History
This airport replaced Richards Field as Kansas City's main airport. It was dedicated as New Richards Field in 1927 by Charles Lindbergh. It was quickly renamed Kansas City Municipal Airport. Its most prominent tenant was TWA which was headquartered in Kansas City because of its central location. The airport was built in the Missouri River bottoms next to the rail tracks at the Hannibal Bridge. At the time air travel was considered to be handled in conjunction with rail traffic.
The airport had limited area for expansion (in fact, Fairfax Airport directly across the Missouri River in Kansas City, Kansas was actually bigger area wise before it closed). Airplanes had to avoid the 200-foot (60 m) Quality Hill and the Downtown Kansas City skyline at the south end of the main runway. In the early 1960s an FAA memo called it "the most dangerous major airport in the country" and urged that no further federal funds be spent on it. Kansas City replaced the airport in 1972 with Kansas City International Airport.
The April 1957 edition of the Official Airline Guide (OAG) listed the following weekday departures from MKC:
- Braniff International Airways - 40 flights
- Trans World Airlines (TWA) - 39 flights
- Continental Airlines - 9 flights
- United Air Lines - 4 flights
- Delta Air Lines - 2 flights
- Ozark Airlines - 2 flights
- Central Airlines - 2 flights
In 1966, Frontier Airlines chose the airport as one of the first destinations to be served with its new Boeing 727-100 jetliners. Frontier operated nonstop Boeing 727 jet service from MKC to Denver, CO, Lincoln, NE and St. Louis, MO. At this same time, Frontier was flying direct, no change of plane Boeing 727 service from the airport to Albuquerque, NM, El Paso, TX, Grand Junction, CO, and Salt Lake City, UT.
The downtown airport has been renamed for Charles Wheeler who was mayor when Kansas City International opened. Richards Road which serves the airport is named for John Francisco Richards II, a Kansas City airman killed in World War I (and whose name was also applied to Richards Field and Richards-Gebaur Air Force Base).
Despite the concerns about the airport being unsafe, Air Force One frequently uses it during Presidential visits.
Today, the airport is used chiefly for corporate and recreational aviation. Its location just north of the downtown business center provides excellent highway access.
It is home to the National Airline History Museum which focuses extensively on commercial airlines.
Read more about this topic: Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport
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