TWA Overhaul Base Closing

That's right. I said the TWA Overhaul Base. I was never able to accept the American Airlines thing.

My dad worked at the TWA Overhaul Base for over 20 years before retiring. He would come home from his twighlight shift wearing those overalls and smelling of jet fuel and cold weather.

When I was born, he was a sheet metal worker for the Continental Can Company in Coffeyville, KS.

From there, he got a job at the Boeing Overhaul Base in Wichita working on the B-52 Stratofortress.


In 1964 he landed at the TWA Overhaul Base in Kansas City and worked there until he retired.

TWA still had a major corporate presence in Kansas City in those days.


They still had Lockheed Super Constellations in their fleet.


Beautiful fucking airplane! The most graceful bird to ever fly. I remeber seeing them in the sky, still full of passengers.


Back when passengers dressed up to fly somewhere because it was still a special occasion and you were pampered like you were aboard a flying cruise ship.


I remember when TWA finally retired the Constellations and coverted to an all-jet fleet in 1967. It was a big deal. They had a big open house at the Overhaul base for employees and their families.

Just like they did a couple of years later when they bought their first 747's.


And in 1984 when the Space Shuttle prototype Enterprise made a stop at the TWA Overhaul base perched atop its 747 carrier vehicle.



I don't care if they find someone else to lease the property as an Olympic training facility or a Mega Flea Market. It will always be the TWA Overhaul Base to me.