On Friday, Oct. 27, 2017, Dr. David S. Silverman, associate professor of Communication Studies at ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ, delivered a 1950s vintage aerial reconnaissance camera to David Moreno, archivist at the Kansas Aviation Museum in Wichita.
Given that the camera, a Fairchild K-37, was originally donated to Kansas State College in 1959 after it was decommissioned, it’s likely that it was used during the Cold War on RB-57 Canberras for nighttime aerial reconnaissance that were stationed here in Kansas — possibly at Schilling Air Force Base in Salina, according to Moreno. Other K-37s flew on U-2 spy planes in the 1950s and ’60s, and one is on display at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.
According to Dr. Dorothy Hanna, professor of Chemistry at ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ, the camera found its way to the university and sat forgotten for many years until a recent effort to clear out storage areas made it apparent that ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ could no longer keep it. Dr. Silverman, a Cold War history buff, expressed an interest in the camera and sought out a museum that would put it on display.
The camera, valued in excess of $2,500, joins a growing collection of aerial reconnaissance cameras at the Kansas Aviation Museum that Moreno hopes to put on display in the near future.