Established 1995 Website www.deltamuseum.org Founded 1995 | Phone +1 404-715-7886 | |
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Address 1060 Delta Blvd B-914, Atlanta, GA 30354, USA Hours Closed now Sunday12–4:30PMMonday10AM–4:30PMTuesday10AM–4:30PMWednesdayClosedThursday10AM–4:30PMFriday10AM–4:30PMSaturday10AM–4:30PM Similar Michael C Carlos Museum, Children's Museum of Atlanta, Fernbank Science Center, Carnegie Education Pavilion, Atlanta from the Ashes Profiles | ||
Delta flight museum
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.
Contents
- Delta flight museum
- Delta flight museum during ai2015
- Origins
- Historic Hangar 1
- Historic Hangar 2
- Outdoor collection
- Delta Ship 6301 N661US
- Collections exhibitions and facilities
- References
The museum opened to the general public in June 2014. Prior to that, Delta employee ID or prior arrangement was required to access the campus in which the museum is located.
Delta flight museum during ai2015
Origins
The idea for a museum about Delta Air Lines originated when a group of retirees started a campaign in 1990 to find one of the original five Douglas DC-3's that Delta purchased new in the early 1940s. 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 1995 to October 8, 1999, the plane was painstakingly restored to its exact original configuration & appearance when it was first delivered to Delta back in 1940 by active and retired Delta mechanics. Delta Ship 41 is by far one of the most faithfully restored passenger transport DC-3's 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, Delta Ship 41 is the only remaining Douglas DC-3 out of the original five planes that Delta purchased new directly from Douglas Aircraft Company in 1940 and is still the only remaining Delta passenger Douglas DC-3 left in existence. Delta Air Lines is the only major air carrier known still possess its first new revenue carrying DC-3.
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.
Historic Hangar 1
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:
Historic Hangar 2
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. 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: a Boeing 757-200 registered N608DA (ship 608, manufactured in 1985), a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-50 registered N675MC (ship no. 9880, built in 1975), and N661US (ship no. 6301), the former prototype 747-400 built in 1988.
Delta Ship 6301 (N661US)
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.
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, having logged more than 61 million miles of flight over its lifetime.
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.
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. 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.
Collections, exhibitions, and facilities
The Museum's collections and facilities include: