I traveled to Southern California in late January 2024 and had the opportunity to visit a couple of excellent museums in the area, the first of which was the Palm Springs Air Museum.
There are many interesting exhibits here in this active museum and they also offer ‘Warbird Rides’, so one of the hangars (at least) is used by active aircraft.
The exhibits inside the hangars are quite close together, making photography a little challenging at times but the lighting is good and generally, everything is pretty accessible.
One aircraft has a dedicated enclosure – the Northrop F-117A Nighthawk. The museum is proud to have been able to obtain this aircraft for display and have a few ex-service personnel with direct experience of the jet on hand to provide some interesting insights.
The external displays are well laid out, with photography relatively straightforward. Due to the intense heat that occurs in the summer in Plam Springs, nearly all the external aircraft have cartoon-like windshield protectors, which can be a bit distracting but are no doubt necessary to prevent the glass/perspex from cracking.
All in all a very good museum – well worth the entrance fee if you are in the area.
