Palm Springs
No visit to the Palm Springs area would be complete without adding the Palm Springs Air Museum to your itinerary.
One of the top Palm Springs attractions, the Palm Springs Air Museum was the dream of four men in 1993: Charlie Mayer, Bill Byrne, Pete Madison and Dr. Mort Gubin. When Palm Springs resident and warbird collector Bob Pond came aboard things moved quickly and the museum was officially incorporated thirty years ago in 1994.
The Palm Springs Air Museum opened to the public on on Nov. 11, 1996 with two hangars and 14 vintage aircraft. I was there in 1999 when they were building a third hanger for my favorite WWll aircraft, the B-17 Flying Fortress. It was an incredible sight to see that iconic bomber sitting quietly on the tarmac.
Today, the museum consists of over 70 vintage static and flying aircraft and five hangars: the Pacific (Navy), the European (Army), B-17, General Ken Miles Korea / Vietnam / Cold War, and the F-117A. The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk, the predecessor to the B-2 bomber, is a single-seat, subsonic twin-engine stealth attack aircraft developed by Lockheed’s secretive Skunk Works division. It was the first aircraft to be designed with stealth technology.
Besides , the B-17 and F-117, other aircraft in their collection of over 70 include the Supermarine Spitfire Mark XIV, Chance Vought F-4U/FG-1 Corsair, Consolidated PBY Catalina, North American B-25 Mitchell Bomber, Grumman F6F Hellcat, Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, North American P-51D Mustang, North American F-86 Sabre, Bell AH-1 Huey Cobra and the Grumman F-14A Tomcat.
There is nothing as unforgettable as walking down East Tahquitz Canyon Boulevard and seeing a B-25 Mitchell roaring overhead as it did in in 1942 in 30 Seconds Over Tokyo.
The Palm Springs Air Museum is open every day from 10AM to 5PM (closed Thanksgiving and Christmas). Admission is $24 for adults and $22 for seniors, teens and military veterans.
For more information and online tickets, please visit: PalmSpringsAirMuseum.org
PalmSprings.com
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