Santa Maria Museum of Flight — Attraction in Santa Maria

This place is unique; two H'wood films were shot there: The Spirit of Saint Louis, with Jimmy Steward playing Charles Lindbergh [5 scenes], plus nearly 40 yrs later, much of Disney's The Rocketeer was filmed there; in fact the hangar in which the tour starts was made for the film! They also have items from 3 other films: "The Winds of Kitty Hawk" shot in the dunes west of Sta Maria, the remote-control plane used at the end of the 2004 remake of "Flight of the Phoenix," with Dennis Quaid [H'wood tho't it'd be more dramatic to have the pasengers holding on to the wing for dear life! They also have two items from the Leonardo DeCaprio film "The Aviator" showing Howard Hughes' contribution to aviation.

They have uniforms, including one from Britain's unsung aviators, The Royal Flying Corps; i have no idea how they differ from the RAF! The airport was a base for WW2's most feared fighter -- the Lockheed P-38 Lightening! BTW, 'P' signifies 'pursuit;' -- also called 'intercepter'

The newest addition is a Soviet jet trainer, made in what at the time was Czechoslovakia [1968]. The entire museum is about to change, big-time; Chino's excellent Air Museum just leased 13 acres; they're moving...

Saddly, in our travels, the times the museum was open did not work out with our schedule. This is a smaller museum with a few aircraft on display outside along with an M113 apc.

This museum, despite being small, has one of the coolest hangers to be housed in. The paintings on both sides of the museum, along with keeping what I can only assume is its 1940s facaued, makes it worth a stop on its own accord.

Make sure to check out this museum as it is off the beaten path but...

We just came early in the morning to look around. It wasn't really open yet. But there is a really nice little garden there with all kinds of women in aviators commemorated. Explaining quite a bit of history. That was nice. And, we could look through the fence and see some of the interesting aircraft they have there. There is a Garden there to Ms Hume I think who helped support and found the museum. The garden is not...