Page 20 - World Airshow News Autumn 2024

...tHE pALm SpRINGS AIR muSEum.

The P-63 “Pretty Polly” has raced at
the Reno Air Races and is one of the
museum’s flying warbirds that appear
at many west coast airshows (photo by
Norman A. Graf).

The museum’s
Pacific Hangar
includes aircraft from
World War II’s Pacific
theater like this SBD
Dauntless (photo by
Jim Froneberger)

Tallichet was a B-17 co-pilot who flew 21 February 2025. Once the plane is back in Operation Allied Force over Yugoslavia in
missions in World War II with the 350 the air, the B-17 will become part of the 1999.
th
Squadron of the 100 Bomb Group, “The museum’s airshow program. Walt Disney’s former Gulfstream I tur-
th
Bloody Hundredth”. The airplane played boprop, nicknamed Mouse One, is now
the role of the real Memphis Belle in the OtHER RARE AND also a part of the museum’s collection.
1990 major motion picture of the same uNIquE AIRCRAFt The plane was on display at Disney’s Hol-
name. The museum’s aircraft collection is too lywood Studios in Orlando until 2022
The Belle was flown from its former extensive to list here, but a complete list when it was moved to Palm Springs. De-
home in Geneseo. New York to Palm can be found on their website at cades of humidity in Florida damaged the
Springs in November 2021, and the mu- palmspringsairmuseum.org. In addition to interior, so the museum is in the process
seum embarked on a major re-restoration the actively flying aircraft, the collection of restoring the interior to its original
program to ensure the Memphis Belle is does include several unique and notewor- condition.
flying for many years to come. At the thy airplanes. The museum is also now the home of a
time of this article, work from the flaps The museum’s F-117 Nighthawk unique aviation artifact, the fictional Dark
forward was complete, but the restora- stealth fighter is one of only a handful on Star hypersonic aircraft mock-up built by
tion team at the museum was still work- public display and is the second highest Lockheed Martin for the movie Top Gun:
ing to remediate some corrosion found time combat aircraft from the F-117 fleet. Maverick. The Dark Star has been used by
in the horizontal stabilizers, with a target The jet served in both Operation Desert the museum for special events since early
to have the plane flying again by around Storm over Iraq and Kuwait in 1991 and 2024, but it will eventually be displayed in

www.airshowmag.com 20 Quarter 4, 2024