I consider Monroe, Louisiana to be my home town. Did y'all know that Monroe is where Delta Airlines was founded?
They started out as a crop dusting service that branched out into carrying mail and passengers in the late 1920s.
In the late 1980s I was part of a group of new-hires in Dallas that went to Atlanta to tour all of the hangar facilities and the pilot and flight attendant training areas.
It was very interesting, a total blast for me.
This first photo is one of their old crop dusters from the early years hanging in a museum of the company's history.
In the early and mid seventies, Delta briefly flew a few Boeing 747s in their fleet. They sold them all and for many years their biggest plane was the Lockheed l-1011. This is a model of Delta's 747s in the same Delta museum. Check out the hideous 1970s seat cover colorings!
We were told that Delta had the capability to recreate, on-site there in Atlanta, any part for any of their planes, with the exception of the tires, which are sent back to Goodyear to be retread. This is a work area for building new wing flaps; you can see one on the table closest to the camera.
This is our tour group in Delta's main hangar. At the time, this was the largest non-military plane hangar in the country. It would hold many of their biggest planes at one time to be worked on. What you see in the background is scaffolding built around the tail section of an L-1011 as it's readied to be repainted.
I'll try to scan a few more to show y'all later.
4 comments:
Bet that place is a blast to visit.
Those seat colors are the same colors as the shag carpet that used to be in this house.
Great history shots. Looking forward to seeing more of your scanned pictures.
Neat museum, I used to get to go watch them work on C5s and B52s when my dad was working civil servce. Those hangars are huge!
Very interesting.
Post a Comment