Charlotte Charlotte’s air museum has emerged from its stealth mode.
Four years ago, the Carolinas Aviation Museum was housed in a humble hangar, one of the original structures at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, built as a WPA project during the Depression. When the hangar had to be moved for runway improvements, the small museum moved into the old Wachovia aviation hangar near the Air National Guard base.
Then, “Miracle on the Hudson” changed everything.
On Jan. 15, 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 made a safe splash landing in the Hudson River after losing power following takeoff from New York’s LaGuardia Airport. Operators of the museum talked to the insurance company that owned the Airbus A320. It agreed to donate the salvaged aircraft in 2011 and it became the museum’s centerpiece.