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U.S. Airline Industry Museum Foundation, Inc. Present Assets |
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This was the Foundation's first acquisition. It was donated by Jon Brown, owner of Brown's Seaplane Base at Winter Haven, Florida. It is in flyable condition and was flown to its present location and is in a small hangar at Flanders Field near Polk City, Florida. Inspections are kept up and the engine is operated frequently. It is hoped that this aircraft can be used to trade for an older airline type aircraft. It was Jon Brown's request that the
aircraft eventually reside in a museum. The request is taken seriously and
will be honored if at all possible.
There were 44 of these aircraft built but only four are known to remain. The fuselage is the same as the 1049G models but the wing was redesigned and was made capable of carrying 8,000 gallons of fuel. This "Starliner" is in flyable condition and is on static display at the Fantasy of Flight Museum at Polk City, Florida. This particular airplane still has
the livery of Lufthansa Airline. It was used by the government for use as
Germany's first chancellor, Konrad Adenaur's "Air Force One." This is a
truly historical aircraft. The 1649's were also used by TWA and others
before the jets arrived.
This aircraft was acquired in 2006. It remains statically stored at its desert location near Chandler, Arizona. Restoration has begun but will take a considerable amount of time. Part of the interior is intact especially in the rear cabin at the rounded pressure dome. The DC-7B was popular with travelers and was used by several airlines. It was soon replaced by the upcoming faster turbo-prop and jet aircraft. Along with this acquisition were
six additional valuable Wright engines and engine cowlings for use as spares. Miscellaneous Assets Miscellaneous assets have been
received from a variety of persons. The need for donations of monies and
artifacts had been made known through presentations to organizations, the
newsletter and personal contact. This crane, manufactured by the American Hoist and Derrick Company, was donated in bad repair. It is now in good operating condition and in use lifting heavy airplane engines, etc. It was appraised initially at $5,000. Also donated by the same firm was an 8,000 gallon semi-trailer fuel tanker, appraised at $3,000. Additionally, stored at three locations, are large quantifies of other donated items. These include airline uniforms, aircraft operations and system manuals, company annual reports, advertising posters, 7,000 airline postcards unused, employees wings, old teletype machines, large amounts of aviation periodicals and a model of a suggested format for the museum with scaled model aircraft. And much more.
A Closing Statement The Foundation was founded January 1, 2000 with the intention of bringing forward the premise for the justification for an airline industry museum. Why? Because there is none! How an enormous and nationally very important part of this nation's life could be overlooked did not seem to be reasonable. That is our quest, to see if it could be accomplished in the reasonable future. With the Foundation's very limited funds it was not possible or desired that this group would be able to undertake building one. That is not the goal of the USAIMF! The Foundation would participate if requested in the land location and acquisition, building layout and future aircraft and artifact gathering. Aircraft acquisition is not a big
problem but in the Foundation's case it is where to put them. But the
intent is to represent the industry and not just the airline aspect. Much
needs to be done and your help is very much needed.
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