Carolinas Aviation Museum


The Carolinas Aviation Museum is an aviation museum on the grounds of Charlotte Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, North Carolina.
It is one of a very few aviation museums located at an airport which serves as a major hub. Its centerpiece attraction is the Airbus A320 used on US Airways Flight 1549.

Overview

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. 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.
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 2022.

Collections and aircraft

The museum's collections include:
The museum holds a large collection of artifacts and memorabilia from the various legacy airlines which have merged over the years to form the current US Airways. The museum's special collections and archival material are currently in storage and inaccessible for research.
The collection includes artifacts from:
On 15 January 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. The aircraft, an A320-214, was eventually recovered from the river.
landing on the waters of the North River
In January 2011, the Carolinas Aviation Museum acquired the entire airframe from the insurance company, AIG, who donated the aircraft to the museum. 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 June 10, 2011, and covered 788 miles through New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia & North Carolina. 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.
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. 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. The museum opened a major new exhibit surrounding Flight 1549 with artifacts such as Captain Sullenberger's uniform in August 2012.
The aircraft is currently in storage as the museum designs a new facility, set to open in 2022.