As Curator of the Air & Space Museum I am often asked how our team moves aircraft into the building, and from place within the building when it becomes necessary.Why is there a need to move aircraft around at all you may ask? The Museum appears to be full with no room left for additional aeronautical hardware. But, quite often our volunteers will turn out a new restoration or a reproduction that will take display precedence over something on the gallery floor, necessitating the move.

The Museum’s Curtiss “Jenny” was recently refinished and is shown in this photo being reassembled on the gallery floor.

In planning such moves we first ask ourselves where the particular aircraft is going to be displayed and then, whether or not it will be hung from the ceiling or simply placed on the gallery floor. In virtually every case, aircraft will be delivered from the Museum restoration areas in the basement to our annex at Gillespie Field in El Cajon for paint or, brought back from there for exhibition once the finishing is complete. The first step is always disassembly.Wings and horizontal stabilizers are removed and, occasionally vertical stabilizer and rudder as well when height restrictions call for it.

Since we are not dealing with airliners, most fuselages will ride comfortably on our eight foot wide low boy trailer back and forth between the annex and the Museum with a wide load permit rarely required. Wings are loaded onto cradles, which support them vertically on the leading edge. Moving blankets and foam cushions support ancillary parts as necessary.

The latest aircraft to be lifted to the ceiling is our Fleet 2, the personal airplane of the Fleet family, donated to Museum by Reuben Fleet’s son Sandy.

Movement through the Museum can be tricky, often requiring the temporary relocation of exhibits or parts of exhibits that might impede relocation progress.The visitor aisles are narrow and we almost always employ four wheeled dollies or “Go-jacks” to gain maneuverability as wings and fuselage make their way in or out.

Without question, the most difficult of the tactical operations performed by Museum personnel is hanging an aircraft from the ceiling.Fortunately when the Ford Motor Company built the building that now houses the Museum, they riveted to the superstructure a collection of very beefy “tangs” from which we hang the aircraft.Our guys ride the scissor-lift to the ceiling and attach a device to the tang known as a grip hoist.A cable extends from the grip hoist to the attach point or harness center point on the aircraft and, with a lot of effort, and some leverage provided by the grip hoist, we crank the airplane up toward the ceiling.When the loop at the top of the cable is attached to the tang, the grip hoist is released and the operation is almost complete.To keep the aircraft from pivoting on the harness center point, we attach monofilament lines to two points on the aircraft and tie them off to hard points on a light fixture or some other fixed attach point.