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Renovated American Airlines’ C.R. Smith Museum Reopens

Interactive exhibits give a hands-on experience of legacy airline’s operations.

A multimillion-dollar renovation, funded by American Airlines, Boeing and PacMin, has been completed at the American Airlines CR Smith Museum in the northeastern corner of Fort Worth, Texas, providing a hands-on experience of the operations of the iconic airline.

“We wanted to refocus the experience to give visitors a greater insight into the operations of an airline and the people that run it every day,” said the museum’s executive director, Uli Das. “We also wanted to make it significantly more interactive. Before this renovation, the museum was really nice, but more static.”

The museum includes a virtual operations center where you can put yourself in the shoes of personnel who make go, no-go decisions for the aircraft. You can also take the controls of a McDonnel Douglas MD – 80, which was for decades one of the most widely used airliners for American, or put yourself in the shoes of a baggage handler, where you can load bags against a clock.

A restored 1940s Douglas DC-3, Flagship Knoxville, is also on display, decorated as it was in the post-World War II era.

In addition to the exhibits, you can visit the new $300-million American Airlines headquarters, which is being built next to the museum and will house 12,000 employees.

The American Airlines CR Smith Museum opened in 1993 and was named after Cyrus Rowlett Smith, who led the airline for more than three decades in the mid-1900s. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admissions tickets cost $9 for adults and $6 for seniors and children. There are also various memberships available.

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