Though known for the “Spirit of St. Louis,” Charles A. Lindbergh also sparked Kansas City’s spirit of aviation. Lindbergh flew in and out of Kansas City frequently, and had trained at Richards Field in 1925. On August 17, 1927, just three months after his transatlantic flight, Lindbergh flew in to dedicate Kansas City’s new downtown airport where he was greeted by a crowd of 10,000 admirers. Festivities included a speech, parade, and a banquet at the Hotel President.
Two years later, Lindbergh helped convince Transcontinental Air Transport—which became TWA—to make Kansas City its world headquarters. By the early ‘30s, Kansas City would become the overnight stop on the nation’s first regular coast-to-coast air service, and—as shown in this letter from Lindbergh to Lou Holland—become one of the nation’s air centers.
Transcontinental Air Transport opened their international headquarters in Kansas City in 1929. In July of that year the company launched its first coast-to-coast route service. Lindbergh, a technical advisor for T.A.T. (Amelia Earhart served as assistant to the general manager), designed the route, in which passengers took a train from New York to Port Columbus, Ohio; flew to Waynoka, Oklahoma; took another train to Clovis, New Mexico; and flew the final leg to Los Angeles. The trip took 48 hours and cost $351 one way.
In 1939, Hughes' fame and fortune caught the attention of Jack Howard HughesFrye, the president of TWA. Frye was bitterly feuding with board members who were against new plane purchases. At Frye's urging, Hughesquietly bought up a majority of TWA stock and took over the company. Now that Hughes owned TWA, federal law prohibited him from building his own planes. Seeking a plane which could perform better than TWA's current fleet of Boeing Stratoliners, Hughes approached Boeing's competitor, Lockheed. He already had established a good relationship with the manufacturer, since it had built the plane Hughes used in his record flight around the world. Lockheed agreed to Hughes' demand that the plane be built in absolute secrecy. The end result was the revolutionary new plane, the Constellation. The Constellation's pressurized cabin allowed the plane to fly at greater altitudes, enabling the plane to fly above most air turbulence, thus providing passengers with a more comfortable flying experience. The rarefied air at that altitude also cuts down on drag, enabling the plane to cruise at the incredible speed of 280 miles per hour - dramatically faster than its competitors.
Over the next decade, Hughes and TWA would profit from the tremendous success of the Constellation, and its successor, the Super Constellation.
A fully resorred Constellation or "Connie" can be seen at the Airline History Museum is located at the Historic Charles Wheeler Downtown Airport, in Kansas City, Missouri. To walk through it is to truly step back in time, to a different and more graceful age of air transportation. The museum contains a collection of photographs, artifacts, printed material, and audio/visual displays that will bring you the true flavor of an age gone by. Uniforms, galley items, instrumentation, logbooks, personal mementos, and so much more to bring to life the propeller-driven era. Then there is our aircraft collection which includes the Queen of our fleet, the Lockheed L1049 "Super G" Constellation, a Martin 404, and a Douglas DC-3, which is undergoing restoration.
Hours of operation are Monday through Saturday, 10am to 4pm, and Sunday, 12pm to 4pm. Admission to the Museum and to tour the aircraft is $7.00 for age 14 and over, $6.00 for age 65 and over, $3.00 for ages 6-13.
Children under 6 are free with a paid adult admission.
Special thanks to the Airline History Museum and the PBS series "Chasing the Sun" for contributing to this page.
sparked Kansas City’s spirit of aviation. Lindbergh flew in and out of Kansas City frequently, and had trained at Richards Field in 1925. On August 17, 1927, just three months after his transatlantic flight, Lindbergh flew in to dedicate Kansas City’s new downtown airport where he was greeted by a crowd of 10,000 admirers. Festivities included a speech, parade, and a banquet at the Hotel President. 
Constellation. The Constellation's pressurized cabin allowed the plane to fly at greater altitudes, enabling the plane to fly above most air turbulence, thus providing passengers with a more comfortable flying experience. The rarefied air at that altitude also cuts down on drag, enabling the plane to cruise at the incredible speed of 280 miles per hour - dramatically faster than its competitors.
