Airline Memorabilia Collection Dates To 1920s

The administrators of the National Museum of Commercial Aviation in the Atlanta suburb of Forest Park, GA have big plans for expansion, and high hopes for congressional designation as a national museum within a year.

The museum's executive director, Grant Wainscott, says he wants to raise $8 million and break ground in 18 months at a new 16,000 to 20,000 square-foot learning center, ideally situated next to Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

Aware of the difficulties of raising funds during a recession, Wainscott said, "We're just really trying to find creative solutions to ride out a difficult economic time."

In a state with two major aviation museums and another in the works - the Warner-Robins Museum of Aviation, the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum in Savannah, and a planned military museum near Lockheed Martin's facility in Marietta - the National Museum of Commercial Aviation occupies a unique niche by specializing in the history of commercial airlines.

"It creates an aviation corridor for the state. Aviation helped build this state," Wainscott said. The Commercial Aviation museum pays tribute to the pilots, flight attendants, mechanics, baggage handlers, and air traffic controllers who each contributed in their own way.

Museum Chairman Chuck Maire described the museum as "a place where someone can come in and take a walk down memory lane or get inspired to join the industry."

Presently occupying a 3,800 square-foot space in a Forest Park strip mall, the museum features everything from vintage uniforms, pins, serving ware, and toys to books and research material that dates back to the 1920s.

The recent donation of a Southern Airways 404 flight simulator from California has become the museum's first interactive display, the Altanta Journal-Constitution said.

But Maire explained it's not easy for the museum to get donations from airlines. "Most airlines don't need tax write-offs because they don't make any money," Maire said.

FMI: www.nationalaviationmuseum.com