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 May 15, 2025. The airport was ...

. 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 airline in the United States that operated from 1930 until it was acquired by American Airlines in 2001. It was formed as Transcontinental & Western Air to operate a route from New York City to Los Angeles ...

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

American Airlines American Airlines, Inc. is a major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, and is the Largest airlines in the world, largest airline in the ...

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 (also known as Smith's) was a manufacturer of electric trucks. The company, founded in 1920 in the north of England, moved its headquarters to Kansas City, Missouri in 2011. Smith suspended all operations in 2017. Smith ...

(US), Jet Midwest and Nordic Windpower).

Frontier Airlines Frontier Airlines, Inc. is a major American ultra low-cost airline headquartered in Denver, Colorado. It operates flights to over 120 destinations in the United States, Caribbean, Mexico and Central America, and employs more than 5,000 staff. ...

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 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 The Missouri River is a river in the Central United States, Central and Mountain states, Mountain West regions of the United States. The nation's longest, it rises in the eastern Centennial Mountains of the Bitterroot Range of the Rocky Moun ...

. 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 F- ...

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

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 opened to replace Kansas City Downtown Airport 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 List of municipalities in Oklahoma, second-most-populous city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the List of United States cities by population, 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The po ...

and American formally cut the ties in September 2010.

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

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 on across Runway 9/27 directly south of the plant being developed by

Trammell Crow Company Trammell Crow Company is a global real estate development firm. It has been a subsidiary of CBRE Group since 2006. History The company was founded by Trammell Crow Fred Trammell Crow (June 10, 1914 – January 14, 2009) was an American real est ...

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