The Southern Museum of Flight, located in Birmingham, is the
Southeast's largest civilian aviation museum. It houses
collections that include military, commercial, and experimental
aircraft, memorabilia, and other artifacts. The museum began
with the aviation-related artifacts and memorabilia acquired by
early Alabama aviator Mary Alice Beatty in the 1960s. In 1965,
the Birmingham Aero Club officially established the Birmingham
Air and Space Museum and installed the first exhibits in Samford
University's library. The collections were moved in 1967 to the
terminal at the Birmingham Airport, and two years later, the
installations were renamed the Southern Museum of Flight. In
1976, the Aero Club bought land in East Lake, close to the
airport, for a new facility, and construction began in 1978. Two
wings of the proposed four opened in 1983, and soon thereafter
the collections and facility were donated to the city of
Birmingham in exchange for an operating budget. The exhibit
halls are called "hangars," and the m