From Wiki:
"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 close to the Missouri River. TWA's plant had been in the former North American Aviation B-25 Mitchell bomber plant at Fairfax. TWA labeled the building MCIE (after the airport's original name of Mid-Continent International Airport).[1] The airline also moved its large overhaul operations at the New Castle County Airport in Delaware to Kansas City.[2]"
From another source, flyvtwa.com/index.php/pages/historyoftwa :
"July, 1951
The Missouri River floods at Kansas City, extensively damaging the TWA overhaul base at Kansas City, Kansas, Fairfax Municipal Airport. In the aftermath of the flood TWA and Kansas City begin development of a new, flood-proof TWA overhaul base and a new international airport north of the city."
And:
"1957
TWA occupies its new $25 million maintenance and overhaul base at Mid- Continent International Airport, Kansas City. Fifteen years later, in 1972, commercial air service for the Kansas City region is relocated from TWA's long-time home at Municipal Airport to Mid- Continent, which is renamed Kansas City International Airport."
Why move from Downtown Airport? Maybe this, also from Wiki:
"The airport had limited area for expansion (Fairfax Airport across the Missouri River in Kansas City, Kansas covered a larger area). Airplanes had to avoid the 200-foot (60 m) Quality Hill and the Downtown Kansas City skyline south of 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."
And:
"Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport covers an area of 700 acres (283 ha) at an elevation of 756 feet (230 m) above mean sea level.[1] It has two runways: 1/19 is 6,827 by 150 feet (2,081 x 46 m) with a concrete surface[1] (EMAS at south end)[4] and 3/21 is 5,050 by 100 feet (1,539 x 30 m) with an asphalt surface.[1]
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.
The airport is on the north side of the confluence of the Kansas River and Missouri River. Levees protected the airport relatively well during the Great Flood of 1951 and the Great Flood of 1993 although there was 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 to keep the TWA overhaul base in the area after it had been destroyed in the flood at Fairfax."
Now, to wrap it up. From
www.airports-worldwide.com/usa/missouri/kansas_city..
.
"History
Kansas City Industrial Airport
The airport (originally informally called Kansas City Industrial Airport) was built after the Great Flood of 1951 destroyed the facilities of both of Kansas City's hometown airlines Mid-Continent Airlines and TWA at Fairfax Airport across the Missouri River from the city's main Kansas City Municipal Airport (which was not as severely damaged in the flood).
Fairfax was the main hub for passenger and airmail traffic handled by Mid-Continent. TWA had its main overhaul base in a former B-25 bomber factory at Fairfax, although TWA commercial flights flew out of the main downtown airport.
Kansas City was planning to build an airport that could handle 10,000-foot (3,000 m) runways and recognized that its expansion options were limited at the downtown airport.
At the time, Kansas City already owned Grandview Airport south of the city which had ample room for expansion. However, Kansas City chose to build an entirely new airport north of the city away from the Missouri River following intense lobbying by Platte County native Jay B. Dillingham, president of the Kansas City Stockyards which had also been destroyed in the flood.
The specific site just north of the then unincorporated hamlet of Hampton, Missouri was picked in May 1953 (with an anticipated cost of $23 million) under the guidance of City Manager L.P. Cookingham. Cookingham Drive is now the main access road to the airport. Ground was broken in September 1954. The first jet runways opened in 1956. At about the same time the city donated the southern Grandview Airport to the United States Air Force to become Richards-Gebaur Air Force Base.
The airport site was directly across U.S. 71 (now I-29) from the Red Crown Tourist Court where outlaws Bonnie & Clyde engaged in a 1933 shootout with law enforcement which ultimately resulted in the death of Clyde's brother Buck Barrow and the capture of Buck's wife Blanche Barrow.
Mid-Continent International Airport
Although Mid Continent merged with Braniff in 1952, Kansas City decided to name the new airport on the basis of Mid Continent's historic roots (serving the Mid-continent Oil Field).
TWA formally signed an agreement to move its overhaul base to the airport in 1954 in which the city built and owned the $18 million base but lease it back to TWA.
The downtown airport continued to have regularly scheduled passenger service until a 1963 Federal Aviation Agency memo called the downtown airport "one of the poorest major airports in the country for large jet aircraft" and recommended against spending any more federal dollars on it.
In addition to the meager expansion limits, there were questions whether the downtown site could handle the new Boeing 747. Jets had to make steep climbs and descents to avoid the downtown skyscrapers on the 200-foot (61 m) high Missouri River bluffs at Quality Hill at the south end of the runway. Further, Downtown Kansas City was right in the flight path for takeoffs and landings, resulting in a constant roar downtown while Mid-Continent was surrounded by open farm land.
TWA's "Airport of the Future"
In 1966 voters in a 24:1 margin approved a $150 million bond issue following a campaign by Mayor Ilus W. Davis to move the city's main airport to an expanded Mid-Continent. The city had considered building its new airport five miles (8 km) north of downtown Kansas City in the Missouri River bottoms as well as locations in southern Jackson County, Missouri, but decided to stick with the property it already owned.
As a side note, I guess KCMO struck the first blow in the economic development war by stealing these jobs from Kansas.
Statistics: Posted by aknowledgeableperson — Fri Aug 14, 2015 1:07 am