M&A - Palm Springs Museum - 2020

Palm Springs Museum

Palm Springs Air Museum – Palm Springs, California, USA 2019

I visited Palm Springs Air Museum for the first time in September 2019 during a wider military aviation road trip. The museum is situated to the north-eastern side of Palm Springs International Airport, just off Interstate 10. The museum has a rich array of American military airframes on site, both outdoors and indoors. Numerous piston powered exhibits continue to fly and are well known on the American airshow scene. And incredibly, you can even take a ride in some of the exhibits if you have sufficient cash! 

It is a relatively young museum, founded in 1996, and has a very wide range of varied aircraft types available for viewing detailing much of aviation history through to reasonably modern jets. Aircraft predominantly displayed inside can be a challenge for photography, but the experience of visiting the museum and learning more about the aircraft present is very worthwhile. There are numerous volunteers and veterans on hand to engage with you and enhance your visit. On each occasion I have been, it has been a very friendly and welcoming adventure. 

Aircraft present include, members of the US Navy Grumman ‘cats,’ a Bearcat, Tigercat, Hellcat and Wildcat. Other notable types on site include a Vought F4-U/FG-1 Corsair, Supermarine Spitfire Mk14, Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, Bell P-63 King Cobra and an example each of the Republic P-47 and a beautiful North American P-51 Mustang, ‘Bunny.’

Jets on site include a Lockheed F-104G Starfighter, MD F-4B (S) Phantom II, North American F-86 Sabre, an ex-Slovakian Air Force Mig-21 and an airworthy T-33 Shooting Star. It is not practical to list all of the airframes present at the museum, but jets are also represented by an F-14A Tomcat, EA-6B Prowler, A-6E Intruder, F-16 in Navy aggressor colours and F-105 Thunderchief. 

Very much worth a visit, with several ‘themed’ hangers to explore, including the café area hangar, complete with a striking polished metal B-17 Flying Fortress.

Author & photography
David Bray
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