After a nice hike in the sizzling hot sun, I decided to stop by the Palm Springs Air Museum for my second major tourist activity of the weekend before heading back to Orange and Los Angeles Counties.
I’ve been to a few aviation museums at this point, but I’m still not very well-versed in aircraft, so I still don’t have too much commentary to add to my photos—I mostly just snapped a photo of everything that looked nice, then picked out my favorite photos to feature here.
However, I do have some more information about my first two photos. The Air Museum obviously had general admission tickets, but it also allowed people to purchase extras called “Warbird Rides.” These were rides in aircraft ranging anywhere from US$99 for a C-47 Skytrain to US$4,995 for a T-33 Thunderbird. While I was at the museum, I was lucky enough to see someone purchase a ride on a T-6 Texan for $495.
The first photo above shows the pilot and the passenger in Heave Ho GQ 286068, and the second photo above shows the plane taking off into the sky. The rest of the photos below are just interesting things I saw at the museum.
At the end of my museum tour, I went upstairs into the library, which had some flight simulators that I tried out. I discovered that I am an absolute expert at shooting bullets where enemy aircraft used to be, no matter how much I try to lead my shots…
Although I’m still nowhere near competent at aircraft, I’m starting to learn and remember things from these museums I’m visiting, and it’s always satisfying to see a few recurring themes across these museums that I can recall from past visits to different museums.
I always like living in the present and looking towards the future, so I would love to see some displays of modern-day commercial aircraft that I personally take through major airlines, so that I can learn more about the big metal tubes in which I fly thousands upon thousands of miles per year. I think it would also be pretty neat to have prototypes of advancements in aircraft technology soon to come, sort of like how other museums in other fields of study will spotlight what scientists are currently working on.
However, until then, I still appreciate taking a look at the evolution of aircraft, and seeing just how quickly things have advanced so that I can hop on a plane whenever I want for a few hundred dollars and be wherever I want to be in a matter of hours.
Here are some more below-the-fold photos from various areas of the museum:
