Once entering the vestibule of the Delta Flight Museum at its main entrance, you are greeted by an engine built by Rolls Royce.
The clear barrier in front of the engine — with a base of actual wheels flat on the floor — is for your protection, as the interior of the engine actually turns. Note the model airplanes hanging from the ceiling. To the left and not shown in the photograph is one of the entrances to the museum store.
The entrance to the Delta Flight Museum from either the vestibule or the museum store takes you into Hangar 2, which includes The Spirit of Delta Boeing 767-232 aircraft.
If you have flown as a passenger out of Terminal 3 — also known as the Worldport — at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, you will recognize the Delta Air Lines signage above the entrance to the museum store.
There are a number of exhibits located in Hangar 2 in addition to The Spirit of Delta aircraft. A train of baggage carts are smartly repurposed as display cases of memorabilia.
There are two flight simulators: the blue Link Trainer flight simulator — circa 1940s — which helped to train greater than a half million pilots during and after World War II…
…but it is dwarfed by the Boeing 737-200 flight simulator, which is available for anyone who wants to experience what it is like to fly a commercial airplane.
The fee for one hour of “flight time” is $425.00 — which includes tax; and up to four people can participate.
You will receive a pre-flight briefing of ten minutes; 45 minutes of “flight time”; and a five-minute review at the end of your experience. Click here for details on how to reserve time in the flight simulator for yourself.
Equally interesting as the exhibits were to me was the architecture of the historic hangar — such as the old bricks which have since been coated with white paint…
…as well as the network of beams and trusses of which the ceiling is supported and comprised.
They have since been painted over as well.
One of the challenges of the renovation of what was once the Delta Heritage Museum was the literally hundreds of old panes of glass in the windows and massive doors of the hangar which either needed to be restored…
…or covered up altogether.
An actual prototype of a Lockheed L-1011-1 currently on permanent display in Hangar 2 was once used as the museum store in Hangar 1 of the former Delta Heritage Museum. The current museum store is significantly larger with more room around which to walk.
Its first flight occurred on November 16, 1970; and it was only used for test flights, as it was never actually flown commercially by an airline.
Once used for films such as Passenger 57 and Quick Change, the inside of the former aircraft can now be used as a conference room; or for other purposes.
This would be a cool place to have a meeting.
Remember this old relic — and how expensive it was to use it?
In case you were wondering, yes — the overhead bins inside of the prototype Lockheed L-1011-1 are still functional; and they are empty.
I intend to post photographs of Hangar 1 as well as additional photographs of Hangar 2 in a future article.
To be continued…
All photographs ©2014 by Brian Cohen.
