Former name | Carolinas Aviation Museum |
---|---|
Established | 1992 |
Location | Charlotte Douglas International Airport, Charlotte, North Carolina, United States |
Coordinates | 35°13′10″N80°55′48″W / 35.21944°N 80.93000°W |
Type | Aviation museum |
Visitors | 50,000+ |
Founder | Floyd Swinton Wilson [1] |
Website | www |
The Sullenberger Aviation Museum, formerly the Carolinas Aviation Museum, [2] is an aviation museum on the grounds of Charlotte Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, North Carolina.
It is one of a few aviation museums located at an airport which serves as a major hub (Charlotte is the #2 hub for American Airlines). Its centerpiece attraction is the Airbus A320 used on US Airways Flight 1549.
The museum was founded in 1992 by Floyd and Lois Peithman Wilson, and has a collection of over 50 static aircraft and many smaller historic items related to aviation in North Carolina and South Carolina. Most of the collection consists of Cold War military aircraft, including several historic jet aircraft from the 1950s and 1960s. Several aircraft came from the closed Florence Air & Missile Museum, in Florence, South Carolina. A significant number of aircraft have also come from Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point and Marine Corps Air Station New River. The museum no longer operates flying aircraft, however, due to its location on Charlotte-Douglas International Airport property, it has on occasion hosted historic aircraft for fly-ins. Those aircraft include the B-17, B-24, B-29 and Berlin Airlift C-54.
Until April 2010, the museum was located in the airport's original 1932 hangar, built by the Works Progress Administration. The museum moved into a new facility at the Charlotte-Douglas International Airport at 4672 First Flight Drive. [3] The new facility enabled the majority of the aircraft to be inside a climate-controlled facility and allowed for new displays.
In October 2012, the museum became a Smithsonian affiliate. [4] [5]
In July 2019, the museum closed to the public and all aircraft were moved into temporary storage in preparation for the new facility. The museum is currently working to develop plans for a new location with a planned re-opening in 2024. [6] In June 2021, the museum announced plans to reopen with a new main gallery and welcome center adjacent to the original 1932 hangar. [7]
The museum announced on January 14, 2022 that it would be named for Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger. The museum will house a permanent Miracle on the Hudson exhibit. Also, the museum announced a $1 million gift from Red Ventures CEO Ric Elias, who survived the flight, and a $500,000 gift from Lonely Planet. [8] The museum broke ground on its new facility in September 2022. [9] As part of the rebuilding process, it announced a new logo in October 2023. [10]
The museum's collections include:
The museum holds a large collection of artifacts and memorabilia from various legacy airlines which merged into the now-defunct US Airways. The museum's special collections and archival material are currently in storage and inaccessible for research.
The collection includes artifacts from:
On January 15, 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 took off from New York's LaGuardia Airport for a flight to Charlotte, North Carolina, when multiple bird strikes a few minutes after takeoff forced a ditching in the Hudson River. The ditching and subsequent rescue operations were accomplished without loss of life. [48] The aircraft, an A320-214, was eventually recovered from the river.
In January 2011, the Carolinas Aviation Museum acquired the entire airframe from the insurance company, AIG, who donated the aircraft to the museum. [49] [50] The airframe was transported by road from its storage location at J Supor & Son Trucking & Rigging Co. Inc. in Kearny, New Jersey to the museum at Charlotte Douglas International Airport in Charlotte. The transportation took 7 days, between June 4 and 10, 2011, and covered 788 miles through New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia & North Carolina. [51] Because the fuselage was transported in one piece, as it was when it was recovered from the river, the truck was 190 feet long. Virtually everything except the passengers' personal belongings are still in the airplane. The landing gear pins, fire axe, and the manuals were still in the cockpit, and the Coke cans were still in the beverage carts. [52]
The airframe has been reassembled and was on display from 2011 to 2019 in the same configuration as it was when it was pulled out of the Hudson River in January 2009. The airframe is being conserved as opposed to restored with dents from the birds and tugboat. [53] In addition to the airframe, Captain Sullenberger and First Officer Skiles have contributed their uniforms to the museum's 1549 exhibit.
The aircraft arrived in June 2011, and reassembly of the main components took about one year. The engines arrived in May 2012 and were planned to be reassembled in time for the fourth anniversary of the landing in the Hudson (January 15, 2013). The museum opened a major new exhibit surrounding Flight 1549 with artifacts such as Captain Sullenberger's uniform in August 2012. [3]
The aircraft is currently in storage as the museum designs a new facility, set to open in 2024. [54]
Charlotte Douglas International Airport, typically referred to as Charlotte Douglas, Douglas Airport, or simply CLT, is an international airport in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States, located roughly six miles west of the city's central business district. Charlotte Douglas is the primary airport for commercial and military use in the Charlotte metropolitan area. Operated by the city of Charlotte's aviation department, the airport covers 5,558 acres of land.
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US Airways was a major airline in the United States that operated from 1937 until 2015, when it merged with American Airlines. It was originally founded in Pittsburgh as a mail delivery airline called All American Aviation, which soon became a commercial passenger airline. In 1953, it was renamed Allegheny Airlines and operated under that name for a quarter-century. In October 1979, after the passage of the Airline Deregulation Act, Allegheny Airlines changed its name to USAir. A decade later it had acquired Piedmont Airlines and Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA), and was one of the U.S.'s seven transcontinental legacy carriers. In 1997, it rebranded as US Airways.
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Piedmont Airlines was an airline in the United States that operated from 1948 to 1989, when it was acquired by and merged into USAir. Its headquarters were at One Piedmont Plaza in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, a building that is now part of Wake Forest University.
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US Airways Flight 1549 was a regularly scheduled US Airways flight from New York City, to Charlotte and Seattle, in the United States. On January 15, 2009, the Airbus A320 serving the flight struck a flock of birds shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia, losing all engine power. Given their position in relation to the available airports and their low altitude, pilots Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger and Jeffrey Skiles decided to glide the plane to ditching on the Hudson River off Midtown Manhattan. All 155 people on board were rescued by nearby boats, with only a few serious injuries. The time from the bird strike to the ditching was less than four minutes.
Jeffrey Bruce "Jeff" Skiles is an airline pilot for American Airlines. On January 15, 2009, he became known globally as first officer of US Airways Flight 1549, when he worked together with captain Sully Sullenberger to water land the aircraft on the Hudson River after the plane lost both of its engines. They were widely celebrated as heroes for landing the plane with no loss of life.
Chesley Burnett "Sully" Sullenberger III is a retired American fighter pilot, diplomat, and airline pilot. He is best known for his actions as captain of US Airways Flight 1549. In 2009 he ditched the plane, landing on the Hudson River after both engines were disabled by a bird strike. All 155 people aboard survived. Sullenberger became an outspoken advocate for aviation safety and helped develop new protocols for flight safety. He served as the co-chairman, along with his co-pilot on Flight 1549, Jeffrey Skiles, of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA)'s Young Eagles youth introduction-to-aviation program from 2009 to 2013.
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