The Airchive - CR Smith Museum

	C.R. Smith Museum - This is the most outstanding commercial aviation museum anywhere in the world, in my opinion. Named for the legendary president of American Airlines, the museum features everything and anything about the history of the innovative American Airlines. Among the innovation highlights: launch of DC-3, launch of DC-10, first airport clubs (Admiral's Club), first frequent flyer mileage program (AAdvantage), first domestic U.S. Jet Service, and first airline toreally harness the power of computer system (Sabre). Also featured is memorabilia from absorbed airlines such as TWA, AirCal, Reno, Trans Carribbean, Metro, and more. Highlights include the restored DC-3 Flagship Knoxville and an IMAX Theater which shows a beautifully produced film about the history of American. The museum is located at American's world headquarters minutes from DFW Airport in Ft. Worth, Texas. C.R. Smith began as an informal archive at Tulsa International Airport over thirty years ago, before officially moving to Ft. Worth and opening in July, 1993. 817-967-1560 4601 Texas Highway 360 at FAA Road Fort Worth, Texas 76155 www.crsmithmuseum.org


	Globe Display This commemorates American's emergence as the largest airline in the world. In just 20 years, American has gone from a company whose routes barely extended out of North America and Mexico, to an airline who serves 5 continents. American flirted with international services in the late 1940s with AOA and in the 1970s with South Pacific services but was primarily a domestic carrier in the era where Pan Am, Braniff, and TWA carried the U.S. Flag to foreign lands
	C.R. Smith Gift Shop
	C.R. Smith Display This exhibit honors the namesake of the museum, former American President Cyrus Rowlett Smith. Smith built the airline from a minor presence in the early 1930s to a powerhouse, finally retiring in 1968. He was bought back in 1973 for a short time. Smith stands with luminaries like Patterson, Trippe Rickenbacker, Frye, and Braniff in the annals of American commercial aviation. It was from this desk where C.R. and Donald Douglas had the famous $300 cross country phone call that led to the legendary Douglas DC-3 being built.
	1920s Diarama This display shows the earlierst days of American when it had just rebranded from Universal Aviation. Tri-Motors were its earliers passenger planes.
	1940s New York LaGuardia Diarama This display shows the famous Laguardia hanger flanking DC-3s. The hanger still exists today.
	1940s Reservation Machine
	1950s Magentronic Reservisor Reservations Machine
	American Overseas Airlines American Export Airlines had been founded in 1937 and operated a flying boat service between New York and Ireland from 1942. Following interest from American Airlines, who wanted to break into the overseas market dominated by Pan American, American Export Airlines was merged with the transatlantic division of American Airlines in 1945.AOA's Flagship Denmark Boeing 377 Stratocruiser. AOA operated round-trip flights from Boston, Massachusetts, to London via Gander and Foynes. It was acquired by and merged into Pan American World Airways in 1950. American wouldn't serve Europe again for over 30 years, until it launched DFW-London Gatwick services in 1982. Special Thanks to Wikipedia for help in description
	1950s American Display
	1950s Douglas DC-6
	1950s American Douglas DC-6 Freighter Diarama
	1950s American Douglas DC-6 Display
	1950s American Airlines Inagural Jet Program In January 1959, American Airlines inagurated America's first domestic jet service. New York JFK - Los Angeles LAX was the first route.
	American 1958 Route Map
	1950s American Airlines Service Items and Baggage Tags
	1960s American Airlines Family Fares Promotional Figurines
	1960s American Airlines Astrovision Inflight Entertainment System Astrovision was way ahead of its time. These monitors were placed every 3 seats and even included cameras in the flightdeck affording a birds eyed view of take-offs and landings. They also, oddly, had tuners to pickup local TV from the ground, which of course is now banned.
	1966 American Airlines "The American Way" This is the inagural issue of the American Airlines inflight magazine, which was the airline industry's first. The magazine is now called "American Way".
	1968 Douglas DC-10 Model American was the airline instrumental for the launch of the DC-10. The requirement was for an airliner that could serve LAX-Chicago non-stop. In August 1971, American was the first to put the DC-10 into service. The airliner served American faithfully for 25 years before finally retiring in 1996, replaced by 767s and the MD-11. The type is noteworthy for the horrible May, 1979 crash at O'Hare which cast doubt on the entire aircraft and resulted in an unprecedented grounding of the nation's entire DC-10 fleet. The accident was eventually traced to faulty maintenance methods. This model is unique as it is featured in the 1964-68 livery. With the new (and current) livery introduced in 1968, American obviously never flew the DC-10 in the scheme seen here.
	1970s Douglas DC-10 Display

	1960s SST Model In the 1960s, the SST looked to be the future of air travel. Boeing prevailed over Lockheed for the government subsidised contract with the 2707. Orders flooded in but economic, enviormental, and engineering isses coupled with enormous development costs killed the project in 1971off after only a mock-up was built.
	1971 American Airlines First Flight Stamp and Envelops
	Boeing 747 Display American operated the 747 in passenger configuration from 1970-77. It was a stopgap measure until the arrival of the DC-10 as the 747 was too large for American's routes. American leased and operated a 747 to NASA for years to Piggyback the Space Shuttle Orbiter.
	1970s Boeing 747 Wurlitzer Piano When AA launched the 747, there was a worldwide recession, traffic downturn, and too much capacity for the market to absorb. AA turned these economic lemmons into lemmonade by outfitting its 747s with these specially built Piano Bars in the Coach lounge. Reportedly, American for a promotional stunt had Frank Sinatra, Jr perform a concert onboard a transcon flight in the early 1970s.
	1970s Trans-Carribbean Airlines American's 1971 purchase of TCA laid the foundation for American's emergence as the #1 airline in the Carribbean. The airline operated a mix of DC-8s and 727s from its San Juan and St. Thomas bases.
	1978 Deregulation Newpaper Article Perhaps no airline seized the opportunities provided by deregulation as American. This disolution of the CAB really gave birth, for better and worse, to the airline business as we know it today.
	1978/70 Timetables These timetables are noteworthy for 2 reasons. The one on the left represents American's first expansion post deregulation. The one on the right was when American launched its highly restricted, but inexpensive SuperSaaver Fares. Up until this point, Airline fares were regulated and airlines didn't really compete on price.
	1970s Boeing 707 Freighter Diarama AA operated the thirsty 707 until the early 1981, even as a freighter.
	1979 "Dallas Morning News" Front Page - AA moves to DFW AA moved its corporate headquarters to Fort Worth from New York in 1979-80 citing business climate advantages and the coming 1981 DFW hub. This was a bleak time for the Big Apple which resulted in many businesses following AA's lead out of the city.
	1980s American Inter-Island Display Before Eagle's birth in 1984, American Island was American's first commuter service which operated Convair 440s between St. Thomas and St. Croix when airport construction kept 727s out.
	1980s Display
	1980s American Eagle Display American's innovation continued in the 1980s as it created a collection of numerous commuter airlines and folded them into a fully owned feeder operation, American Eagle. It started operations on November 1, 1984. The first purchase was Command Airways Other carriers included Avair, Simmons Airlines, Wings West Airlines, Metro airlines and Chaparral Airlines. In the mid-1990s, these carriers were purchased by American and officially became American Eagle. American Eagle operates from hubs in Dallas-Fort Worth, Chicago-O'Hare, Miami, Los Angeles, New York LaGuardia, Boston-Logan, Lambert-Saint Louis International Airport, San Juan Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport (Executive Air) and San Jose. (American's hub, St. Louis, is also served by AmericanConnection in addition to American Airlines and American Eagle.) It has consistently been even more profitable than its parent carrier. The fleet numbers over 300 including ATRs, CRJs, Saabs, and EMBs.
	1980s Metro Airlines Twin Otter Model
	1980s Wings West Metro III Model
	1980s American Eagle ATR-72 and CRJ-700 Model
	1980s American Eagle SAAB 340 Model American Eagle operated over 30 of these small turboprops at their peak. This smallest member of the fleet is now being phased out.
	1980s American Eagle EMB-135/140/145 Eagle operates over 100 of these aircraft.
	1980s American Eagle and ATR Model Display
	1980s America Eagle Convair 580 Model
	1986 American Airlines Timetables These timetables are noteworthy as American began a major European push in the mid-1980s from JFK and DFW. In 1990 American would purchase the Heathrow Routes from TWA.
	1980s American Maintenance Display
	1987 American Airlines Japan Display American inagurated DFW-Tokyo Narita service in 1987. AA purchased two Boeing 747 SPs as a stop gap measure until the 1991 arrival of the McDonnel Douglas MD-11. American now serves NRT from ORD, DFW, LAX, and JFK. Other than those services and a short lived stint in Hong Kong, AA has been a relatively small player Asia relying on code shares with JAL and the OneWorld Alliance.
	1980s Boeing 747SP Model AA purchased two Boeing 747 SPs as a stop gap measure until the 1991 arrival of the McDonnel Douglas MD-11 principally for the DFW-Tokyo Narita services. They were the first 747s in passenger service in over 10 years.
	1980s Boeing 767 Displau
	1980s Boeing 776 Model American launched 767 service in 1982 and 767-300 service in 1986. AA operates one of the largest fleets of this Boeing in the world at 70 plus examples. The 767 forms the backbone of AAs transcon, European, and Hawaiian routes. Some of the earliest Dash 200 ERs are still operating on the transcon routes.
	1992 50th Boeing 757 for American Commemoration
	1990 Timetable This June, 1990 timetable is noteworthy for the launch of the airline's extensive services into Latin America. AA purchased the routes from close to bankrupt Eastern who in turn purchased them in 1982 from American archrival, Braniff. Overnight, AA became America's #1 airline to Latin America from having practically no service there, outside Mexico.These routes formed the nexus and development of Miami, one of American's most profitable hubs.
	1991 Ticket belonging to American's One Billionth Passenger
	1990s In Flight Service Display
	1999 Boeing 737-800 Model AA operates over 80 (with orders for 40 more pending as of 2006) of the Boeing 737-800 which are taking over for the MD-80s and now retired Fokker F-100s. Apart from a brief 2 year stint after its takeover of AirCal, American was never a 737 operator until 1999.
	1999 Boeing 777-200ER Model AA operates 47 of the 777 (with 7 on order) as of late 2006. The Triple 7 mainly operates prestige routes to Europe, Japan, and deep South Africa. American came late to the 777 program opting initially for the MD-11 which proved to not live up to its performance guarantees. The Boeing 777 replaced the MD-11s by 2001 which were sold to Fed-Ex.
	September 11, 2001 The attrocious events that bought down American Flight 11 and Flight 77 rippled through the world, but especially through American (and United) who lost beloved crew members and 2 aircraft to the terrorists on that horrible say. This memorial was created to further the healing process for AAers
	Pratt and Whitney JT3-C TurboJet Engine This noisy and polluting type of engine originally powered American's first 707s before being replaced by the more powerful and quieter JT3-D Turbofans beginning in 1961.

	GE CF-6 Turbofan Engine This high bypass turbofan powered the DC-10 and variants of the 767.
	Wright R3550 DC-7 Engine Fast but unreliable, these engines represent the pinnacle of the piston era.

	Landing Gear
	Fokker F-100 Simulated Cockpit and Nose Section The F-100 was a failure commercially for the manufacturer but nevertheless served American from 1991-2003.
	Late 1990s era Business Class Seat
	1990s Era Domestic First Class Seat
	American AAers Display American employees are among the finest in the industry. Though relations between them and their company have been severly stressed over the years, a pride of work and pride in the company remains.
	1950-70s Flight Attendant and Pilot Uniforms
	Gate Check-in Desk
	Airport Model Cutaway Display

	LogoShop Display
	1930/1940s Flagship Flag and Crandall Brick AA used to fly the company flag from its aircraft well into the 1950s, hence the name 'Flagship'. Robert Crandall was the controversial but brilliant executive who led American into becoming the airline it is today. He was innovative on many fronts from financial, marketing, route planning, and more but was often loathed by AAers which resulted in numerous strikes. He retired in 1998.
	Flagship Knoxville This DC-3 operated for American from 1940 to the late 1940s. It was purchased in 1991 and restored by volunteers in 1993 and then flown to DFW to be the highlight of the new CR Smith Museum. It sat out for many years until a covered extension was added in the front of the museum. It is in immaculate shape, though it still wreaks of chemicals from its years of spraying duty.





	Flagship Knoxville Douglas DC-3 Cockpit, Cabin, Bathroom, and Galley

	Flagship I-Max Theater This excellent I-Max Theater shows a brilliant film narrated by James Garner about the history of American. Yes, the seats are all actual AA First Class seats.
	TWA Exhibit This is a bitter sweet exhibit. TWA was among America's finest carriers but suffered a long, cruel decline before finally being taken over by American in 2000-2001. It likely wouldn't have survived much longer as an independent carrier with the recession and then the events of 9/11 taking hold. Unfortunately very little of the original TWA remains: flight attendants, St. Louis hub, countless dedicated employees, the 717, Kansas City Maintenance Base, are gone forever. The real soul of the company remains in Kansas City and St. Louis, not Ft. Worth but it is a nice, modest display nevertheless. A more comprehensive TWA exhibit is at Save A Connie in Kansas City.
	TWA Flight Attendant Uniforms
	TWA Douglas DC-3 Lithograph
	TWA Boeing 307 Stratoliner Photo
	TWA FA's in front of Boeing 707 (pre-1962)
	TWA Convair 880 at LAX Photo
	TWA Boeing 747 Promotional Photo
	TWA Lockheed L1011 Photo
	TWA McDonnel Douglas MD-80 Model

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	For more TWA History, Jump to Save A Connie