kansas Aviation Museum in Wichita. The Rip Gooch Black Aviators exhibit opened Friday morning.

The exhibit honors Gooch and other Black aviators who called Kansas home. Visitors will see photos, military uniforms, and stories of bravery along the exhibit walls.

Ulysses Lee Gooch, better known as Rip, is often remembered as a politician for his time on the Wichita City Council and as a senator in the Kansas Legislature. His daughter Bonita Gooch joined local dignitaries for Friday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony.

“From the time he was a little boy out in the cotton fields of Tennessee watching planes fly overhead, he knew he wanted to fly,” she said.

Rip Gooch was an Army pilot who served following World War II. He moved to Wichita in the 1950s and started his own aviation business. He had more than 50 years of active flying, but his daughter says something drove him beyond being a pilot.

“Very, important to him about raising up others in aviation and promoting aviation as a way of life, you know, way to make a living, a way to just have fun,” Bonita Gooch said. “He taught and licensed thousands of people to fly here in the Wichita area as well as helping to bring up other Black aviators.”

She said her father would be pleased with the opening of the Rip Gooch Black Aviators exhibit.

“This was something that he wanted,” Bonita Gooch said. “He had helped put together a little smaller version of an exhibit like this that was in the museum for a number of years. But this is taking this up to a whole ‘nother level. He would just be so proud of what has happened here.”

The exhibit includes Rip Gooch’s time in politics. He was elected to the Wichita City Council in 1989. He was elected to the Kansas Senate in 1992 and served until 2004. He died in November 2021 at age 98.

“A lot of people only knew him as a politician or the elected official, as he would say, but this reflects his aviation which was really very important to him,” Bonita Gooch said.

The exhibit also pays tribute to Colonel George Boyd, one of the famed Tuskegee Airmen. He served in the Air Force for 28 years and through three wars.

Bonita Gooch said the exhibit is important for more than just the tributes.

“There’s going to be another part added to the exhibit about Black aviators who came out of Kansas, but what I want them to remember is just the fight that a lot of them got through to get that opportunity,” she said.

Bonita Gooch said her father did not get to be a Tuskegee airman, but he wanted to fly so much that it didn’t make any difference. So he learned to fly and was certified by the man responsible for training all Tuskegee pilots.

“It’s just the fight that so many of these people had to do to become pilots and to be professional pilots and to work in the aviation industry and make a living out of it,” she said.

The Kansas Aviation Museum, 3350 S. George Washington Blvd., is at the intersection of George Washington Blvd. and 31st Street South. It is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and from noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday. The museum sometimes closes early for special events, such as weddings. Check the website before you go.

The museum is still taking donations for the exhibit. If you would like to help, click here.