Carolinas Aviation Museum

History:

The Charlotte Airport hangar was erected in 1936-37 by the Works Progress Administration, better known as WPA, a program tied to the federal work program that served Charlotte during the Great Depression. The airport consisted of two buildings, an administration/terminal building, one hangar, a beacon tower, two 3000-foot runways and one 2500-foot runway.

On May 17th 1938 Eastern Airlines flew the first commercial flight into Charlotte and in the airport's first year of operation six flights took off from Charlotte each day.  Two years later, the airport was it was renamed Douglas Municipal Airport in honor of the mayor Ben E. Douglas who headed the movement to build it.

Charlotte Douglas Airport grew rapidly over the years but in 1991, the original hangar was scheduled to be torn down to make room for expansion.   Floyd and Lois Wilson heard about the removal of the hangar and decided to step in to save the historical landmark.  They organized a small group of aviation enthusiasts and formed the Carolinas Historical Aviation Commission (CHAC).  Their vision - "To preserve the past, present and future aviation history of North and South Carolina." Of course the logo reflected this vision