National Museum of Commercial Aviation

National Museum of Commercial Aviation
	Location within Metro Atlanta
Established	9 January 2006
Dissolved	7 December 2016
Location	Forest Park, Georgia, south of Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport
Coordinates	33°36′24″N84°23′36″W / 33.606748°N 84.393344°W
Website	https://nationalairlinemuseum.org/

Last updated June 05, 2024

The National Museum of Commercial Aviation (NMCA) was the nation's first comprehensive airline industry museum in the United States. It was located in Forest Park, Georgia, just south of Atlanta and Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. It was founded in 2006 by Executive Director & Chief Curator Grant Wainscott. It was a public 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization, and was governed by a 12-member Board of Trustees, chaired by Captain Chuck Maire Jr. The NMCA was a collaborative effort between the non-profit Museum, local and regional governments, and hundreds of business, aviation, and community partners throughout the country.^[1] The museum was closed with intentions of moving to a new location, but never reopened. The museum dissolved as an organization in 2016.^[2]

History

In 2003, a group of retired airline employees and civic leaders met to discuss creating a lasting legacy to the commercial airlines that helped make Atlanta home to the busiest airport in the world. From this initial conversation, a national movement was born, resulting in what became known as the National Museum of Commercial Aviation (NMCA).

The NMCA was the first comprehensive airline industry museum in the United States, and was poised to become the nation's premier center for airline history and research, attracting visitors from around the globe. It was designed to become a major tourism attraction and economic generator for the region, and to serve as a cultural and educational amenity for residents and visitors alike. The museum intended to look at all aspects of the airline industry, not just one particular airline or airport, covering everything from the birth of the airline industry to modern labor relations; from air mail to air cargo; highlighting every job in the industry and its value. Most importantly, it preserved the artifacts and stories of the men and women who built the industry to what it is today.

In 2007, after years of research and planning, the museum selected and subsequently announced south metro Atlanta as its permanent home, followed by a major operating grant award from Clayton County, Georgia to assist with planning, research, and other operating needs. As a result of growing public demand, and interest from the aviation community, the first Interim Headquarters & Research Air-Chive was opened in Forest Park, Georgia in March 2008. The Interim H.Q. was designed to act as both temporary museum and sales center to give the public an idea of what to expect further down the road, and immediately became a success.

More than 4,000 visitors came through the doors in the first 14 months open, and the demand for public programming, group tours, children's educational programming and additional exhibits necessitated a move into a much larger facility adjacent to the existing site. That location served as the center of operations for the museum. The Interim Museum was open to the public, and contained various airline exhibits, an art gallery, children's activity center, research library, flight simulators and a gift shop. Educational and public programming efforts included an award-winning children's book club, monthly lecture series, traveling exhibits, and a rotating art gallery.^[1]^[3]

The first phase of the Permanent Campus, located at 727 Airline Museum Way, Atlanta, Georgia 30354, was a 16,000-sf hangar which was intended to house twelve new exhibits, cockpits, ground support equipment, the museum's growing collection, staff, and volunteers. It was expected to open in 2013.^[1]^[3]^[4]

Facilities

Adjacent to the entrance corridor of the new international at the world's busiest airport, and in the shadow of the world's largest airline, the museum intended to break ground on the first phase of what was to become a 150,000-sf campus of buildings, aircraft, support vehicles, interactive exhibits, educational classrooms and learning labs, and memorial gardens.^[1]

Extremely good visibility from more than 800 feet of frontage on Interstate 75, direct and easy access to the airport, and tens of thousands of aviation employees in the immediate area were to add to the feasibility of a "national" museum. Main buildings were to include a themed airport terminal covering the major decades of aviation, complete with loading bridges and full-size commercial airliners outside. Adjacent hangars and a first-of-its-kind Career Exploration & Learning Center were to contain additional aircraft, classrooms and career exploration areas, theaters, archives, collections storage, a themed cafeteria, and a restoration/maintenance shop.^[1]

Collection

The museum had a growing collection of more than 100,000 artifacts. Major concentrations included 500 uniforms dating as far back as the 1930s, advertising memorabilia, rare cockpits and trainers, 2,500 pieces of in-flight serving ware, vintage toys and models, and original artwork.^[3]

Most noteworthy in the collection were the world's only known Martin 404 Cockpit Procedures Trainer (CPT) in Southern Airways livery, TUG Technologies first TUG Tractor, and the cockpit of an ex Eastern Air Lines Martin 404, later owned by Ray Charles. The museum's aircraft collection included a former United Airlines/FedEx Express Boeing 727, and a former FedEx Express/Mountain Air Cargo Fokker F-27 Friendship.^[3]

In 2013, aviation airliner artist Marc Y. Chenevert began searching for a repository to donate his vast airliner and art collection. Associates suggested to Chenevert that he contact the National Museum of Commercial Aviation and was introduced to Richard Grigg, NMCA Curator. The museum was highly interested in Marc's aviation collection and in August 2013, Grigg traveled to Chenevert's home in Asheville, North Carolina to accept the donation of his non Braniff International Airways airliner drawings Collection. The museum was also to receive Chenevert's drawing desk and tools that he has used since the early 1970s. Chenevert's Braniff International Airways Collection has been donated to Braniff Flying Colors Collection based in Dallas, Texas.^[5]

Related Research Articles

The Boeing 727 is an American narrow-body airliner that was developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. After the heavier 707 quad-jet was introduced in 1958, Boeing addressed the demand for shorter flight lengths from smaller airports. On December 5, 1960, the 727 was launched with 40 orders each from United Airlines and Eastern Air Lines. The first 727-100 rolled out on November 27, 1962, first flew on February 9, 1963, and entered service with Eastern on February 1, 1964.

The Convair 880 is a retired American narrow-body jet airliner produced by the Convair division of General Dynamics. It was designed to compete with the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8 by being smaller but faster, a niche that failed to create demand. When it was first introduced, some in aviation circles claimed that at 615 mph (990 km/h), it was the fastest jet transport in the world. Only 65 Convair 880s were produced over the lifetime of the production run from 1959 to 1962, and General Dynamics eventually withdrew from the airliner market after considering the 880 project a failure. The Convair 990 Coronado was a stretched and faster variant of the 880.

Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport is the primary international airport serving Atlanta and its surrounding metropolitan area, in the U.S. state of Georgia. The airport is located 10 mi (16 km) south of the Downtown Atlanta district. It is named after former Atlanta mayors William B. Hartsfield and Maynard Jackson. ATL covers 4,700 acres (19 km²) of land and has five parallel runways which are aligned in an east-west direction. There are three runways that are 9,000 feet (2,743 m) long, one runway that is 10,000 feet (3,048 m) long, and the longest runway at ATL measures 12,390 feet (3,776 m) long, which can handle the Airbus A380. Since 1998, Hartsfield-Jackson has been the world's busiest airport by passenger traffic. In 2023, the airport served over 104.6 million passengers, the most of any airport in the world.

William P. Hobby Airport is an international airport in Houston, Texas, located 7 miles (11 km) from downtown Houston. Hobby is Houston's oldest commercial airport, and was its primary airport until the Houston Intercontinental Airport, now known as the George Bush Intercontinental Airport, opened in 1969. Hobby was initially closed after the opening of Houston Intercontinental; however, it was re-opened after several years, and became a secondary airport for domestic airline service, and a center for corporate and private aviation.

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1980.

Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport is five miles north of Lubbock, in Lubbock County, Texas, United States. Originally Lubbock International Airport, it was renamed in 2004 for former Texas governor Preston E. Smith, an alumnus of Texas Tech University.

The BAC One-Eleven is an early jet airliner produced by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Originally conceived by Hunting Aircraft as a 30-seat jet, before its merger into BAC in 1960, it was launched as an 80-seat airliner with a British United Airways (BUA) order on 9 May 1961. The prototype conducted its maiden flight on 20 August 1963, and it was first delivered to BUA on 22 January 1965. The 119-seat, stretched 500 series was introduced in 1967. Total production amounted to 244 until 1982 in the United Kingdom and between 1982 and 1989 in Romania where nine Rombac One-Elevens were licence-built by Romaero.

Braniff Airways, Inc., operated as Braniff International Airways from 1948 until 1965, and then Braniff International from 1965 until air operations ceased, was a major airline in the United States that flew air carrier operations from 1928 until 1982 and continues today as a retailer, hotelier, travel service and branding and licensing company, administering the former airline's employee pass program and other airline administrative duties. Braniff's routes were primarily in the midwestern and southwestern United States, Mexico, Central America, and South America. In the late 1970s it expanded to Asia and Europe. The airline ceased air carrier operations in May 1982 because of high fuel prices, credit card interest rates and extreme competition from the large trunk carriers and the new airline startups created by the Airline Deregulation Act of December 1978. Two later airlines used the Braniff name: the Hyatt Hotels-backed Braniff, Inc. in 1983–89, and Braniff International Airlines, Inc. in 1991–92.

The NAMC YS-11 is a turboprop airliner designed and built by the Nihon Aircraft Manufacturing Corporation (NAMC), a Japanese consortium. It was the only post-war airliner to be wholly designed and manufactured in Japan until the development of the Mitsubishi SpaceJet during the 2010s, roughly 50 years later.

Pan American-Grace Airways, also known as Panagra, and dubbed "The World's Friendliest Airline" was an airline formed as a joint venture between Pan American World Airways and Grace Shipping Company. On September 13, 1928, a small single-engine Fairchild airliner flew from Lima, Peru, to Talara, Peru, which marked not only the beginning of Pan American Grace Airways but also the inauguration of scheduled air transportation along the West Coast of South America. From this short flight in 1928 to nonstop flights from New York to South America with Douglas DC-8 Intercontinental Jets in 1966, Panagra became the standard-bearer for transportation between the US Mainland East Coast and the West Coast of South America for 39 years. The "World's Friendliest Airline" merged with Braniff International Airways in 1967, and the combined carrier became the largest US airline serving South America.

Brownsville/South Padre Island International Airport is 5 miles east of downtown Brownsville, Cameron County, Texas.

The Martin 4-0-4 was an American pressurized passenger airliner built by the Glenn L. Martin Company. In addition to airline use initially in the United States, it was used by the United States Coast Guard and United States Navy as the RM-1G.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Topeka Regional Airport</span> Joint-use civil-military airport in Kansas, United States

Topeka Regional Airport, formerly known as Forbes Field, is a joint civil-military public airport owned by the Metropolitan Topeka Airport Authority in Shawnee County, Kansas, seven miles south of downtown Topeka, the capital city of Kansas. The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015 called it a general aviation airport.

The Sullenberger Aviation Museum, formerly the Carolinas Aviation Museum, is an aviation museum on the grounds of Charlotte Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Mid-Continent Airlines was a trunk carrier, a scheduled airline which operated in the central United States from the 1930s until 1952 when it was acquired by and merged with Braniff International Airways. Mid-Continent Airlines was originally founded as a flight school at Rickenbacker Airport in Sioux City, Iowa, during 1928, by Arthur Hanford Jr., a dairy operator. The Hanford Produce Company was the largest creamery in the United States with over 100 trucks in operation. The company was primarily a dairy but also sold ice cream and poultry. The Hanford's also founded and built the new Rickenbacker Airport and operated eight gas stations and several service repair garages under the name Hanford's, Inc. The airport was a division of Hanford's, Inc., but the service stations and garages were later sold to finance airline operations. Mid-Continent was based in Kansas City, Missouri at the time of its acquisition by Braniff.

The Boeing 747SP is a shortened version of the Boeing 747 wide-body airliner, designed for a longer range. It is the highest flying subsonic passenger airliner, with a service ceiling of 45,100 feet . Boeing needed a smaller aircraft to compete with the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 and Lockheed L-1011 TriStar tri-jet wide-bodies, introduced in 1971/1972. Pan Am requested a 747-100 derivative to fly between New York and the Middle East, a request also shared by Iran Air, and the first order came from Pan Am in 1973.

A transport hub is a place where passengers and cargo are exchanged between vehicles and/or between transport modes. Public transport hubs include railway stations, rapid transit stations, bus stops, tram stops, airports and ferry slips. Freight hubs include classification yards, airports, seaports and truck terminals, or combinations of these. For private transport by car, the parking lot functions as a unimodal hub.

The Douglas DC-2 is a 14-passenger, twin-engined airliner that was produced by the American company Douglas Aircraft Company starting in 1934. It competed with the Boeing 247. In 1935, Douglas produced a larger version called the DC-3, which became one of the most successful aircraft in history.

Universal Aviation Corporation was an airline holding company based in United States.

Dallas Love Field is a city-owned public airport in the neighborhood of Love Field, 6 miles northwest of downtown Dallas, Texas. It was Dallas' main airport until 1974 when Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) opened. Love Field covers an area of 1,300 acres (530 ha) at an elevation of 487 feet (148 m) above mean sea level and has three runways.

References

1 2 3 4 5 Burress, Jim (24 June 2012). "National Museum of Commercial Aviation Closer to Building New Campus". WABE 90.1. Archived from the original on 30 September 2013. Retrieved 4 June 2024.
↑ "Georgia Corporations Division - NATIONAL MUSEUM OF COMMERCIAL AVIATION, INC". Archived from the original on 18 February 2021. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
1 2 3 4 Yeomans, Curt (12 August 2013). "National Museum of Commercial Aviation Becomes Home of Smithsonian Collection". Clayton News Daily. Retrieved 22 September 2013.
↑ Yamanouchi, Kelly (26 December 2008). "Aviation Museum Yearns to Take Flight at Airport". Atlanta Journal-Constitution. pp. E1–E2. Retrieved 4 June 2024.
↑ Marshall, Alli (26 August 2013). "Local Artist Marc Chenevert Donates His Portfolio to the National Museum of Commercial Aviation". Mountain Xpress. Retrieved 21 September 2013.

External links

National Museum of Commercial Aviation - Home site

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[Burress-1] 1 2 3 4 5 Burress, Jim (24 June 2012). "National Museum of Commercial Aviation Closer to Building New Campus". WABE 90.1. Archived from the original on 30 September 2013. Retrieved 4 June 2024.

[2] "Georgia Corporations Division - NATIONAL MUSEUM OF COMMERCIAL AVIATION, INC". Archived from the original on 18 February 2021. Retrieved 18 February 2021.

[Yeomans-3] 1 2 3 4 Yeomans, Curt (12 August 2013). "National Museum of Commercial Aviation Becomes Home of Smithsonian Collection". Clayton News Daily. Retrieved 22 September 2013.

[4] Yamanouchi, Kelly (26 December 2008). "Aviation Museum Yearns to Take Flight at Airport". Atlanta Journal-Constitution. pp. E1–E2. Retrieved 4 June 2024.

[Marshall-5] Marshall, Alli (26 August 2013). "Local Artist Marc Chenevert Donates His Portfolio to the National Museum of Commercial Aviation". Mountain Xpress. Retrieved 21 September 2013.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]