A relic from Delta Air Lines' history will be headed to the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum as the carrier grants $6.67 million to help fund a redesigned gallery.
A renovated "America by Air" gallery to open "in approximately 2021" at the Washington, D.C. museum will for the first time include a Huff-Daland Duster donated by Delta.
The historic plane will move from the Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va., a companion facility to the Air and Space Museum. It's one of two of original Huff-Daland Dusters at museums. The other is at the Southern Museum of Flight in Birmingham, Ala.
Delta and rival United are lead donors in a coalition of carriers including Alaska, JetBlue, Frontier, Hawaiian and Spirit airlines that came together to contribute $28 million to the "America by Air" gallery.
A welcome center is named after Southwest Airlines, which made a donation for exhibitions last year.
The airline now known as Delta started out as the Huff-Daland Dusters in Macon back in the 1920s. The company moved to Monroe, La., and in 1928 was taken over by a group of investors led by C.E. Woolman.
The company was renamed Delta Air Service for the Mississippi River Delta region it served, and started passenger flights in 1929. It wasn't until 1941 that the airline moved its headquarters from Monroe to Atlanta.
A full-scale model of a Huff Daland Duster, nicknamed the "Puffer," is at the Delta Flight Museum at the airline's headquarters near Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
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Delta's history with 747 waxes and wanes A Huff-Daland Duster that is a piece of Delta's history is going to be at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.