Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport

Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport is a city owned, public use airport serving Kansas City, Missouri, United States. Located in Clay County, this facility is included in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems, which categorized it as a general aviation reliever airport.HistoryThis airport replaced Richards Field as Kansas City's main airport. It was dedicated as New Richards Field in 1927 by Charles Lindbergh and was soon renamed Kansas City Municipal Airport. Its prominent tenant was Trans World Airlines (TWA) which was headquartered in Kansas City. 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 across the Missouri River in Kansas City, Kansas covered a larger area). Airplanes had to avoid the 200ft 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. Kansas City replaced the airport in 1972 with Kansas City International Airport.