I know my theme lately has been Delta, Delta, Delta, but I am truly excited about the potential we now have as the largest airline in the world. I see opportunity for great things and the ability to re-shape the indsutry.
I was in ATL last week at DL Headquarters on merger related business and had a few minutes to kill before my flight back to MSP, so I decided to take a tour through the Delta Museum (http://www.deltamuseum.org). It’s pretty remarkable that this place exists and the amount of heritage that’s preserved within. Although it’s run as a non-profit organization, surely there’s some layer of cost Delta must pay for this facility and coming from the very money conservative NWA, it’s remakable to say the least. NWA would certainly have found a million reasons why the facility needed to go and/or how to make money from it.
Anyway… 
I find it commendable that Delta looks to preserve its history and share that with its employees, vendors and the general public. Shown below is a picture of the “Spirit of Delta”, a 767 bought by the employees of Delta Air Lines in 1982 and donated to the airline for use in passenger service. That ship now resides within hangar 2 of the Delta Museum. Click the image to view the other pictures I took of aircraft in the museum.
In addition to the “Spirit of Delta”, you will also find the following within the museum:
- “Ship 41”, the first DC-3 to carry Delta passengers. Restored by volunteers and a core mechanic team, 1993-1999. Winner in 2001 of the first National Trust for Historic Preservation award presented to an aircraft.
- A 1931 Travel Air, symbolizing Delta’s first passenger aircraft.
- A 1936 Stinson Reliant SE. Nicknamed the “Gull Wing,” this unique aircraft served as an instrument trainer for Northeast Airlines pilots in 1941-1942.
- Professionally managed archives of artifacts related to Delta and its ancestor airlines. The Archives maintains over 200,000 images, 1,000 films, and one of the world’s largest airline uniform collections in a museum.
- Aviation reference library.
- Temporary exhibits.
- Replica of the first Delta station in Monroe, Louisiana.
- An 800-square-foot museum shop, housed in a redesigned section of the hull of the first L-1011 ever built.