Delta Flight Museum

Delta Flight Museum

Location within Metro Atlanta
Established	1995
Location	Delta Air Lines HQ campus, 1060 Delta Boulevard, Hapeville, Georgia
Coordinates	33°39′23″N 84°25′23″W / 33.656410°N 84.422927°W / 33.656410; -84.422927
Type	Aviation museum
Website	www.deltamuseum.org

The Delta Flight Museum is an aviation and corporate museum located in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, near the airline's main hub at the Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The museum is housed in two 1940s-era Delta Air Lines maintenance hangars, which were used until the 1960s when the Delta Technical Operations Center, formerly known as the Jet Base, was completed. The museum is a nonprofit organization and relies on volunteers, donations, special event rentals and Museum Store sales. The Delta Museum is considered an ongoing project and it collects various items year round.

The museum opened to the general public in June 2014.^[1] Prior to that, Delta employee ID or prior arrangement was required to access the campus in which the museum is located.

Origins

The idea for a Delta museum originated when a group of retirees started a campaign to find one of Delta's Douglas DC-3's in 1990. After some searching, the employees struck gold when they found Delta Ship 41, Delta's first DC-3 to carry passengers, in Puerto Rico performing cargo services. The group bought the plane from the cargo airline and the Delta Air Transport Heritage Museum was started. From 1993 to 1999, the plane was painstakingly restored to its 1940's condition by active and retired Delta mechanics. Delta Ship 41 is one of the most faithfully restored passenger transport DC-3s in the world, evidenced by the fact that in 2001, it was the first aircraft to be presented with an award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

On May 23, 1995, the Delta Air Transport Heritage Museum was incorporated under Georgia law as an independent nonprofit corporation, organized exclusively for public charitable uses and purposes and qualified under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.^[2]

Historic Hangar 1

Delta Ship 41 in Historic Hangar 1, with the Stinson Reliant in the background.

In Hangar One is the Monroe Cafe, a full-scale replica of Delta's former Monroe, Louisiana headquarters. It served as Delta's headquarters from 1934 to 1941, when headquarters were moved to Atlanta. The "hub" of Hangar One is the Delta Archives. It houses more than 200,000 images, 1,000 films, one of the world's largest airline uniform collections, as well as an aviation reference library.

Hangar 1 also houses several of the museum's restored aircraft, which include:

• Ship 41, Delta's first passenger-carrying DC-3 and the museum's most prized piece.
• A 1931 Travel Air 6000, symbolizing the airline's first passenger aircraft.^[3]
• A Huff-Daland Duster biplane replica, representing the first aircraft operated by Delta's predecessor.
• A 1936 Stinson Reliant SE. Nicknamed the “Gull Wing,” this unique aircraft served as an instrument trainer for Northeast Airlines pilots in 1941-1942.

Historic Hangar 2

The Spirit of Delta in restoration hangar.

Hangar 2 houses Delta Ship 102, The Spirit of Delta. Acquired in 1982, it was the company's first Boeing 767-200. It was paid for "by voluntary contributions from employees, retirees and Delta's community partners." The effort, called Project 767, was spearheaded by three Delta flight attendants to show the employees' appreciation to Delta for "solid management and strong leadership during the first years following airline deregulation." The aircraft was repainted in a commemorative paint scheme and toured the country to celebrate the airline's 75th anniversary in 2004.^[4] The airplane remained the flagship of the Delta fleet until March 2006 (it was later replaced with a Boeing 777-200LR named "The Delta Spirit"). The aircraft arrived at the museum on March 3, 2006 after a farewell tour around the United States. Additional exhibit items in Hangar 2 include the forward fuselage of the prototype Lockheed L-1011 (formerly home to the museum store), the cockpit section of a Convair 880, the tail section of a Douglas DC-9, and a 737 flight simulator, in which brief rides are sold to the public during some special events.

Outdoor collection

The museum's collection also includes three other aircraft which are parked outdoors around the edges of the museum parking lot: Delta Ship 608, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-50 built in 1975,^[5] Delta Ship 9880, a Boeing 757-200 built in 1985,^[6] and Delta Ship 6301, a 747-400 built in 1988.

Delta Ship 6301 (N661US)

Delta Ship 6301 (N661US), the first production 747-400, at the museum.

Most significant of the three is Delta Ship 6301 (tail number N661US), the first production Boeing 747-400. N661US was delivered to Northwest Airlines on January 26, 1989.^[7]

On Northwest Flight 85 in 2002, a rudder malfunction caused it to make an emergency landing in Anchorage, Alaska while on its way to Tokyo from Detroit.

When Northwest merged with Delta in 2009, N661US became Delta Ship 6301 and continued passenger operations for Delta until it was retired on September 9, 2015,^[8] having logged more than 61 million miles of flight over its lifetime.^[9]

The following April, the jumbo jet was moved across two streets from a parking spot on the tarmac at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport to its permanent home in the museum parking lot.^[8][10]

A funding campaign called The Airloom Project was conducted by Delta employees with the aim of converting Ship 6301 and the parking lot surrounding it into an outdoor exhibit similar to The Spirit of Delta inside.^[11] Museum visitors will be able to enter the aircraft via stairs and an elevator and walk on a section of the wing surrounded by safety railings. Like the Spirit of Delta inside, the economy section will be removed and turned into exhibit space, while the first class and flight deck sections will remain intact. In addition, the cargo hold will be emptied and glass floor panels in the exhibit space will allow visitors to get a glimpse of its size.^[12]

Collections, exhibitions, and facilities

The Museum's collections and facilities include:

• The Spirit of Delta, Delta’s first Boeing 767, which was bought by employees, retirees, and friends and donated to Delta in 1982. The rear segment of the aircraft has been converted into exhibition space and houses two exhibitions, while the cockpit, galley, and first class section remain intact.
• “Ship 41”, the first DC-3 to carry Delta passengers, which was restored by volunteers and a core mechanic team from 1993-1999. In 2001, Ship 41 became the first aircraft to be presented an award by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
• A 1931 Travel Air, symbolizing Delta's first passenger aircraft.
• A 1936 Stinson Reliant SE. Nicknamed the “Gull Wing,” this unique aircraft served as an instrument trainer for Northeast Airlines pilots in 1941-1942.
• Professionally-managed archives of artifacts related to Delta and its ancestor airlines. The Archives maintains over 200,000 images, 1,000 films, and one of the world's largest airline uniform collections in a museum.
• Aviation reference library.
• Temporary exhibits.
• A McDonnell Douglas DC-9, N675MC^[13]
• Replica of the first Delta station in Monroe, Louisiana.
• The forward fuselage of the first Lockheed L-1011 built. Delta at one time operated almost 60 of the type, although the museum's example was not among them.
• N661US, the first Boeing 747-400 ever built ^[8] which was retired on September 9, 2015 after serving since December 8, 1989 with Northwest Airlines. This plane was involved in an incident in 2002, operating as Northwest Airlines Flight 85.^[10]
• A Boeing 757-200, N608DA ^[14]

References

External links

• The Delta Flight Museum
• The Airloom Project