Palm Springs Air Museum opens today, June 1st

Starting today, Monday June 1st, the Palm Springs Air Museum will be reopening on a limited basis as an open-air museum.

A spokesperson for the museum said that all hangar doors will remain open from 10:00- 5:00 P.M. adding that safety protocols have been added to ensure a safe reopening, including taking temperatures of all staff and arriving visitors. They might reduce the hours depending on how many visitors they get by the middle of summer.

Visitors will be required to ware masks and groups sizes are now limited to less than 6. People visiting will have to observe a 6 feet social distancing rule. They have also reduced their total capacity to 375 people from their normal capacity of 2,000 people.

Fred Bell, the vice chairman of Palm Springs Air Museum said, "People locally are just looking for things to do. Get up and stretch their legs, get some exercise. So it’s a good opportunity for us to help them out. We want to help the community." This is the reason they wanted to open back up to the public at this time.

The Palm Springs Air Museum contains over 60 vintage aircraft from World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War contained in 86,000 square feet of open hangars and on the tarmac. Bell also said another unique quality about this air museum is that they are one of the very few flying museums in the United States. He said almost all of their aircraft actually operate. He added, "We are actually located on the airport so you can come and see the airplaines come and go."

With so much history to see at the museum, Bell said, "If you look at all the memorabilia, you can easily spend 4-6 hours here."

Additional displays and memorabilia are located throughout the hangars. Children 12 and under get in free with paying adult. For more info, visit PalmSpringsAirMuseum.org or call 760-778-6262 during business hours.