With a newly renovated museum at its Atlanta headquarters, Delta Air Lines hopes to lure tourists to the company's original aircraft maintenance hangars on the north edge of the world's busiest airport.
The 68,000-square-foot museum, housed in hangers that date to the 1940s, traces Delta's history from crop-dusting and air mail service to its first passenger flight from Dallas to Jackson, Mississippi, on June 17, 1929.
The museum includes Delta's first Douglas DC-3 and its first Boeing 767 jet. Known as the "Spirit of Delta," the 767 on display was purchased with donations from workers, retirees and others who contributed to a campaign to help the struggling airline in the early 1980s. Interactive displays allow visitors to watch Delta TV commercials from past decades and see how the airline's logo evolved.
