Shilling For The National Airline History Museum
Two weeks ago I found myself in Kansas City standing beneath a Lockheed L-1011, parked with its aft perched over a fence casting a shadow on the parking lot, its engines removed and a cracked windshield at the National Airline History Museum. For some this aircraft is an eye sore, for anyone who knows me, I think this aircraft is gorgeous.
Standing in front of the National Airline History Museum, having just spent a half hour walking up and down the aisles of a humid, boiling hot and musty L-1011 cabin at Kansas City’s Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport I found myself speaking with John Roper, Vice President for Operations at the museum, and pondering one question … how can I help?
Â
Having spent the next hour with John Roper and Joe McBride, a museum board member and Senior Manager for Marketing Communications at the Kansas City Aviation Department, discussing the museum’s restoration of a DC-3 and complete overhaul and restoration of a TWA Lockheed Constellation, I chose to ask them the question I had it my head … how can I help?
Â
The answer, social media and networking.
Â
Over the past few days my Twitter and Facebook have been filled with messages asking people to follow the museum on Twitter at @AirlineHistory, check out the new Pinterest page and Facebook, which are all about to pick up pace significantly.     These tweets and Facebook message lead fellow BoardingArea.com blogger Seth Miller of The Wandering Aramean to ask me to clarify if I was shilling for the museum.
The answer is YES! I am most certainly shilling for the museum … and I volunteered to do it. So, full disclosure, the museum has not compensated a dime. So why am I doing this? Because I believe in the museum’s mission.  Many people volunteer to do different things, for me … I chose to donate my time and expertise to advancing the awareness and message of the National Airline History Museum. I have quipped many times I want to go to the desert and adopt an L-1011, well I may not be adopting an L-1011 here, but helping put one back in the sky is good enough for me.
Along the way, so far, I’ve managed to rope in an airline, airframe manufacturers, engine manufacturers and an industry focused apparel and accessory company into helping spread the message of the museum.
So … now that I have full disclosure here … the big question is this … what can YOU do to help advance the National Airline History Museum?
Well there is the obvious way, donate! The museum needs approximately US$100,000 to finish its DC-3 and US$300,000 to moves its L-1011 project forward.
Are you an airline, major corporation, wealthy person looking to support a non-profit museum focused on history and education, along with a significant tax write off that can be used as national flying billboard? Consider donating say … $300,000 towards the L-1011.
OK, you don’t have a few hundred thousand dollars? Then how about donate $5 or $10 to help preserve the history of the airline industry in the United States.
Not interested in donating today? I completely understand, but you should at least follow the museum on Twitter at @AirlineHistory and help spread the museum’s message. There are some big things happening.
Oh yea, and watch out for the blog soon to be launched.
Below is a photo of myself and John Roper with the museum’s L-1011
Happy Flying!
