airport museum

Happy 90th birthday, Phoenix Sky Harbor Int’l Airport. Party on!

July 30, 2025Harriet BaskasAviation history, History, Uncategorizedairport history, airport museum, Airport trading cards, Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport

Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX), which calls itself ‘America’s Friendliest Airport,’ was surely the funnest airport to be at this week during an anniversary party commemorating the purchase of the rural airport in 1935.

90 years ago, ‘Sky Harbor’ was nicknamed ‘The Farm’ time because of its location. And back then, the purchase price was $100,000.

At the airport’s 90th birthday party, local leaders presented a proclamation and made some speeches.

Then it was time for a 90s-themed dance party and a parade of airport Navigator Buddies from the pet therapy program dressed in neon, as rock stars, as movie characters from “Clueless,” sports heroes, and more.

After all the dancing was over, airport personnel and the pups paraded through Terminal 4 and then boarded the PHX Sky Train to Terminal 3.

PHX has been celebrating its 90th anniversary all year with monthly events hosted in the Culture Corner, located post-security in Terminal 3. Check here to see if something will be happening next time you’re visiting PHX.

Other anniversary activities at PHX include trivia with Amelia, the Airport’s mascot and music through the decades as part of the weekly Traveling Tunes programming.

The Airport Museum also has a special 90^th anniversary exhibition on display in Terminal 4 called “From Farm Field to Airfield,” showcasing the airport’s beginnings and its significant milestones over the years.

You can read and see the exhibit from home starting here.

And, as a nice bonus, PHX travelers can stop by the Airport Information Counters to pick up a commemorative 90^th anniversary airport trading card. Super collectible!

PHX Party photos by Mark Skalny Photo, courtesy of PHX

Finnish airplane hotel (with sauna). And a museum in a Chinese airport.

February 24, 2025Harriet BaskasHotelsAirplane hotel, airport museum

The Stuck at the Airport team visited Finland, loved it and Helsinki Airport – and we’re now scheming to go back.

If we do, we’ll try to book a stay at the Ilmatar Airplane Lodge, which the folks at Visit Finland let us know is housed inside a SAAB 340b passenger airplane once operated by the Finnish Air Force.

In addition to accommodating eight guests, the jet complex has two saunas and an outdoor jacuzzi.

(Photo credit: Ilmatar Airplane lodge and Valtteri Vainio)

Chinese Airport with a cool museum

It’s not the first museum in an airport, as they claim, but the museum inside the new fifth terminal at sprawling Xi’an Xianyang International Airport (XIY) in Northwest China is quite impressive.

The new airport museum displays artifacts excavation during the construction of the airport along with cultural relics from Shaanxi Province.

According to an article in China’s Global Times, the airport museum showcasing archeological treasures is a “bold initiative” that “redefines the boundaries of both museum spaces and transportation hubs, heralding a new chapter in cultural accessibility and public engagement.”

If you’re not heading to China anytime soon, you can visit the museum exhibits offered by the SFO Museum at San Francisco International Airport (SFO), the Phoenix Airport Museum at Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX) and many others here in the United States.

Museum Monday: “Propliners” at SFO

June 27, 2011Harriet BaskasAir Travel, Airlines, Airplanes, Exhibits, Museum Monday, Museumsairport museum, proliners, SFO airport, SFO Museum

A new exhibition at the SFO Museum at San Francisco International Airport shows off scale models of propeller-driven transport aircraft used in the design, manufacturing and marketing process of the aviation industry in the late 1940s and 1950s.

According to the museum, these propliner models helped the airlines imagine the new airliner operating within their fleet and were used promote their services in airline offices and travel agencies.

This exhibition includes twenty-three models from the Collection of Anthony J. Lawler. “They represent the age of postwar propliners, which lasted until the 1960s when faster, more fuel-efficient and propeller-less turbojet airliners superseded them.”

Look for the propliners in the front cases of the Aviation Museum and Library in SFO’s International Terminal through December 2011.

You can also get a preview here.

Photos courtesy of SFO Museum

Museum Monday: Discover the Airport! Exhibit at Syracuse Airport

September 13, 2010Harriet BaskasAirports, Aviation history, Exhibits, History, Layover, Museum Mondayairport museum, aviation, Exhibits, history, Syracuse Hancock International Airport

There are more than 700 aviation and space-related museums in this country.

Each Monday we visit one of them. Eventually we’ll hit them all.

This week’s pick: the Discover the Airport! Exhibit at New York’s Syracuse Hancock International Airport.

The exhibit is located right there in the main lobby of the airport terminal and includes the cockpit of a Boeing 727, landing gear, a baggage tug, a mock air control tower and a “marshaller” display that lets you learn about – and practice – signaling techniques needed to help aircraft take-off and land safely.

Sounds like fun!

Know of another great aviation or space museum? Let us know and it may be featured on a future edition of Museum Monday here at StuckatTheAirport.com.