Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport
FAA airport diagram
IATA: MKC – ICAO: KMKC – FAA: MKC
Summary
Airport type		Public
Owner		Kansas City Aviation Department
Location		Kansas City, Missouri
Elevation AMSL		759 ft / 231 m
Coordinates		39°07′24″N 094°35′34″W / 39.12333, -94.59278
Website		www.flyMKC.com
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	ft	m	Surface
1/19	7,002	2,134	Concrete
3/21	5,050	1,539	Asphalt
Statistics (2006)
Aircraft operations			83,219
Based aircraft			229
Source: Federal Aviation Administration^[1]

Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport (IATA: MKC, ICAO: KMKC, FAA LID: MKC)^[2], 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.^[1]

1 History
2 Facilities
3 Incidents
4 References
5 External links

[edit] History

The city considered calling the airport "Peninsula Field" because of the sharp bend in the Missouri River around the airport

The airport from Quality Hill. The Broadway Bridge (Kansas City) is on the right. The Fairfax Assembly plant (the former Fairfax Airport) is the big building across the Missouri River on the left.

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 (Fairfax Airport directly across the Missouri River in Kansas City, Kansas was actually bigger area wise before it closed). Airplanes have had to avoid the 200-foot (60 m) Quality Hill and 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 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. [1][2]

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 Airline History Museum which focuses extensively on the TWA history.

[edit] Facilities

Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport covers an area of 700 acres (283 ha) which contains two runways:^[1]

Runway 1/19: 7,002 x 150 ft. (2,134 x 46 m), Surface: Concrete
Runway 3/21: 5,050 x 150 ft. (1,539 x 46 m), Surface: Asphalt

As of October 10, 2006, construction on runway 1-19 is complete and both runways are in use to their full length.

Taxiway H was at one time part of runway 17/35. This runway was closed after an FAA decision on the amount of required separation between terminal buildings and the runway.

Kansas City, MO Aviation Department announced plans on October 17, 2006 to build a $20 million aircraft hangar complex at the Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport including: 122 T-hangars, 13 box hangars, a 40,000-square-foot (4,000 m²) terminal building with offices, a pilots' lounge, meeting rooms and a destination restaurant.

[edit] Incidents

On March 31, 1931 Notre Dame Coach Knute Rockne was killed on Transcontinental & Western Air Flight 599 from Kansas City to Los Angeles when the Fokker Trimotor broke up in a storm over Bazaar, Kansas. Rockne had been visiting his sons at Pembroke-Country Day School. The crash nearly put TWA out business because it highlighted its aging fleet. The crash was to usher in a golden era for TWA when it replaced the aging fleet with state of the art aircraft.
On January 16, 1942 Transcontinental & Western Air Flight 3 to Los Angeles impacted Mount Potosi in Nevada after a refueling stop in Las Vegas killing 22. Actress Carole Lombard was among the victims.
On June 30, 1956 Trans World Airlines Flight 2, a Lockheed Super Constellation, was headed for Kansas City Downtown Airport. Over the Grand Canyon it collided with a United Airlines Douglas DC-7 killing all 128 people on both planes.
On May 22, 1962 Continental Airlines Flight 11 enroute from Chicago O'Hare International Airport to Kansas City Downtown Airport exploded over Unionville, Missouri. All 45 on board were killed.
On July 1, 1965 Continental Airlines Flight 12 from Los Angeles International Airport landed in heavy rain and was unable to stop due to hydroplaning. It impacted a blast mound and broke into 3 pieces but all 66 on board survived.
On August 6, 1966 Braniff Airways Flight 250 left Kansas City Downtown Airport headed for Omaha and crashed near Falls City, Nebraska killing all 42 on board.
The airport is built on the north side of the confluence of the Kansas River and Missouri River. Levees protected the airport relatively well during Great Flood of 1951 and Great Flood of 1993 although there were issues of standing water. The 1951 flood devastated the Fairfax airport and caused Kansas City to build what would become Kansas City International Airport away from the river in order to keep the TWA overhaul base in the area after it had been destroyed in the flood at Fairfax.