A Day at the Delta Heritage Museum

There's something about the smell of jet fuel and the sound of jets taking off that made yesterday a great day. We visited the Delta Heritage Museum for the 24th Annual Airliner Collectible Show. We got there about 10:30a and immediately surveyed the hangar. If you haven't had the opportunity to visit the Heritage Museum, stop what you're doing, call your best Delta friend to escort you onto the property and go! Wonderful aviation history is housed in these 2 hangars at the World Headquarters for Delta. The piece de resistance is the Spirit of Delta; a Boeing 767-200 that the employees purchased for the company back in 1982. That was not a typo. That's right. The employees bought this aircraft for the company. Back then things were good, pride was high and as a token of gratitude the Spirit of Delta came to be (more about the Spirit of Delta at a later date).

There were many vendors at the collectible show. Mostly model airplanes, post cards, pins and signs. The most unusual item was a lavatory from Pan Am. I wonder if anyone bought it. The bigger question would be why was it on display? Anyway, after some time walking around and talking with other enthusiasts I purchased a 1/200 scale model of the first Boeing 747. It's an amazing model. To date, the best in my collection.

My model

The first 747

Darin scored big. He got 4 models for the price of 2! The funny thing about vendors is that by the end of the day they really don't want to pack things up and take back with them so they play 'let's make a deal.'

Darin--decisions, decisions...

The rumor yesterday was that John Travolta was going to stop by. His B707 has been parked in the general aviation area for the past 3 days now. Talk about aviation enthusiast! Who has it better than John Travolta? He has his very own B707 (of which he's the pilot, he's also a qualified pilot with Qantas) and a home in Florida that looks like an airport! Unfortunately, it was only a rumor and he was a no-show. We'd love to talk with him about his passion for aviation.

We met the cutest, and probably oldest, airplane buff yesterday. Her name was Marty and she had been a "stewardess" from 1954-1960. She still has poise and grace. I love this pic!

Sylvester & Marty

So, today's question is: At what point does our aviation enthusiasm become an obsession?  :-)

Keep it low and tight, low and tight...