A midnight blue disc at the center of a white field, four red triangles pointing inward, and within the disc a white Native American motif: a hoop ringed with arrows, the sign of the place where one dwells. Wichita bears the name of the people who lived here, and its flag says so plainly.
Wichita proclaims itself the "Air Capital of the World." It is no exaggeration. Cessna, Beechcraft, Learjet, Spirit AeroSystems, all have major plants here. More aircraft have been built in Wichita than anywhere else on Earth.
This concentration began in the 1920s when several aviation pioneers settled here. Clyde Cessna founded Cessna Aircraft Company in 1927. Walter Beech created Beechcraft in 1932. During World War II, Wichita mass-produced B-29 Superfortress bombers.
Boeing closed its plant in 2014. Thousands of jobs lost. Wichita is seeking to diversify.
Before the airplanes, Wichita was a cow town, the terminus of the Chisholm Trail where Texas cattle arrived. Wyatt Earp was a deputy marshal here before Tombstone.
The flag says none of this. No aircraft, no cattle: only the sign of the place where one dwells, set on a white field. For a city that built its economy on things that take off, it is an almost contrary choice.