The Kansas City Overhaul Base is a manufacturing and maintenance plant adjacent to

Kansas City International Airport Kansas City International Airport (originally Mid-Continent International Airport) is a public airport in Kansas City, Missouri located northwest of Downtown Kansas City in Platte County, Missouri., effective December 30, 2021. 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 (TWA) was a major American airline which operated from 1930 until 2001. It was formed as Transcontinental & Western Air to operate a route from New York City to Los Angeles via St. Louis, Kansas City, and other stops, with F ...

(and other airlines under contract) and it was Kansas City's biggest employer. Since TWA's successor

American Airlines American Airlines is a major US-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is the largest airline in the world when measured by fleet size, scheduled passengers carried, and revenue passeng ...

began downsizing in preparation for a total abandonment effective September 2010, three companies moved their headquarters and plants into the complex ( Smith Electric Vehicles (US), Jet Midwest and

Nordic Windpower Nordic Windpower was a privately owned manufacturer of wind turbines based in Kansas City, Missouri in the United States. Nordic Windpower filed for liquidation in the Kansas City Bankruptcy court in October 2012. The company had roots in a Swedish ...

Frontier Airlines Frontier Airlines is a major ultra-low-cost U.S. airline headquartered in Denver, Colorado. It operates flights to over 100 destinations throughout the United States and 31 international destinations, and employs more than 3,000 staff. The ca ...

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 In mid-July 1951, heavy rains led to a great rise of water in the Kansas River, Missouri River, and other surrounding areas of the Central United States. Flooding occurred in the Kansas, Neosho, Marais Des Cygnes, and Verdigris river basins. ...

which had destroyed TWA's facilities at

Fairfax Airport Fairfax Municipal Airport (known as Fairfax Field during World War II) was a Kansas City, Kansas airfield from 1921 that was used during 1935–1949 by the military. Federal land adjacent to the airfield included a WWII B-25 Mitchell plant and ...

close to the Missouri River. TWA's plant had been in the former

North American Aviation North American Aviation (NAA) was a major American aerospace manufacturer that designed and built several notable aircraft and spacecraft. Its products included: the T-6 Texan trainer, the P-51 Mustang fighter, the B-25 Mitchell bomber, the ...

B-25 Mitchell The North American B-25 Mitchell is an American medium bomber that was introduced in 1941 and named in honor of Major General William "Billy" Mitchell, a pioneer of U.S. military aviation. Used by many Allied air forces, the B-25 served in ...

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 Wilmington Airport (formerly known as New Castle Airport, New Castle County Airport, sometimes referred to as Wilmington-New Castle Airport, or to a lesser extent Wilmington/Philadelphia Regional Airport and Greater Wilmington Airport) is an a ...

in Delaware to Kansas City. In 1973, when the airport opened to replace

Kansas City Downtown Airport Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport is a city-owned, public-use airport serving Kansas City, Missouri. Located in Clay County, this facility is included in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems, which categorized it as a general aviat ...

as the city's main airport, TWA also added its distinctive sloped wide-body hangars. When

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 employees to

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region wit ...

and American formally cut the ties in September 2010.

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...

visited the Smith Electric part of the plant to tout the $32 million in stimulus funding granted to Smith to locate to the structure. Kansas City says that have been leased. In 2009, Kansas City broke ground on the KCI Intermodal Center, Kansas City SmartPort

foreign trade zone A free-trade zone (FTZ) is a class of special economic zone. It is a geographic area where goods may be imported, stored, handled, manufactured, or reconfigured and re-exported under specific customs regulation and generally not subject to cust ...

on across Runway 9/27 directly south of the plant being developed by Trammell Crow Company.

References

{{Coord, 39.295284, -94.696677, display=title Motor vehicle assembly plants in Missouri Manufacturing in the United States 1957 establishments in Missouri Buildings and structures in Kansas City, Missouri Republic Airways Trans World Airlines American Airlines