Aviation Museum of Santa Paula

Usually news from a museum is about the preservation of the Past. We have some exciting news about the Future of the Aviation Museum of Santa Paula!

We will soon be opening the doors of the AMSP's New Home Hangar!

After many years of dreaming, fundraising, planning, working, and waiting, an opportunity has arisen for us to finally realize the largest goal of all - a permanent home for our Museum. That day has arrived. The Museum Board recently entered into escrow to purchase a portion of the Screaming Eagle Complex at Santa Paula Airport. Specifically, we will be located in the offices of Screaming Eagle, and the adjacent north display hangar. This hangar will be enclosed to provide us a permanent exhibit space.

Our unique Chain of Hangars will continue to be crucial elements of our Museum. This space at Screaming Eagle will give us a home, a place for a museum store, office space, and the potential for growth. This will require a whole new range of development of funding, but we will have realized the dream we have worked so long to achieve.

We could not have made this purchase without the longtime support of our volunteers, our donors, our members, the community of Santa Paula and the aviation community, and we cannot thank them adequately for hanging in there with us over the long haul. In the last few challenging years we have continued to celebrate the heritage of our special airport, despite floods, temporary runway closures, and many other obstacles as well! It was our original hope to locate our Museum at the East End of the airport, as part of the Santa Paula Air Park development. Circumstances beyond our control forced us to alter that flight plan. The East End property will be developed slightly differently than the original plan, and we will still realize a major long term benefit from our participation in that project. We could not have achieved our goal of a permanent home for our Museum without the significant support of those who participated in our Heritage 2003 fundraising endeavor.

The entire Screaming Eagle Complex of hangars will be undergoing a renovation over the next several months, and our Museum will be part of this project. We hope to have our Home Hangar ready to occupy late this fall, and you can expect a very special opening ceremony!