The American Airlines C.R. Smith Museum nearby the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport is a small but nice flight museum focused on American Airlines. A few days ago I made a visit to this museum, which is located just a few minutes from where I work in Arlington, Texas. It is a small but nice museum.


Overview of the American Airlines C.R. Smith Museum

American Airlines C.R. Smith Museum is located south of Dallas Fort Worth International Airport pretty much exactly in between Fort Worth (West) and Dallas (East). It is named after a former chief executive of American Airlines; C.R. Smith, the guy behind the DC-3. The museum is housed in a modern and artistically designed building. Unfortunately the parking is located across a fairly busy street. Be careful when you cross the street, many Dallas drivers seem to have found their driving license in a cornflakes box and don’t know what a crosswalk is.

The C.R. Smith Museum features a number if memorabilia, models, aircraft engines, posters, interactive features, it has a flight simulator, it has a large movie theater, but except for an American Airlines DC-3 it does not have many airplanes. In this museum you learn about history, look at pictures, and watch movies, but you don’t look at a whole bunch of airplanes. On the other hand you are allowed to touch, board, and sit in the Douglas DC-3. The museum also has a small but pretty nice gift shop, decent restrooms, vending machines, but no cafeteria.

Admission is $7.00 for adults. It is $4.00 for seniors, students and children (2-18). They are open from 9:00AM to 5:00PM Tuesday through Saturday (closed on Sunday and Monday).

The address is

American Airlines C.R. Smith Museum
4601 Texas Highway 360 at FAA Road
Fort Worth, Texas 76155

This is their web site

http://www.crsmithmuseum.org/home.aspx


Experiencing the American Airlines C.R. Smith Museum

Two things struck me as I walked into the C.R. Smith Museum; it looked fresh and modern and people were friendly. The first thing I did was watch a movie “Spirit of American”. The movie theater was pretty large and the seats were first class (or business class) airplane seats with seat belts. The seats were comfortable, the movie screen was big and wide, and the movie was quite fun and interesting. The movie was historical telling you about the history of aviation and American Airlines, at the same time as it was sort of an advertisement for American Airlines. It featured a lot of aerial video over various places around the world so you felt as if you were flying across the globe, almost like the “Soarin” exhibit at Disneyland and Disneyworld. Well not quite that good.

I am no fan of American Airlines because I feel they have treated me badly in the past. However, the movie gave me a more positive attitude towards American Airlines. It showed me what American Airlines could have been. The guy in charge was also very interested in my back ground and during the presentation of the movie he said that unfortunately the movie has no views from Sweden. Perhaps American Airlines should hire the museum personnel to work as stewards, or the people in the movie. After the movie I continued exploring the various exhibits of the museum.

I thought it was neat that you could enter the DC-3, sit in the seats and touch things. Well you could not use the toilet on the airplane, which was not a big surprise. This is what people flew around in 60+ years ago, and the comfort wasn’t too bad. In fact, after 60+ years the comfort seems to have been going down hills. I thought everything was progress. Anyway, the museum presented a lot of information, and the museum featured hundreds of small models of airplanes, airports, and other things, and they had several interactive features. It is a small museum but it is a good museum for families with kids.


Comparing C.R. Smith Museum, the Cavenaugh Flight Museum, and the Frontiers of Flight Museum

There are three major flight museums in the Dallas Fort Worth area, the Cavenaugh Flight Museum in Addison, the C.R. Smith Museum in Fort Worth, and the Frontiers of Flight Museum in Dallas, Texas. They all have their own special focus.

The Cavenaugh Flight Museum features nearly 50 real airplanes and helicopters, most of them military. The airplanes are for the most part airworthy and you can buy tickets and fly in some of them including a World War II bomber. Well the tickets for the flights are naturally quite expensive. However, the The Cavenaugh Flight Museum is all about looking. There are no interactive features, no movies, and not much information other than the information signs for the airplanes. You cannot touch or sit in any of the airplanes, well unless you buy a ticket for a trip. The location of the Cavenaugh Flight Museum is not very good as it is away from everything else in the Dallas Forth Worth area. However, it is the museum with the most real airplanes. In my estimate it is the second largest flight museum in the Dallas Fort Worth area after the Frontiers of Flight Museum.

The Frontiers of Flight Museum is in my opinion the best and I believe the biggest flight museum in the Dallas Fort Worth area. It tells the history of aviation and especially the history of South West Airlines. It features several airplanes (20-30) but also missiles, the Apollo 7 lunar module, space rocket engines and rocket parts, several hundred models of various sizes, several interactive features, and movies. It includes a real Boeing 737, which you can touch, enter, and you can sit in the seats. It is the biggest airplane on display in any of the three museums. The Frontiers of Flight Museum has a great location as it is right by the Lovefield Airport not far from downtown Dallas.

The C.R. Smith Museum is the smallest of the three but it is a pretty nice museum. I would rank the museums as; Frontiers of Flight Museum, the Cavenaugh Flight Museum, and the C.R. Smith Museum.


Final Conclusion

As mentioned, overall I liked the C.R. Smith Museum but it is small and it is not the most interesting flight museum in the Dallas Fort Worth area. I ranked it last among the three. However, I still recommend a visit to it, at least if you are nearby, for example, at the DFW airport. I give it an unenthusiastic recommendation and a three star rating.


Finally I would like to thank Di (Surgrn911) lead in travel for adding this museum to the epinions data base.

Recommended: Yes

Best Suited For: Families
Best Time to Travel Here: Mar - May