Transformed museum invites public to fly through Delta’s history

The Delta Flight Museum is ready when you are.

That constitutes a major route change for one of Atlanta’s more interesting but lesser-known attractions, which mainly has welcomed Delta “family” and in-the-know aviation aficionados since its opening beside Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in 1995.

The renovated 68,000-square-foot edifice that chronicles Delta’s history and the development of commercial aviation is set to officially relaunch on Tuesday in a grand opening ceremony to include remarks by Gov. Nathan Deal, Mayor Kasim Reed and Delta CEO Richard Anderson. The event also marks Delta’s 85th anniversary of passenger service.

Located in adjoining 1940s maintenance hangars, the nonprofit museum has undergone more than $10 million in improvements that have transformed it in ways big and small.

The changes are signaled by a new, large street sign and a no-way-to-miss-it landmark, a Boeing 757, marking a dedicated entrance on Woolman Place. Before, museum visitors had to have an appointment, and clearing a security gate onto Delta’s corporate campus could feel something like accessing Fort Knox.

Inside the gates, the museum proper announces its renewal, designed by Atlanta architects Stevens & Wilkinson, with airplane-silver tones freshly painted across the front facades of both hangars. These are Delta’s oldest headquarters buildings, designated a Historic Aerospace Site in 2011.

Though there is plenty new to see inside, the biggest change is only felt. That’s the addition of air conditioning and heat controls that not only ensure a comfortable year-round visitor experience for the first time but also allow precious pieces of Delta’s history to be showcased.

“With a more stable environment, we’re finally able to display things that we were never able to display before, like rare (plane) models and early flight attendant uniforms,” museum director Tiffany Meng said. “We have fabulous archives and a fabulous collection, but it was all behind the scenes.”

Late last week, Meng couldn’t hazard a guess as to how many items would be on view in Hangar One, dedicated to the Propeller Age, and Hangar Two, which covers the Jet Age.

“We’re still doing it,” she said of the display case shelves filling with historic objects. But Meng estimated that 95 percent of the pieces are being exhibited for the first time, including much more from Delta’s “family tree” of 40 airlines that has grown via a series of mergers and acquisitions over its nine-decade history.

Meanwhile, workers from exhibit designer Gary Lee Super Associates hustled to put finishing touches on other presentation pieces, including a 37-foot-diameter elevated turntable that showcases one from the museum's "fleet" of historic aircraft. It's a restored 1931 Curtiss-Wright 6B Sedan, similar to the Travel Air S-6000-B that flew Delta's first passengers on June 17, 1929.

A sizable addition hangs from the rafters close by. Built from scratch by museum mechanic Arthur Arace, it's a replica of a Huff-Daland Duster, a 23-foot-long aircraft that dusted crops in the Mississippi Delta, protecting cotton fields from the boll weevil. The crop-dusting division of Huff Daland Airplanes was established in 1924 and formed the roots of today's Delta. The airline was in fact named for the Delta region these planes flew.

Some of the most impressive objects on display date to Delta’s earliest days.

In a display case across the Propeller Age hangar, there's a business card from Delta founder C.E. Woolman with his information on one side and a photograph of a Duster flying on the reverse, to illustrate for the unknowing how the world's first aerial crop-dusting company operated.

Close by is the No. 6 ID badge worn by Catherine FitzGerald, Woolman’s executive secretary for 40 years. She was among the first half-dozen employees of a now-international corporation that today boasts more than 80,000 employees.

The growth and future of that company are addressed in the Jet Age Hangar, which guests reach by strolling through a tunnel in which the relatively polite sound of propeller planes gives way to jet engine roar.

Hangar Two is so large that it can hold a Boeing 767 (known as "The Spirit of Delta" and itself filled with memorabilia) and host a 1,200-guest seated dinner under wing. (The museum plans to be big in the event rental business.)

Another of its highlights is a Boeing 737-200 flight simulator, the same type used to train Delta pilots. Those who book the only full-motion professional flight simulator open to the public in the U.S. receive a 10-minute pre-flight briefing, 45 minutes of flight time and a five-minute post-flight review. The cost is $395 for up to four guests.

There are cheaper keepsakes in the new museum store, of course, everything from a coffee mug bearing the message “I Love the Smell of Jet Fuel in the Morning” to leather bomber jackets and upscale luggage.

Flight museum president John Boatright believes the reborn museum has the potential to become one of Atlanta’s top 10 attractions.

“This is an opportunity in a much bigger way to bring the history of aviation home to Atlanta,” he said. “It’s part of Atlanta’s history because it’s Delta’s history.”