Last weekend I flew out to Charlotte, North Carolina from the West Coast to watch my hometown NFL team, Seattle Seahawks, beat the Carolina Kittens Panthers. Yet before game day, I had a day to waste in North Carolina.
View from my seat – 50 yard line row 11 Visitors side 🙂
So I did what any true AVGeek would do and spent a few hours exploring the Carolinas Aviation Museum at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport.
The museum is home to a number of aircrafts that are both operational and non-operation and include military and civilian aircrafts.I took a number of pictures throughout the museum, but I will say my favorite aircraft on display was the Piedmont DC-3, the US Airways Airbus A-320-214 CN/MSM 1044 N106US (the A320 that crashed after taking off from LGA and landed safely on the Hudson River), and the ultrasonic jets: 1947 D-558-1 Skystreak and 1956 A4D-1 Skyhawk.
DC-7B in Eastern livery
The museum is a must visit for any aviation geek travel through Charlotte and is in fact close enough to the main terminal of CLT that the museum could easily be visited on an extended lay over between flights!
When you’re done at the museum, be sure to hang out on the back patio where aviation enthusiast can listen to Air Traffic control communicate with jets landing and departing from CLT. The back patio also provides some awesome views of both runways 18L/36R and shorter 5/23 which runs diagonal and crossed runways 18L/36R
Getting there: The museum is easily accessible by car and is about 15 minutes from Downtown Charlotte. I used Lyft to and from Downtown Charlotte at a cost of $11 each way.
Hours of Operations:
Monday-Friday: 10am – 4pm
Saturday: 10am – 5pm
Sunday: 1pm – 5pm
Admission costs:
General $12, Seniors $10, or Reduced $8
*Reduce admission for children, students, college w/ ID, and Military
Groupon is also currently having a sale for reduced $7 admission for all visitors to the museum and the Groupon doesn’t expire until March 2015!
