Upcoming Events

The Battle of the Philippine Sea (nicknamed the "Great Marianas Turkey Shoot" by American pilots) was the Japanese Navy's last ditch attempt to hold on to the Marianas Islands. It marked the final large-scale carrier-versus-carrier battle of WWII in the Pacific. The battle resulted in heavy losses on the part of the Japanese - in men, planes and carriers. Pitted against each other were an American force of 7 fleet carriers and 8 light carriers against the Japanese task force…

  This is YOUR opportunity to view the F-117 Stealth Fighter #-833 with an exclusive visitor experience! The Palm Springs Air Museum is launching a series of 6 limited events for the public to view this incredible aircraft up close and personal with an experienced interpreter as a guide for the evening. Each experience lasts 90 minutes and will feature a different Skunk Works Expert or F-117 pilot to interpret the airplane, and will include a different Limited Edition T-Shirt…

This is a heartwarming and true story close to our presenter’s heart. As a young boy, Jerry Whiting’s father told him a story about these pilots called “Red Tails”. Jerry’s dad was a tail gunner on a B-24 bomber, flying out of Italy in WWII. He talked little about the war and his role in it, but often shared a story about the Red Tails. He described them as a group of black fighter pilots who escorted the bombers on…

Of all the Pacific battles of World War II, Okinawa stands out as the most severe trial of the U.S. armed forces – their crucible. The Japanese launched a “typhoon of steel” against the U.S. invasion which was the last and largest amphibious assault in the Pacific. American forces faced a Japanese army defense force of 130,000 men and an unprecedented 3,000 kamikaze sorties targeting the U.S. invasion fleet. In a last desperate throw of the dice, the Japanese navy…

During the Cold War, an American lawyer is recruited to defend an arrested Soviet spy in court, and then help the CIA facilitate an exchange of the spy for the Soviet captured American U2 spy plane pilot, Francis Gary Powers. Join us for a screening of this fascinating film complete with special in person commentary from film contributor and son of Francis Gary Powers himself, Gary Powers Jr. Wine and Light Hors d'oeuvres will be served by LULU of Palm…

On 1 May 1960, a United States U-2 spy plane was shot down by the Soviet Air Defense Forces while performing photographic aerial reconnaissance deep into Soviet territory. The single-seat aircraft, flown by pilot Francis Gary Powers, was hit by a surface-to-air missile but Powers parachuted safely and was captured. The incident occurred around two weeks before the scheduled opening of an east–west summit in Paris. In the days directly leading up to the conference, tensions increased dramatically between the…

Join us as we pay honor to our neighbors to the north in this our annual Canadian Military Tribute program. Most Americans, even those involved in aviation, know very little of Canadian aviation history in general and the Avro CF-105 Arrow heavy fighter / interceptor in particular. In a nutshell, Canada built the foremost aircraft in this category during the late 1950’s, but it was felled by  a short-sighted government decision to scrap it in the middle of flight-testing and…