Airplanes

Museum Monday: Elvis’s airplanes at Graceland

August 15, 2010Harriet BaskasAirplanes, Aviation history, Celebrities, Exhibits, History, Layover, Museum Monday, MuseumsElvis Presley, Graceland

There are more than 700 aviation and space museums around the country. Each Monday we profile one of them. Eventually we’ll hit them all.

Today, to mark the anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death on August 16^th, 1977, we’ll make a stop at Graceland, where two of Elvis’s jets are on display.

This Lockheed JetStar was dubbed Hound Dog II:

Hound Dog II, Elvis Presley's Lockheed JetStar

(Photo courtesy jbcurio, via Flickr).

According to this article, Elvis purchased this Lockheed JetStar in September, 1975 for $899,702, while waiting for his other plane, the Lisa Marie (below), a Convair 880 Jet previously owned by Delta Airlines, to arrive.

At Graceland, visitors sit in a mock 1970’s-era airline terminal to see a short film about Elvis and his airplanes and are then allowed to tour the JetStar and the Lisa Marie, which was also known as Hound Dog I or Flying Graceland.

Elvis Presley's airplane, Lisa Marie, on display at Graceland

Elvis Presley's airplane - the Lisa Marie - at Graceland

(Photo courtesy rgblasson via Flickr

Sadly, I haven’t had the pleasure of visiting Graceland. Yet. But when I do, I’ll make a beeline for the airplanes. First stop, the Lisa Marie. According to this article, the airplane has a seating area, conference room, library and plush bedroom with an executive bathroom equipped with gold washbasin and faucets.

Have you seen Elvis’s airplanes at Graceland? Share details of your visit below.

And please let us know if you have a nomination for an aviation or space museum you’d like to see featured on a future edition of Museum Monday here at StuckatTheAirport.com.

A favorite: Elvis and Nixon

Museum Monday: 1940 Air Terminal Museum, Houston Hobby Airport

August 9, 2010Harriet BaskasAir Travel, Airplanes, Airports, Art, aviation, Aviation history, Exhibits, History, Museum Monday, Museums1940 Air Terminal Museum, Houston Hobby Airport, William P. Hobby Airport

There are close to 700 aviation and space museums in this country. Each Monday, we take a look at one of them. Stick around. Eventually we’ll visit them all!

This week: The 1940 Air Terminal Museum at Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport.

Vintage view of Houston Hobby Airport terminal

Greetings from Houston Hobby Airport

Housed in the airport’s original art deco air terminal,the museum is dedicated to showcasing the city’s aviation history.

In addition to this classic, restored terminal building, the museum has historic aircraft on display in the restored 1928 Carter Field Airmail Hangar.

1928 Carter Field Airmail Hangar

The 1940 Air Terminal Museum recently raffled off an airplane and is now accepting entries for a “Flying Times” art exhibition featuring artwork and objects relating to Commercial aviation, General Aviation, or Space.

Not sure if you want to enter? Consider this: cash prizes will be awarded for the best work (1^st prize: $500, 2^nd Prize: $250, 3^rd prize: $100) and for the work that best depicts the terminal building ($50 prize.) Cash prizes will also be awarded in several other categories. The deadline for entries is September 1, 2010 and the show will run from September 17 through October 31, 2010. Look here for entry forms and more information about the 1940 Air Terminal Museum’s art contest. And good luck!

Houston Hobby Airport - Opening Day

Do you have a favorite aviation or space museum? If so, nominate it here and it may be featured on a future edition of Museum Monday here at StuckatTheAirport.com.

Museum Monday: 1928 biplane inside Ottawa International Airport

August 1, 2010Harriet BaskasAir Travel, Airplanes, Airports, aviation, Aviation history, Exhibits, Layover, Museum Monday, Museumsairport layover, Aviation Museums, Ottaway International Airport, Vintage Wings Canada, YOW

There are close to 700 aviation and space museums in the country. Each Monday, we explore one of them.

De Havilland Tiger Moth from Vintage Wings Canada

This week we have the story of a fun partnership between Canada’s Ottawa International Airport (YOW) and Vintage Wings of Canada, a local organization that acquires, restores, maintains and flies classic and significant aircraft, with an emphasis on Canadian airplanes.

You can see photos of the all of the museum’s aircraft on its website. To see the planes in person, though, you’ll have to be part of a scheduled group tour or show up at one of the organization’s special summer events.

But as this article (with video) in the Ottawa Sun describes, for a while at least, air passengers will be able to see one of the museum’s treasures in the baggage claim area at Ottawa International Airport.

Last week museum volunteers flew a 1928 WACO Taperwing biplane to the Ottawa Airport, disassembled the plane enough to get it into the terminal, and then put the plane back together in the baggage claim area.

The biplane plane was recently featured in the film, “Amelia,” starring Hilary Swank and is scheduled to be at the YOW airport until mid-September. Volunteers from Vintage Wings will be on-site to tell passengers about the history of the airplane.

1928 WACO Taperwing inside Ottowa Airport

Volunteers reassemble the 1928 WACO Taperwing inside YOW airport

Do you have a favorite aviation museum you’d like others to know about?

Leave a comment here and we’ll try to add the nominated sites to the Museum Monday schedule.

Tidbits for travelers: Free drinks for fliers; Flying car tweaked

July 28, 2010Harriet BaskasAir Travel, Airplanes, Design, Free Stuff, Technology, Transportationautomobile design, aviation technology, Flying Car, fre drinks, The Transition, United Airlines

If your Mileage Plus status on United Airlines lands you in the Economy Plus section, or if you pony up some extra bucks and buy your way into the seating area that promises 5 extra inches of legroom, the airline will buy you a drink.

Free drinks in Economy Plus on United Airlines

According to the airline website, anyone sitting in the Economy Plus section August 6-16, 2010 will get a free drink.

But you may have to ask for it. According to the Terms and Conditions of the offer, the complimentary beverage is only available during the first beverage service and is “upon request.”

Flying car design gets updated

And it seems there’s news about design changes for The Transition, the “roadable aircraft” that the folks at Terrafugia claim is the world’s first flying car.

According to Adam Hadhazy’s TechNews Daily story, mild design makeovers to the car include “a more car-like front courtesy of traditional headlights and a license plate holder” and “On the engineering side of things, the next generation of the vehicle has an improved wing that folds up smoothly per a command from the cockpit, rather like a convertible.”

And in the in-dash espresso maker?

Museum Monday: National Museum of the U.S. Air Force

July 26, 2010Harriet BaskasAir Travel, Airplanes, Exhibits, Free Stuff, History, Museum Monday, Museumsfree museums, National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, USAF Museum

There are close to 700 aviation and space museums around the country.

Each Monday here at StuckatTheAirport.com, we feature one of them.

This week: The National Museum of the US Air Force.

This museum has a lot of fans and I took a lot of heat for leaving it out of a recent msnbc.com column – Aviation Museums that Soar – that only had room to mention six aviation and space museums around the country.

So here we go:

Northrop B-2 Spirit at the National Museum of the U. S. Air Force

With 17 acres of indoor exhibition space and more than 400 aerospace vehicles in its collection, the USAF Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, near Dayton, OH, is the largest military aviation museum in the world.

In addition to an IMAX theater, and more than a half dozen huge galleries filled with one-of-a-kind aircraft and aerospace vehicles, the museum has personal artifacts, photographs, documents and exhibits that help tell the Air Force story.

Air Power Gallery National Museum of the US AIR FORCE

The Air Power Gallery at the National Museum of the US Air Force

If you plan to visit, you might have to pick just a few galleries to see. And choosing won’t be easy.

In the Early Years Gallery, the aircraft, exhibits and artifacts start with the Wright brothers and continue through World War I and the beginning of World War II.

Reproduction 1909 Wright Flyer at National Museum of the US Air Force

In the 140-foot tall, silo-like Missile and Space Gallery you’ll find a collection of missiles that can be viewed from the ground level or from a platform that runs around the inside of the gallery. There’s also the Apollo 15 Command Module, Mercury and Gemini capsules, rocket engines, satellites and balloon gondolas.

The Missile and Space Gallery at the USAF Museum

And in the Presidential Gallery, for which there are special entry requirements, you’ll see the airplane that served as Air Force One the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated as well as airplanes used by Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower.

President John F. Kennedy disembarking Air Force One

There’s more – lots more – so before you visit be sure to poke around the National Museum of the US Air Force Museum website.

SPAD XIII at National Museum of the United States Air Force

The USAF Museum is open daily. Admission is free.

A great time to visit might be during Labor Day weekend (Sept 3-5, 2010) when the museum hosts the Giant Scale Radio-Controlled Model Aircraft Air Show with model jets, helicopters and warbirds doing acrobatics in the sky.

Do you have a favorite aviation or space museum? If so, leave a comment below and we may feature your suggestion in a future Museum Monday on StuckatTheAirport.com.