An Exhibit Gallery Within an Artifact: Charlotte’s 1936 Historic Hangar
Historic aircraft hangar’s restoration pays tribute to nine decades of airport history
Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) is the sixth busiest airport in the world, with over 1,800 daily landings and departures, a 2.4 million sq ft terminal on 6,000 acres of land, and 59,000,000 annual passengers. However, the airport’s mid-1930’s origins are far more modest, harkening back to a single airline operating out of a small hangar and terminal on a rural 400-acre plot.
Today, that same hangar is one of the only remaining relics from the airport’s earliest days. Once a key part of essential airport infrastructure, the hangar has since become a Designated Historic Landmark, undergoing a remarkable transformation over the last nine decades. Now, it is under the care of the Sullenberger Aviation Museum, a Smithsonian Affiliate in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Museum has repurposed the artifact into an exhibit that tells the story of the airport's growth and impact on the city.
In 1936, Charlotte, North Carolina, was facing a major problem—the airplanes had stopped landing. At the time, the city was cultivating a burgeoning aviation industry, mostly based on service from Eastern Air Transport (later known as Eastern Air Lines). The airline had begun flying to Charlotte in 1930, operating out of a small, privately-owned airport just three miles northwest of the city’s center. However, only six years later the airline halted all service, citing safety concerns due to the short and inadequate runways.
Luckily, Charlotte’s civic leaders were already fighting to preserve and improve the infrastructure for local air travel. Recently elected Mayor Benjamin E. Douglas was among aviation's staunchest supporters, having campaigned on the promise of opening a new municipally-owned airport in the city. In September 1935, Douglas succeeded in securing $323,890 in federal funds (equal to $7.6 million in 2025) from the Works Progress Administration (WPA), promising to deliver a “Class A Airport” to Charlotte.
Construction began in November 1935 with land grading on the airport’s three dirt runways, but progress was quickly hindered due to bad weather. Many weeks passed with little to no advancement, calling into question the project’s worthiness. By the fall of the following year, only two runways had been completed, while work had just started on the third runway, a two-story stone terminal building, and an all-metal hangar.
Despite this, the WPA laborers persevered, working through months of snow, rain, and mud to open the Charlotte Municipal Airport on May 17, 1937, restoring commercial air service to the city after nearly a year-long lapse. The project’s merit became apparent almost immediately, as Eastern Air Lines’ twice-daily service rapidly increased to eight daily flights by 1939.
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During this time, the airport’s small terminal building and hangar were the cornerstone of aviation in Charlotte. Passengers walked through the modest terminal, which housed a ticketing counter, waiting room, and restaurant, before descending down the stone steps to the open-air boarding area. Around 500 feet to the east stood the 11,000-square-foot steel hangar, where airlines and local pilots stored and maintained their aircraft.
However, after World War II, the two structures became too small to accommodate air travel’s surging popularity. By this time, Charlotte’s commercial airline traffic had increased to 24,000 annual passengers and 29 departing flights per day, necessitating larger and more efficient facilities. The original terminal building and hangar didn’t sit idle for long, and were soon leased to a variety of smaller general aviation companies.
Though the WPA-built terminal was eventually torn down in the late-1960s, the original hangar continued to be used for several years. Southeast Airmotive was among the hangar's longest standing tenants, operating out of the structure from roughly 1971 to 1985. As a charter service and Piper Aircraft dealership and repair shop, Southeast Airmotive transported hundreds of local executives and sold countless aircraft out of the hangar.
In 1985, Southeast Airmotive moved to a different site on airport property, leaving the hangar vacant and, after a few years of exposure to the elements, severely dilapidated. The airport, which was renamed Charlotte Douglas International Airport in 1982, had the building slated for demolition until, in 1991, the Carolinas Historic Aviation Commission saved the hangar and transformed it into a museum.
Today, that same hangar—affectionately known as the ‘Historic Hangar’ for its role in the airport’s early development—is a treasured landmark and artifact essential to preserving Charlotte’s aviation legacy. Now maintained by the Sullenberger Aviation Museum, the 89-year-old Historic Hangar continues to evolve. Recent renovations have prepared this iconic structure for its next chapter as the home of the new “Aviation City” exhibit.
As befits the Historic Hangar’s storied past, “Aviation City” explores the joint development of the airport, its surrounding industries, and Charlotte itself. It houses a range of artifacts and aircraft pertaining to Charlotte’s history, such as an air raid siren from Morris Field, the US Army Air Forces base located at the airport during World War II, and a Piedmont Airlines DC-3, a commercial aircraft vital to the airport’s formative days. The exhibit is a permanent installation at the museum and debuts May 31st, 2025.
About the Author
Shelby Dains is a public historian and North Carolina native. She came to the Sullenberger Aviation Museum as an intern in 2022, but returned as a full-time staff member in 2023 after earning her Master’s degree in History from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She has since helped the museum open two new galleries, including “Aviation City” (which is also her personal favorite exhibit). Outside of her professional life, Shelby enjoys figure skating, vintage shopping, and reading classic literature.