Kansas City Overhaul Base
Encyclopedia
Kansas City International Airport
Kansas City International Airport , originally named Mid-Continent International Airport, is a public airport located 15 miles northwest of the central business district of Kansas City, in Platte County, Missouri, United States. In 2008, 10,469,892 passengers used the airport...
.
The plant at its peak in the 1960s and 1970s employed more than 6,000 people who worked on repairing the entire fleet of Trans World Airlines
Trans World Airlines
Trans World Airlines was an American airline that existed from 1925 until it was bought out by and merged with American Airlines in 2001. It was a major domestic airline in the United States and the main U.S.-based competitor of Pan American World Airways on intercontinental routes from 1946...
(and other airlines under contract) and it was Kansas City's biggest employer. Since TWA's successor American Airlines
American Airlines
American Airlines, Inc. is the world's fourth-largest airline in passenger miles transported and operating revenues. American Airlines is a subsidiary of the AMR Corporation and is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas adjacent to its largest hub at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport...
began downsizing in preparation for a total abandonment effective September 2010, three companies moved their headquarters and plants into the complex (Smith Electric Vehicles
Smith Electric Vehicles
Smith Electric Vehicles is the world's leading manufacturers of electric commercial vehicles; battery-powered vans, and trucks Smith Electric Vehicles has always focused on the commercial vehicle market – it does not produce electric cars and has never done so.In 2011 after its United States...
(US), Jet Midwest and Nordic Windpower
Nordic Windpower
Nordic Windpower is a privately owned manufacturer of wind turbines that was founded as a government run business in Sweden and is now based in Kansas City, Missouri in the United States....
). Frontier Airlines
Frontier Airlines
Frontier Airlines, Inc., is an American airline headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. The carrier, which is a subsidiary and operating brand of Republic Airways Holdings, operates flights to 83 destinations throughout the United States, Mexico, and Costa Rica and maintains hubs at...
leased two narrow-body hangars.
The plant along with the airport opened in 1957 at a cost of $25 million and was marked an attempt to keep TWA in Kansas City following the Great Flood of 1951
Great Flood of 1951
In mid-July 1951, heavy rains led to a great rise of water in the Kansas River and other surrounding areas. Flooding resulted in the Kansas, Neosho, Marais Des Cygnes, and Verdigris river basins. The damage in June and July 1951 exceeded $935 million dollars in an area covering eastern Kansas and...
which had destroyed TWA's facilities at Fairfax Airport
Fairfax Airport
Fairfax Airport was an airport in Kansas City, Kansas from 1921 until it closed in 1985. It is most famously associated with the construction of most of the B-25 Mitchell bombers....
close to the Missouri River
Missouri River
The Missouri River flows through the central United States, and is a tributary of the Mississippi River. It is the longest river in North America and drains the third largest area, though only the thirteenth largest by discharge. The Missouri's watershed encompasses most of the American Great...
. TWA's plant had been in the former North American Aviation
North American Aviation
North American Aviation was a major US aerospace manufacturer, responsible for a number of historic aircraft, including the T-6 Texan trainer, the P-51 Mustang fighter, the B-25 Mitchell bomber, the F-86 Sabre jet fighter, the X-15 rocket plane, and the XB-70, as well as Apollo Command and Service...
B-25 Mitchell
B-25 Mitchell
The North American B-25 Mitchell was an American twin-engined medium bomber manufactured by North American Aviation. It was used by many Allied air forces, in every theater of World War II, as well as many other air forces after the war ended, and saw service across four decades.The B-25 was named...
bomber plant at Fairfax. TWA labeled the building MCIE (after the airport's original name of Mid-Continent International Airport). The airline also moved its large overhaul operations at the New Castle County Airport in Delaware to Kansas City.
In 1973 when the airport was greatly renovated to replace Kansas City Downtown Airport
Kansas City Downtown Airport
Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport , also known as Kansas City Downtown Airport, is a public airport located in Kansas City, Clay County, Missouri, United States. This airport is publicly owned by City of Kansas City.-History:...
as the city's main airport, TWA also added its distinctive sloped wide-body hangars.
When American Airlines
American Airlines
American Airlines, Inc. is the world's fourth-largest airline in passenger miles transported and operating revenues. American Airlines is a subsidiary of the AMR Corporation and is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas adjacent to its largest hub at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport...
acquired financially bankrupt TWA in 2001, TWA had 2,600 employees at the base.
In 2008 American moved about 500 of its remaining 1,000 empoyees to Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 46th-largest city in the United States. With a population of 391,906 as of the 2010 census, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with 937,478 residents in the MSA and 988,454 in the CSA. Tulsa's...
and American formally cut the ties in September 2010. Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
visited the Smith Electric part of the plant to tout the $32 million in stimulus funding
Economic Stimulus Act of 2008
The Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 was an Act of Congress providing for several kinds of economic stimuli intended to boost the United States economy in 2008 and to avert a recession, or ameliorate economic conditions. The stimulus package was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on January...
granted to Smith to locate to the structure.
Kansas City says that 1 million feet have been leased.
In 2009 Kansas City broke ground on the KCI Intermodal Center, Kansas City SmartPort
Kansas City SmartPort
Kansas City SmartPort is an economic development group for the existing logistics industry in Kansas City and the attraction of logistics investments in the Kansas City Region...
foreign trade zone
Foreign trade zone
A foreign-trade zone in the United States is a geographical area, in United States Ports of Entry Ports of Entry, where commercial merchandise, both domestic and foreign receives the same Customs treatment it would if it were outside the commerce of the United States...
on 800 acres across Runway 9/27 directly south of the plant being developed by Trammell Crow Company
Trammell Crow Company
Trammell Crow Company is a Dallas-based real estate development, investment and operations company founded by the late Trammell Crow, and operated as an independent subsidiary of CB Richard Ellis. It was founded by Trammell Crow in 1948 and purchased in late 2006...
.