delta flight museum tours

Take A Closer Look

Use this touchscreen to take a closer look at the cockpits and interiors of some of the Delta Flight Museum’s historic aircraft. As you explore each aircraft consider how both technology and style has changed over the last 100 years.

TRAVEL AIR 6B SEDAN

Restored 1931 Curtiss-Wright 6B Sedan painted in International orange and black of earlier 1929 Travel Air S-6000-B. Tail number NC8878 celebrates the Travel Air that flew Delta’s first passengers on June 17, 1929.

Delta Captain Doug Rounds completed initial restoration with family and friends from 1975 to 1983. Delta purchased the plane in 1985, and put it on display at headquarters in Atlanta.

DELTA DOUGLAS DC-3 SHIP 41

Second-delivered DC-3 of Delta's order for five new planes from Douglas Aircraft Co. The first-delivered DC-3, Ship 40, named “City of Atlanta,” was being used for pilot training, so Ship 41 became the first DC-3 to carry Delta passengers. Entered scheduled service on December 24, 1940.

The only Delta passenger Douglas DC-3 to combine 1940s vintage style with modern avionics. No ot-3 in the other DC-3 in the world has been restored with such attention to detail.

CONVAIR 880 PROTOTYPE COCKPIT

Delta launched the world’s first Convair 880 commercial service on May 15, 1960, between Houston and New York. Delta customers could initially fly Convair 880s from New York to Atlanta, Houston and New Orleans. The Convair 880, built with a narrow, short fuselage, was the fastest four-engine commercial jet until the Boeing 747.

This Convair 880 cockpit is from the prototype aircraft that was used for testing until it started scheduled service with Trans World Airlines in 1964.

PROTOTYPE LOCKHEED L-1011

Original fuselage section of the first L-1011 Tristar built by Lockheed. It was only used for test flights. After the plane retired, a Delta aircraft maintenance team traveled to Ardmore, Oklahoma, in 1989, and salvaged a 65-feet section of the fuselage from cockpit to wing. They split the section into three pieces and trucked the pieces to Atlanta.

The recovery team created a mock-up aircraft as a set for photography sessions and filming movies, commercials and in-flight safety videos. It rested on a frame that supported and moved the three sections to allow wide camera angles. Exterior painted in classic widget livery worn by Delta L-1011’s from 1973-2001.

Today the L-1011 is only available as a conference room for rent.

BOEING 767 SPIRIT OF DELTA

In Spring 1982, the airline industry was troubled by a weak economy, high fuel prices and deregulation. After 35 consecutively profitable years, Delta posted a net loss. As a way of expressing their appreciation for company support during this trying time, Delta employees spearheaded “Project 767” to raise money to pay for Delta’s first Boeing 767. Led by three flight attendants, the project was an inspiring effort to raise $30 million through the combined donations of employees, retirees and friends.

On December 15, 1982, over 7,000 employees, friends and the international media gathered at Delta’s Technical Operations Center, to present the airline with its first Boeing 767, Ship 102, christened “The Spirit of Delta.”

Spirit flew as an ambassador of Delta pride and culture for over 23 years. Painted in special liveries to celebrate 1996 Atlanta Olympics and Delta's 75th Anniversary in 2004. Retired on February 12, 2006, after flying 70,697 hours and 34,389 trip cycles.

737-200 FLIGHT SIMULATOR

This was the last 737-200 simulator made by CAE, Inc. It was used to train Delta pilots from 1999-2014. Relocated from Delta Operations Control Center 3 (OC3) to the Delta Flight Museum in March 2014.

This simulator provides experience of flying Delta's Boeing 737-232 aircraft. Users experience a six-degree-of-freedom, synergistic simulator motion system. This simulator is the only one of its kind in the U.S. available for public use.

Reservations are required for 1-4 people per experience, ages 16 and over. Simulator guests receive a 10-minute preflight briefing, 45 minutes of flight time and a 5-minute review at the end of the experience. Contact the museum lobby desk for complete costs and details.

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The following overview lists the admission prices and various discounts and discount codes for a visit to Delta Flight Museum in Atlanta . All prices are displayed per age group or reduced rate group. You can also directly book your discounted online ticket for the Delta Flight Museum here, if available, or make a reservation to reserve a timeslot if applicable.

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Tour vintage jets at the Delta Flight Museum

Photograph by Myrydd Wells

Just to the north of Hartsfield-Jackson on the nearly 100-year-old airline’s vast corporate campus, the Delta Flight Museum is the perfect spot for aviation fanatics, kids, and even experienced fliers slogging through a long layover. Run by volunteers, the nonprofit museum maintains key historical artifacts—radios, serving bowls, flight attendant uniforms—and aircraft including a DC-3, Boeing 767, and the most iconic, a 747 “jumbo jet,” which along with the 767 you can enter and explore. The pièce de résistance however is an actual 737-200 full-motion flight simulator —the same type of machine pilots train on, which is open to the public. Never flown a plane? No problem. The sim-techs will tailor the experience to make sure you learn a few things, land without crashing (well, hopefully), and have fun (barrel rolls, anyone?). 1060 Delta Boulevard, 404-715-7886, deltamuseum.org

What’s it like to take a spin (literally) in the flight simulator? Check out our experience here .

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Delta Flight Museum

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• Facilities 3.5
• Atmosphere 4.0

The Delta Flight Museum offers a variety of interactive, aviation-focused exhibits, including the country’s sole full-motion flight simulator open to the public. It displays several airplanes, including a 1928 Northwest Airways Waco 125 biplane and a restored 1931 Curtiss-Wright 6B sedan as well as more contemporary models. The museum also has a 747-400 that visitors can enter to examine close-up. Rounding out its collection of aircraft is a hot air balloon. The hangers that house its holdings also have exhibits centered on the propeller age and the subsequent (and ongoing) jet age as well as Delta's company history. Its gift shop sells Delta-branded items.

Aviation enthusiasts enjoy this museum. Would-be pilots recommend trying the challenging flight simulator (if you can afford the $390.27 fee). Some visitors note that seeing everything here entails a lot of walking. Given its proximity to Atlanta's airport, the museum might be just the right thing if want something to do during a layover between flights.

The museum is located at Delta's Atlanta headquarters near Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL). The Nos. 172 and 192 buses stop about a quarter-mile from the museum's entrance. There is free parking available. For more information, consult the museum's website .

The museum is open Thursday through Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

Tickets cost $13.77 for adults 18 to 64, $11.48 for seniors and $9.18 for youngsters 5 to 17. Admission is free for children 4 and younger. General admission tickets do not include use of the flight simulator. Private tours can be arranged.

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#1 Atlanta History Center

U.S. News Insider Tip: Buckhead (like all of Atlanta) is known for its abysmal traffic. Avoid the roads from 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. for the best shot at avoiding the gridlock. – Elizabeth Von Tersch, Senior Editor

Spread across 33 acres in Atlanta's trendy Buckhead neighborhood, the Atlanta History Center seeks to explore Georgia's past through comprehensive exhibitions, historic homes and miles of gardens and trails. The center's primary facility is the Atlanta History Museum, which showcases exhibits that span the region's history, from the culture of the Muscogee and Cherokee Indians' ancestors to life in the antebellum South. 

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5 Reasons Every AvGeek Should Visit the Delta Flight Museum

The Delta Flight Museum has been a mainstay in any roundup of museums that AvGeeks simply have to see, but only recently has it become a destination in its own right. In fact, air conditioning was just installed throughout in 2014, which makes the visit a lot more comfortable during Georgia summers. Located right beside a runway at the world's busiest airport , Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International (ATL), the museum is a nonprofit entity dedicated to preserving the history of what we know today as Delta Air Lines.

It's a massive facility spread across two original airport hangars from the 1940s — part of the original Atlanta Municipal Airport — and I recently had a chance to explore every square inch. The long and short of it? It's a must-see, and I've rounded up five of my favorite elements below.

See Boeing's First-Ever 747-400 Like Never Before

Delta's Queen of the Skies , the Boeing 747 , had a farewell tour for the record books. TPG Editor-at-Large Zach Honig was onboard one of the 747's final journeys , and I personally flew on the very ship that is now on display as the largest and most captivating element of the entire Delta Flight Museum. N661US made its final run between Honolulu (HNL) and ATL (ATL) in September of 2015, and it shuttled me along the same airspace just days prior.

You can have a seat in the Delta One lie-flats that were left onboard, including the one at the nose ("in front of the captain") and upstairs in the upper deck.

The upper deck transforms as a viewing platform from the forward cabin back, where clear paneling has been installed to give you a true look at the inner workings of an airliner cabin.

As you walk where carpet once was, Delta has left everything in place below. The amount of precision in cabling and tubing, elements that most passengers don't even consider, is mind-blowing.

As it should, the interior of this majestic machine doubles as an event space, with clear paneling above to showcase what wraps around a cabin full of souls as a jet flies from one place to another. AvGeek wedding, anyone?

Even the lavatories are open for viewing, with a fresh bottle of soap and new rolls of toilet paper that no one will ever use. So fresh, so clean.

Ever wanted to walk out on the wing of a Boeing 747-400 and peer over ATL? Here, you can.

The interior of a Boeing 747-400 is so huge, Delta is able to stand up an entire museum in its interior.

Sections of the Main Cabin were left installed, too.

Crawling (er, walking) underneath of the Queen of the Skies gives great perspective on its sheer size.

It's one thing to see it from inside of an airport, but it's another to climb inside this gargantuan jet engine. The complexity of these mechanical wonders brings about a new appreciation for modern air travel.

Walk inside of a Boeing 767-200

It barely fits, but it fits. The airliner known as "The Spirit of Delta" is expertly restored, and you're able to walk inside and remember what it was like to fly one of Delta's best jets in the mid-2000s. The story behind the plane is remarkable, and frankly, embodies the Southern hospitality that Delta prides itself on.

Led by three Delta flight attendants in the early 1980s, an employee fundraising drive during a tough time for the aviation industry as a whole raised $30 million — enough to buy a Boeing 767-200. It flew as a point of Delta pride for over 23 years, and was retired in 2006 after flying north of 70,000 hours.

The airliner's walls were repurposed as epic museum elements, showcasing decades of flight attendant garb.

One thing that hasn't changed much since The Spirit of Delta last flew in 2006? The look and feel of the galley.

Sports fans will appreciate the collaboration elements showcasing the love from Delta to its local franchises, such as the Atlanta Braves baseball club and the Atlanta Falcons football squad.

It's insane to think how far in-flight entertainment has come. We've moved from overhead projectors (!) in 2006 to Delta Studio in 2018.

In-seat phones and projector screens. The pinnacle of flying just a few years back.

The spacious confines of a Boeing 767-200 cockpit.

The shine on the airliner's belly is intense (and beautiful).

There's Much to Learn About how Delta Became Delta

Did you know that Delta began as a crop-dusting operation? Or that its first flight routes didn't even include Atlanta, the city it now calls home? Even if you've flown a million miles on the Delta we know today, there's almost certainly something about its past that'll be new for you.

The museum also does a fantastic job of spotlighting the people that have defined the airline. Delta's founder, C. E. Woolman, recognized that airlines could pretty easily replicate one's fleet and route network, which leaves precious little room for differentiation. He noted that "All airlines are alike; only people make them different." You'll find lots of elements such as these throughout, and it paints a realistic picture of how the company's employee network strives to differentiate today.

Every airline has days it'd prefer to forget, from IT meltdowns to sluggish restarts after a major weather event , but Delta is hinging its future success on how it treats others. A good chunk of the experience focuses on this, rather than the metal you think of by default when you see the Delta logo.

You Can Hop in a Boeing 737 Flight Simulator

It's relatively easy to hop in a flight simulator used to train actual pilots that fly actual Delta jets. You just need a few million bucks and a climate-controlled garage. If, however, that doesn't sound easy enough , there's one other way that I discovered during my tour.

Once Boeing's 737-200 was fully retired from Delta's fleet, the simulator used for pilot training on that specific aircraft was moved to the Delta Flight Museum. This is no mock-up. This is a real-deal 737 full motion flight sim that past Delta pilots have sat in and operated.

You can reserve an hourlong session for $425 , and it's worth noting that the experience can hold up to four AvGeeks at once.

It's Doable With a Long Layover at ATL

One of the remarkable aspects of the museum is its location. It's a stone's throw from ATL, enabling you to Uber or Lyft over during a layover in just a few minutes. Pricing ranges from $0 for budding pilots ages 0 to 4 to $15 for adults between 18 and 64. And yes, that sum includes access to the Boeing 747-400 sitting outside.

Delta's network of Sky Clubs within its home base in Atlanta is impressive, and the newest club at the center of the B concourse is particularly epic for plane spotting. That said, there's no better way to spend a couple of hours than soaking up mountains of AvGeek history nearby. Just keep in mind that the Delta Flight Museum is closed each Wednesday, and it keeps a running list of temporary exhibitor closures on its website – for example, the Boeing 747-400 is occasionally rented out, so you'll want to make sure it's open when you visit.

One of the more understated reasons to visit is the museum's ability to instill a deeper appreciation for aviation as a whole. It wasn't that long ago that the most advanced planes in the world were topping out at 70mph, and business class cabins were outfitted with top-of-the-line dining room chairs.

It's easy to kvetch and conclude that flying just ain't what it used to be when you're staring at a multi-hour delay due to a mechanical issue, but the truth is that air travel is a marvel. My hunch is that you'll have a little more patience, a little more understanding and a little more respect for just how miraculous flying is once you've toured this museum.

It's also a wonderful place to bring the family . There is perhaps no easier way to plant a seed of imagination, to provide a glimpse at what a career in engineering could bring, than a tour of the Delta Flight Museum. It's the kind of place that will leave an indelible mark on young, impressionable minds, which is exactly what we need to keep the industry that we love moving forward.

All images by the author.

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You'll have no end of sightseeing choices when visiting Atlanta . Delta Flight Museum is an ideal place to kick off here, but there are loads of other interesting places to explore. Zoo Atlanta, Camp Creek Marketplace, and Porsche Experience Center are close to the exhibit of aviation history and and will cap off your day nicely.

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From Tide Pods to Coach bags, how Fortune 500 companies use museums of their hits and misses to drive success

It took five decades of failure to turn Tide Pods into an overnight success.

The “unit-dose” detergent pods became one of the biggest-ever hits for consumer products giant Procter & Gamble not long after their 2012 debut. But P&G had launched an earlier attempt in the 1960s, called Redi-Paks, to utter indifference from consumers. Other iterations in the following decades, such as Rapid Tabs in the 1990s, also fizzled; the company just couldn’t quite master the formula for optimal release of the detergent. That is, until it did; now Tide Pods are a top seller in a $3 billion market.

Today, the Tide Pods’ failed forebears have a place of honor in the “Wall of Failures” exhibit at P&G’s Heritage Center and Archives in Cincinnati—an internal museum at headquarters aimed at helping P&G’s product-development teams find the next big thing. The Heritage Center isn’t open to the public, but guests are welcome to visit, and staff are urged to do so. Over the years, the company has kept meticulous records of its misfires, seeing them as a valuable resource. “Failure cases are a critical learning area,” says Shane Meeker, P&G’s historian and corporate storyteller. “If you’re not failing, you’re not innovating.”

P&G is hardly alone among big corporations in running an in-house museum. Countless others meticulously maintain storehouses of records, prototypes, board meeting minutes, discontinued gadgets, old press releases, marketing materials, and all manner of paraphernalia. In Billund, Denmark, Lego has five miles’ worth of shelves in climate-controlled facilities where it stores nearly every “brick set” it has ever produced. At the Atlanta airport, Delta Air Lines has two entire hangars that showcase ephemera ranging from old propeller-driven planes to bar carts from aviation’s glamorous age.

Many companies go a step further, employing trained historians and organizing their archives into exhibits that tell stories and impart important lessons. These collections open stunning windows into the business world’s history. But for the companies, they transcend nostalgia and marketing: They serve a practical purpose, guiding product development, C-suite decision-making, and culture-building. Some are open to the public, but for most that’s not the main point: For the archivists, their coworkers are the ideal visitors.

“We’re more than just a location to look at the past,” says Alan Dranow, senior director of program management at Walmart . The mega-retailer operates a museum housed in an old five-and-dime-store in the center of Bentonville, Ark., with exhibits such as recreations of founder Sam Walton’s office and of his pickup truck, which attract many visitors. The Walmart museum is undergoing a major renovation and is set to reopen this fall.

The unifying principle among these disparate collections is that in an economy full of young disrupter companies, older brands have a huge intangible asset in their rich and long histories—resources that can help them build and fine-tune products for the future.          

Tapestry’s Coach subsidiary, founded in 1941, keeps a model of almost every handbag it has ever made, held in secure shelves at its New York headquarters. (Coach also displays nearly 200 vintage bags to the public in a huge vitrine at the entrance to its Manhattan offices.) The idea is to inspire new creations from executive creative director Stuart Vevers and his teams.

Coach’s designers have emulated the brand’s iconic Bucket bag, for example, in their current hot-selling version—finding new success by playfully echoing a design that customers found appealing more than 50 years ago. “Traditional European luxury companies do this,” says Coach’s archivist Ryan Bollwerk, who recently gave ­Fortune a tour. “But we are the only ones who have this at scale in North America.” Coach’s holdings include the first handbags created by pioneering designer Bonnie Cashin; staff and visitors can trace how the “turnlock” and “kisslock” clasps Cashin favored in the 1960s became Coach signatures over the next several decades.

Outside of the world of fashion, Reckitt—the maker of Lysol but also of healthcare focused products such as Dettol antiseptic—has archives to help guide new product development. Reckitt, which was primarily focused on hygiene products when it started near London in the 1840’s, plays up its history so that employees feel they are making products that help the greater good. And the developers often find they can still borrow from Reckitt’s old ideas.

“I have R&D people who’ll come in and look at old formulations and see what’s changed with the product and inspire them,” says Dr Grace Chapman, Reckitt’s heritage advisor and the holder of a Ph.D. in medical history.

At Lego, the archives and museum detail the toy brand’s evolution since its founding in 1932, when the first toys were wooden horses. The famous plastic bricks with studs that we know today were introduced in the late 1950’s. Visitors learn, for instance, that Lego is a mash up of the Danish words “Leg” and “Godt” which mean “play well.”

There are also nerd-friendly exhibits of product lines like the Star Wars sets in the late 1990s. Those sets represented a big turning point in Lego’s history, launching it into a new Golden Age fueled by franchise-themed sets. Lego has spent years recreating its collection by amassing two sets of each toy it has made since 1958—one set for workers and visitors to Lego’s home office, and the other stored in a secure, Fort Knox-style facility near Billund.

Museums and archives also help companies, particularly those of a certain age, foster a feeling of belonging to an entity with a history and a greater purpose, without the “here today, gone tomorrow” vibe that characterizes tech unicorns. That sense of purpose is especially important among new hires.

“If you’re not careful and not making sure that those employees are introduced to the history and values, you will end up being just like any other company,” says Lego historian Signe Wiese, who gave Fortune a tour of Lego’s massive archives.

Over at Walmart, CEO Doug McMillon as long been a big advocate of the museum, recognizing its role in rallying the troops around modernization efforts while not losing sight of what Walmart a massive success to start with. “Doug is Mr. Culture,” says Dranow.

Of course, a little bit of nostalgia doesn’t hurt to achieve such goals, especially for a company like Delta that can tap people’s fascination with the most glamorous times in commercial aviation. The Delta Flight Museum displays kitschy items such as Champagne bottles in the shape of a king (Delta’s Sky Club lounges used to be called “Crown Rooms”). But among the most in-demand materials are its collection of all its flight attendant uniforms through the years (including the groovy, highly colorful ones from the 1960s, when most flight attendants were “stewardesses”). Delta trots out the uniforms at corporate events, but they’re also key in the onboarding of new employees. Delta’s director of archives, Marie Force, says the displays often evoke intense emotional reactions: “There’s something about seeing these uniforms being worn, and keeping them alive,” she says.

At some companies, C-suite leaders are avid users of these resources. At Coca-Cola , the archives and open-to-the-public museum hold artifacts like handwritten order forms for the ingredients of its top-secret formula, or the original drawings for its iconic bottle shape. But the beverage maker’s top leaders have also tapped the archives for guidance in crises. When COVID struck four years ago, Coca-Cola brass asked the archives team to unearth records detailing how leadership had handled the 1918 influenza pandemic­—seeking clues for handling the new health emergency. In such a situation, storied companies may have an edge over younger ones. “You have to survive long enough to have an archive that has enough information to look back on,” says Coca-Cola’s archives director, Sarah Rice.

Some of the most useful archives include information on a company’s difficult times along with its triumphs. Visitors respond well to the transparency: Coca-Cola’s archives about the New Coke flop of the 1980s are popular, for example, and so is P&G’s Wall of Failures.

Above all, well-stocked archives can help companies avoid the trap of short-termism. “It suggests a value orientation in the company toward thinking bigger,” says Caitlin Rosenthal, a history professor at the University of California at Berkeley. There’s nothing like a museum to remind leaders that their choices, and their consequences, could endure long after they’ve moved on. 

This article appears in the  June/July 2024 issue  of  Fortune with the headline, “Where corporate America learns history lessons.”

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