Charlotte Aircraft Corporation

Charlotte Aircraft Corporation is a company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina which deals in used aircraft and aircraft parts. The company was founded by Jenks Caldwell Sr. in 1953. Today the company is run by his son Jenks Caldwell Jr. The company’s main business is reselling refurbished aircraft parts which it acquires by purchasing used aircraft and stripping them of their useful parts, storing them until required, and re-furbishing them before sale to the customer.[1]

Charlotte Aircraft Corporation
TypeCorporation
IndustryAviation
Founded1953 (1953)
HeadquartersDelta Airbase, Charlotte, North Carolina, United States
Key people
Jenks Caldwell, Jr; President
ProductsReconditioned aircraft parts
Websitewww.charlotteaircraft.com

The company also has a history of engine modification. In the 1950s the company refitted Wright R-2600 engines for the DC-4.[2]

Locations
  • Headquarters: Delta Airbase, Charlotte, North Carolina (35°12′48″N 080°43′23.53″W): Sometime in the late 1950s the company acquired Delta Airbase, an airfield located off WT Harris Blvd in Charlotte, NC and moved it operations there from Charlotte Douglas Airport. Delta Airbase was created by some people from the Mississippi Delta area who moved to Charlotte to establish an airfield and operation to train pilots during World War II (hence the name Delta Airbase). In the 1960s the company purchased a large number of ex-Eastern Airlines DC-6s & DC-7s. These were flown into Delta Airbase and parted out. Sometime in the past 20 years the airstrip was shortened and some of the land was used to develop an apartment complex.
  • Laurinburg-Maxton Airport (34°47′31″N 079°21′57″W): The company has a sizable operation at Laurinburg-Maxtion Airport where it flies in aircraft and reduces them to parts. Aircraft such as 747s, 737s, 727s, DC-10 and DC-9s are visible from perimeter roads in various stages of stripping of usable parts.

Museum and Film aircraft
First 747 purchased by Northwest Airlines. Aircraft came from Charlotte Aircraft Corp.'s facility in Maxton, North Carolina

In 2006, the forward fuselage of the first 747 purchased by Northwest Airlines was removed from the airplane at Maxton and taken and installed in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.[3]

A Boeing 727 aircraft was trucked from Maxton to Massachusetts for use in the Tom Cruise movie Knight and Day.

References
  1. Popular Mechanics: 75. Dec 1960. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  2. O'Callaghan, William Patrick Dean ; foreword by Michael (2008). The ATL-98 Carvair : a comprehensive history of the aircraft and all 21 airframes. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. p. 198. ISBN 0786436700.
  3. "Boeing 747-151 Forward Fuselage". Smithsonian Institution. Archived from the original on 2012-06-23. Retrieved 2013-02-07.
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