undergoing restoration to flight.
Establishment in Claremont The Air Museum was founded by
Edward T. Maloney on 12 January 1957, in
Claremont, California, to save historically important aircraft. By February 1959, when it acquired the last
F-86A in the
California Air National Guard, the museum had 14 aircraft. As the museum quickly acquired airplanes, its location proved too small and in 1960 it approached
Long Beach, California about leasing a hangar at
Long Beach Municipal Airport. Two years later, it suggested relocating to
Torrance Airport.
Move to Ontario By 1962, the museum's collection of 72 aircraft had outgrown its original home. In February of that year, it began renovating a hangar leased by the Southern California Aircraft Corporation at
Ontario International Airport in
Ontario, California and made a request to the city to sublease the building. The city was skeptical, questioning the museum's quality, but eventually approved the request in early April after the museum agreed to maintain the property. A month later the flyable portion of its collection started arriving there. After the expiry of SCAC's lease in 1966, the museum offered to take over the building. The city tentatively approved a one to three-year lease that June.
Move to Buena Park In 1970, redevelopment of the airport at Ontario forced the museum to move again. Two years after that, construction was begun on a new location in
Buena Park, California near
Knott's Berry Farm. Plans called for the facility, called
Movieland: Cars of the Stars and Planes of Fame Museum, to feature two buildings side by side and with a common entrance. The museum's 25 non-flyable aircraft were disassembled and trucked to the new building, which opened on 5 June 1970. Meanwhile, the airworthy aircraft were moved to
Chino Airport, about away.
Consolidation at Chino When Movie World closed in 1973, the name "Planes of Fame" was transferred, along with the static planes, to the flying collection at Chino. Around the same time, the museum began restoration on its
N-9M flying wing. In the early 1980s, Robert Pond was establishing Planes of Fame East at the
Flying Cloud Airport in
Eden Prairie, Minnesota. A hangar to display the museum's Japanese aircraft was completed in December 1982 and opened in April 1984. The first step in a three phase plan, phase two involved an additional hangar and phase three would see a new office complex. The museum imported an
An-2 from Hungary in 1987 and a
MiG-15 and
MiG-17 from Poland in 1988. However, the following January, after the aircraft had passed through customs and been placed on display, they were determined to have been acquired in violation of government regulations about imports of military equipment from certain countries. The museum stated that it was unaware of the restrictions and began a petition to keep the airplanes. As a result of Congressional action, the museum received an exemption in November.
Steve Hinton became president and CEO of the museum in 1994, taking over from Ed Maloney. At the same time, a new foundation was formed to provide direction. As more aircraft were restored and the collection grew, an additional display facility was opened in 1995 at
Valle, Arizona. Located halfway between
Williams, Arizona, and the south rim of the Grand Canyon, it houses more than 40 of the museum's aircraft, many flyable. Planes of Fame East closed in 1997, with Bob Pond's personal collection being transferred to the
Palm Springs Air Museum.
Expansion at Chino An agreement signed in February 2000 allowed the museum to grow to . It subsequently announced plans for a hangar as the first part of a four phase expansion. The Chino facility opened its Enterprise Hangar in 2002. Designed to resemble the hangar deck of a World War II aircraft carrier, it contains a number of items from the
USS Enterprise (CV-6) donated by members of her crew and flight squadrons. It also houses many aircraft typical of those that served on the
Enterprise during the war. By the end of 2003, the third phase had begun with the construction of a third, hangar. The Chino facility was further expanded in 2004–08, adding two new hangars, new offices, a gift shop, library, and the Hands-On Aviation youth education center. Display areas for jets and other aircraft of the
Korean War,
Cold War, and
Vietnam War were added. In October 2009, another new hangar was dedicated, this one built by the
475th Fighter Group to store their memorabilia and house the museum's rare
Lockheed P-38 Lightning. An
F-14 that the museum had received in trade from the
Yanks Air Museum was seized by the U.S. Navy in March 2007. The aircraft had been insufficiently demilitarized when they were sold to a salvage company and there were concerns that an Iranian front company may have attempted to obtain parts from them. The museum was the subject of a lawsuit brought by
Yanks Air Museum and other tenants at Chino Airport in 2016 who argued that the museum's airshow interfered with other flight operations. The Valle facility closed during the COVID Pandemic and has not reopened as of 2024.
Expansion to Santa Maria The museum announced plans to open a new location at the
Santa Maria Public Airport. It received planning permission for the facility in December 2024. It broke ground on the new location in February 2025. ==Exhibits==