Fairfax Field Fairfax Field was the Kansas City airport used by 1935 USMC and 1937 Army flight training centers and for a government - leased WWII airfield in Kansas of the United States Army Air Forces . The airfield was adjacent to federal land used for WWII facilities that included a North American plant for building B - 25 Mitchell bombers , a B - 25 modification center , and a Military Air Transport air terminal . Post - war the Army Air Base structures were used for airliner servicing by TWA and jet & auto production by General Motors , which built a 1985 automotive factory on the airfield when the " Fairfax Municipal Airport " closed . Sweeney & Fairfax airports . Sweeney Airport was first used for a 1921 " American Legion air meet " and was subsequently mapped on a 1928 " Commerce Department Airway Bulletin " . The municipal airport was located ~ north of the center of Kansas City which had an Air Service facility in the 1920s . Fairfax Field of was named in 1928 when Sweeney Airport " was taken over by Wood Brothers Corporation " before Colonel Charles A . Lindbergh and Phil Love landed " in Love ' s Ryan monoplane " on 2 August 1928 . ) Dedicated in 1929 , the facility was operated by the " Fairfax Airport Company " , and the 1st Fairfax passenger service aircraft of the Universal Aviation Corporation was a Fokker Super Universal cabin plane ( 5 passengers ) . The Southwest Air Service Express airline scheduled flights from " Fairfax Air Port " to Dallas / Ft Worth in March 1929 , and a " Travelair six - passenger carrier of Central Air Lines crashed on approach to Fairfax in January 1930 . By 1933 a terminal and hangars were in place and the field had been lengthened to with airlines including American , Braniff , and US Airways . Aviation training . A naval reserve air base was established at Fairfax Field in 1935 ( a USN squadron and a USMC sq were established July 12 ) , and in 1937 Army Captain Wisehart was the " unit intructor " at th Fairfax " army reserve base " with , and by 1938 the airport had 4 runways , including one long , ( the Eddie Fisher Flying Service provided lessons . ) In charge of Fairfax ' s " U . S . Naval Reserve aviation base " during 1940 was Lieutenant Commander W . B . Ault , and the base had a 30 day course for pre - flight training . The " Marine Air Flight Program " established by 1 September 1940 at Fairfax ' s Navy Elimination Air Base ( E - base ) used " a physical and mental examination … ten hours of dual instruction … check rides and a fifteen - minute solo flight " for screening candidates to become Naval Aviation Cadets . After a Fairfax " naval flying cadet … crashed into the Missouri river two miles northwest of the Fairfax air base " on 16 June 1942 , Fairfax ' s naval aviation training moved in July to the United States Naval Aviation Reserve Base at Olathe KS . North American Aviation ' s president had inspected the field for a WWII aircraft plant by December 1940 when the US government approved construction of a Kansas City production plant for Army B - 25 and Navy PBJ - 1D bombers . Survey work began in December , and the city of Kansas City , Kansas , purchased the airport in February . The United States Army Air Forces leased the Fairfax Airport from the city and expanded the 4 civilian runways with concrete of 150 feet in width and 185 , 000 square yards of parking apron . The government also purchased an alfalfa field of for the plant and for right - of - way to the airfield . 1941 Kansas City B - 25 plant . Air Force Plant NC ( NAA - K company ID , Government Assembly Plant No . 2 , facility ID # 2503 ) was a " government - owned , contractor - operated " plant of North American Aviation for which groundbreaking was on 8 March 1941 . Contract W535 AC 19341 for the initial 1200 B - 25D ( NA - 87 ) bombers was approved on June 28 , 1941 ; production began in December 1941 , and Fairfax ' s 1st B - 25D was accepted by the USAAF in February 1942 ( the first production block was B - 25D - 1 ) . North American provided parts for the first 100 Fairfax B - 25Ds came from AFP # 09 in Inglewood , California , and the company had a test flight office at Fairfax . The Fairfax plant ' s employment peaked at 24 , 329 in October 1943 , and the 1st Fairfax B - 25J was accepted in December 1943 . D model production ended in March 1944 with block 35 ( B - 25D - 35 - NA ) and after North American ' s California ended B - 25 production on July 7 , 1944 ; Fairfax was the sole source for B - 25 Mitchells and set a January 1945 record with AAF acceptance of 315 Fairfax aircraft . Lockheed P - 80 Shooting Star production planning included a February 1945 visit by two Lockheed representatives to Fairfax , and in April Lockheed shipped a P - 80 to the bomber plant for study . Work began on building P - 80 jigs , space was cleared for P - 80 production in the high bay , and the B - 25 assembly line was shortened . B - 25J production scheduled through December 1945 was terminated August 15 , the day after V - J day . Fairfax had built 2 , 290 B - 24Ds ( 152 Navy PBJ - 1D variants ) and 4 , 318 B - 25Js — more than half of the 10 , 000 WWII B - 25s . The federal Reconstruction Finance Corporation set up a depot in the Fairfax district to liquidate war surplus not sent to depots or elsewhere for government use ( reusable materials like aluminum and steel were reclamed . ) Seventy - two incomplete but flyable B - 25Js were sold to the public . Military units . The 2d Ferrying Squadron of the 5th Ferrying Group was moved by Air Transport Command from Dallas Love Field to Fairfax on 15 April 1943 , and the squadron ferried out 157 B - 25s during May . Of 1 , 881 deliveries in 1943 by the Ground Ferrying Squadron all but 129 were B - 25 ' s , but at the end of that year pilots from Fairfax began ferrying B - 26 Marauder s from the Omaha modification center and B - 24 Liberator s from a St . Paul facility . From May - Sep 1944 a detachment of Women Airforce Service Pilots was at Fairfax . 33d Ferrying Group . The 33d Ferrying Group was designated on 1 April 1944 from the 2d Ferrying Squadron , which had been separated from the 5th Group on 1 January 1944 ( 393 officers and 578 enlisted men at the end of 1944 ) . From Fairfax the 33d delivered 6 , 202 aircraft to CONUS bases and 251 abroad . On 22 September 1944 the 33d Ferrying Group began daily scheduled Military Air Transport ( MAT ) flights with military cargo / passengers to Minneapolis and Omaha ( 2 more daily flights were later added . ) On 9 November 1944 the 33d Group furnished plane and crew to fly Senator Harry S . Truman from Fairfax to Washington for ceremonies following his election as Vice - President , and in early 1945 the 33d controlled ten operating locations . . During the Fairfax transition to P - 80 production , the 33d Ferrying Group was discontinued and for ferrying , Fairfax became an operating location of Rosecrans Army Airfield on 15 April 1945 with its pilots traveling to Fairfax for sorties . Fairfax Air Force Base . Fairfax Air Force Base was the military installation ' s designation when President Truman ' s Constellation used the airfield in August 1948 after 2 reserve units had been established at Fairfax Field . The 4101st Army Air Force Base Unit ( Reserve Training ) had been activated at Fairfax on 12 July 1946 ( redesignated 2472d AF Reserve Training Center on 28 August 1948 ) and at the beginning of USAF planning , Fairfax activated the 564th Bombardment Squadron on 6 January 1947 which sent 127 pilots to 1948 summer camp . Iin October 1948 , 37 Air Force Reserve planes at Fairfax flew 1 , 844 hours and in 1949 , the 564th was replaced by the 442d Troop Carrier Wing ( activated 27 June ) . Despite a 1948 plan for the base to " be withdrawn from surplus " , in " October 1949 the U . S . Air Force terminated its lease on Fairfax Airport , and the city of Kansas City , Kansas , regained control of the facility " . On 22 May 1950 , Fairfax ' s 2472d Center and 442d Wing moved to Naval Air Technical Training Center Olathe . Central Air Defense Force headquarters . The USAF ' s Central Air Defense Force ( CADF ) was activated with headquarters at Fairfax Air Force Base on 1 March 1951 , on 24 April the Central Army Antiaircraft Command was " established with HQ at Kansas City " ( organized 1 May 1951 ) , and on 1 July the USAF 35th Air Division was activated at Kansas City ( moved to Dobbins AFB in September ) . The 4610th Air Base Squadron evacuated due to a fire during the Great Flood of 1951 ( " 4610 Air Base Group " in 1952 ) . Two Air Divisions ( 34th at Kirtland AFB & 29th ( Great Falls ) Air Divisions were reassigned to the CADF on 1 March 1953 when the latter was " expanded to include North and South Dakota and Nebraska " ( the 4676th Air Defense Group began flying F - 86 Sabres from Fairfax at the end of 1953 . ) The 1953 Fairfax AFB F - 94 crash occurred when Lockheed F - 94C - 1 - LO Starfire number 50 - 969 departed Fairfax for Scott AFB but on attempting a return , struck a dike short of the runway and killed the pilot and radar operator . From 18 December 1953 – 1 March 1954 the 326th Fighter - Interceptor Squadron was assigned to Fairfax , and the 1954 Kansas City F - 84 crash near the city ' s business district killed the pilot and 3 residents after takeoff from Fairfax AFB . In early 1954 after the 24 February Eisenhower statement for the " New Look " policy , Air Defense Command was reorganized under Continental Air Defense Command and all Fairfax ADC units moved nearby to Grandview AFB , Missouri , and Fairfax became a general aviation airport . Buick - Oldsmobile - Pontiac plant . Buick - Oldsmobile - Pontiac plant of General Motors adjacent to Fairfax Air Force Base , was initiated with the " November 7 , 1945 [ announcement ] that General Motors had signed a five - year lease for the former bomber plant " ( purchased by GM in 1960 . ) " The reconverted factory finished its first automobile in June 1946 " , and in 1953 when the F - 84F Thunderflash fighter was unveiled , its assembly line was in the same building as the automotive production line . General Motors produced 599 F - 84Fs at the Fairfax plant , and this was the only time that aircraft & auto production have been run down parallel lines simultaneously . Fairfax Municipal Airport . Fairfax Municipal Airport ( KCK ) was established for general aviation in early 1954 . It was the July 1955 landing site of a TWA DC - 3 that " had just taken off from Fairfax " before a collision with a Cessna of Baker ' s Flying Service . The Cessna was destroyed . The airport was added to the USGS Geographic Names Information System on 13 October 1978 , and the airport ' s last flight departed on March 31 , 1985 . General Motors Fairfax Assembly Plant was completed in 1985 on the runways of Fairfax Field , and production at the former bomber plant ceased in May 1987 ( razed in 1989 ) .