SALINA, Kan. (AP) Efforts to build an aviation museum at Salina Regional Airport are getting a boost from the Peggy and Steve Fossett Foundation.
The foundation, named for the late adventurer and aviation pioneer, issued a $1 million challenge grant to help build the Wings Over Salina Museum and Aviation Experience. The grant will match contributions to the project.
Salina was the site of two of Steve Fossett’s aviation exploits.
In 2005, he took off and landed at Salina in the first non-stop, non-refueled solo flight around the world. The flight lasted 67 hours and one minute and covered nearly 23,000 miles.
The following year he used Salina as the starting point for a 25,294-mile flight, setting a world record for a closed-circuit flight.
Fossett died in 2007 in a plane crash in California.
