Delta Heritage Museum
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The Delta Air Lines Air Transport Heritage Museum is a company museum located in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The museum is housed in 1950s-era Delta Air Lines maintenance hangars, which was converted in the 1960s to the Delta Technical Operations center when the Jet Base was completed. The museum is fully maintained by retired and active employees all by donations and sales made at the museum. The Delta museum is considered an ongoing project and it collects various items year round.
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[edit] 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 DL 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. Ship 41 is considered the most perfectly restored passenger transport DC-3 in the world.[citation needed] In 2001, Delta Ship 41 was the winner of the first National Trust for Historic Preservation award presented to an aircraft.
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.
[edit] Collection
Hangar 1 houses a modified Lockheed L-1011 that was bought from the Walt Disney Corporation and cut down to just the cockpit and first class cabin. This particular L-1011 was the first L-1011 manufactured by Lockheed. The cockpit is fully lit with all controls still movable. The cabin is a museum store where Delta memorabilia can be purchased.
Also in Hangar One is 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 their operations to Atlanta. It is now known as Monroe Cafe where food and snacks can be purchased. 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 2 houses the museum's restored aircraft which includes:
- Ship 41, the prize of the Delta museum which is Delta's first DC-3 to carry Delta passengers.
- A 1931 Beechcraft Travel Air, symbolizing the airline's first passenger aircraft.
- A crop duster from Delta's predecessor company Huff Daland Dusters, on long-term lease from the Smithsonian Institution
- Other temporary exhibits
- A showcase of items taken from Delta aircraft that are now on sale, such as first class seats from retired Delta planes, dinner flatware, aircraft parts, etc.
[edit] The Spirit of Delta
The latest addition to the museum is expected to be Delta Ship 102, the company's first Boeing 767-200 acquired in 1982. 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. [1] The airplane remained the flagship of the Delta fleet until 2006, when it was donated by Delta on March 3, 2006 after a farewell tour around the United States. A photograph of The Spirit of Delta in 75 anniversary livery
