AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2023 - 42

BRIEFING
A IRPORTS /
Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport,
Kansas City
Airline history, with a side of barbecue sauce
BY DENNIS K. JOHNSON
IT'S ALWAYS BEEN CONFUSING-is it Kansas City, Missouri, or Kansas City, Kansas?
The answer is, there are two KCs, with Kansas City, Kansas, being a suburb of the
much larger Kansas City, Missouri. Whichever KC you favor, the area is famous for
barbecue and, for airline history buffs, as the home of TWA.
By 1930, TWA operated one of the first coast-to-coast air routes, which included
an overnight stop in Kansas City, Missouri. In 1931, TWA moved its headquarters
there from New York City. Today, 21 years after TWA was acquired by American
Airlines, flyers can relive the glory days with a visit to the TWA Museum at Charles
B. Wheeler Downtown Airport in Kansas City (Missouri).
CHARLES B. WHEELER DOWNTOWN AIRPORT (MKC)
As its name suggests, Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport is in downtown Kansas
City, on a sharp bend in the Missouri River. The airport replaced the first Kansas City
airport and was dedicated as New Richards Field in 1927 by Charles Lindbergh. Later,
it became Kansas City Municipal Airport until Kansas City International Airport
(MCI) was built for the jet age in 1972, when it was renamed for the mayor. Today,
Charles B. Wheeler is used for corporate and recreational aviation.
It's also home to two museums dedicated to the history of airlines, the National
Airline History Museum and the TWA Museum. Obviously, the TWA Museum
primarily contains artifacts from TWA, but so does the National Airline History
Museum, although it is dedicated to airline history in general. The TWA Museum
is housed in the original airport terminal building and the National Airline History
Museum is in a hangar across the field.
The National Airline History Museum displays numerous historic airliners,
including a Lockheed Constellation, Boeing 727, Douglas DC-8, Lockheed L-1011
42
AOPA PILOT / February 2023
Dedicated by Charles Lindbergh in 1927, Kansas
City Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport is the
city's first airport and still one of its busiest. Located
on 695 acres, Kansas City Downtown Airport is
just across the Missouri River from Kansas City's
business center.
TriStar, Martin 404, and more. But, maybe the
most interesting artifact is not an airliner, but a
spacecraft...or a model of one.
In the mid-1950s, Walt Disney collaborated
with Wernher Von Braun and Howard Hughes
(owner of TWA) to envision what a passenger
moon rocket might look like. From 1955 to
1967, a 76-foot-tall " TWA Moonliner " model
stood outside the " Rocket to the Moon " ride at
Disneyland, which gave visitors the sensation of
a moon flight. By 1967, when TWA sponsorship
ended, the Moonliner was removed, and its fate
is currently unknown. In 1956, Hughes placed
a smaller, 38-foot replica of the Moonliner on
the Kansas City TWA headquarters, and this
replica now resides at the National Airline
History Museum.
The TWA Museum tells the story of the
airline's role in pioneering commercial aviation,
primarily through exhibits of memorabilia
FAA
AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2023

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