Got your attention, didn’t it? 
Always wanted an excuse to post this Western ad (Western merged with Delta in 1987).
We want your input on the Delta Museum website’s new Delta Aircraft History section! Now under construction, it will feature all aircraft types flown by Delta way back to our crop-dusting days.
We are posting cool facts about Delta planes: Did you know our first Airbuses were A310s from Pan Am in 1991 (14 leased & 3 owned)? You will see early paint schemes and cabin interiors. We will post links to rare photos and video of Delta aircraft found on other sites. I am scanning colorful brochures and articles in the company magazine that introduced our new planes and will post them.
What are your favorite little-known facts about Delta’s aircraft?
Any burning questions you’ve always wondered about our planes?
What great videos & unique photos of our planes have you seen on YouTube, airliners.net and other sites?
Look forward to hearing from you!
Marie Force
Archives Manager
January 13th, 2010 at 12:59 am
Haven’t been on the blog for a few days, but I can say that I’m going to have some fun with this section of the Museum’s site!
I’m looking at the page for the L-1011 right now, my favorite Delta jet & it’s great. I took several trips to Puerto Rico & one of the highlights was always at least one flight on the L10. There was nothing like the low groan the engines made when they spooled up! My family & I tried to get on the last flight (7/31/01) & were told by an agent that the plane was going to be retired on the 16th. I found out the hard way that they were still going when we got to MCO on the 24th & one was sitting at Delta’s airside. Ugh.
I find it interesting that the L-1011 only wore one livery despite being around while three were out there. I also like the note you mentioned about when the last trans-Atlantic L10 flight was & on the 727 page, mentioning that theoretically, the 727 could have stayed in the fleet until 2005.
I think any random fun facts about any of the planes that you can find would be interesting. Go wild with it!
January 13th, 2010 at 1:02 am
Looking at the DC-9 page, another idea popped into my head. Any tidbits or pieces of trivia that you might be able to find about the DC-9 “returning” to the Delta fleet thanks to the merger with Northwest might be neat as well. Are there any DC-9s in what was the NW fleet that are serving a second tour of duty with the Widget?
January 13th, 2010 at 12:48 pm
I really like the new section! It’s interesting to learn about all these historic aircraft.
Two photos I think that are worth mentioning would be this one of a Convair 880: http://www.airliners.net/photo/Delta-Air-Lines/Convair-880-22-2/0004414/L/
and, although it is not that old, this is one of my favorite photos on Airliners.net: http://www.airliners.net/photo/Delta-Air-Lines/Boeing-767-332-ER/1451255/L/
I do have one question, in regards to the title: what happened to widgetheads.net? It was such a great site that told people just how quickly the aircraft were being upgraded in terms of entertainment systems and paint (with multiple updates daily), and had lots of other good information as well. I know you guys weren’t the ones running it, but is there a chance we will ever see it–or anything like it–again?
-J.
January 15th, 2010 at 9:48 am
Thanks for all the great feedback! I’ll check out those 2 photos on airliners.net. The DC-9 page will be updated to include NWA’s fleet, so look for that soon. I’ve used widgetheads.net too in the past, but do not have any information about it.
Keep those comments, suggestions, links coming!
January 19th, 2010 at 3:43 am
Hi, Marie… you asked for queries. One of the MD-11s was used by the ACOG to fly the Olympic flame. When I last flew on that eqpt, it still had the brackets bolted to the floor. Whatever became of that plane? A little piece of Atlanta history!
January 21st, 2010 at 3:42 pm
Interesting the hear you could still see the brackets for the flame holder. Delta MD-11 Centennial Spirit (N812DE) is currently in service with FedEx.
March 9th, 2010 at 10:55 am
Exciting news: http://widgetheads.net/ is live again!
May 14th, 2010 at 11:45 am
Marie,
Check out the museum’s page on the MD-90. The graphic to me is an 88, not a 90. The image below that is correct. The 90 has the fatter and shorter V2500 engines.
http://deltamuseum.org/M_Education_DeltaHistory_Aircraft_MD-90.htm
thanks,
Tim