P-51D Mustang PV 577 at Wings of History

Wings of History is an aviation museum in

San Martin, California San Martin or San Martín (Spanish for Saint Martin) is a village and census-designated place (CDP) in Santa Clara County, California, in the southern Santa Clara Valley. Located to the south of Morgan Hill and north of Gilroy, San Martin is ...

. It is a

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

that operates using donations and membership dues. Wooden Propeller

The museum also has a restoration shop,

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

, and

propeller A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...

shop.

Hangars

The Wings of History museum has two large

hangar A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...

s filled with aircraft and instrument parts.

Hangar 1

Hangar 1 consists mainly of antique aircraft parts, like engines, and a full-size, complete albeit non-flying replica of the Wright Brothers' original

Wright Flyer The ''Wright Flyer'' (also known as the ''Kitty Hawk'', ''Flyer'' I or the 1903 ''Flyer'') made the first sustained flight by a manned heavier-than-air powered and controlled aircraft—an airplane—on December 17, 1903. Invented and flown b ...

. This hangar also has many models and other highly detailed aircraft engines including * 95 horsepower British Cirrus engines, flown by such planes as the

Westland IV The Westland IV and Westland Wessex were British high wing, three-engined light transport aircraft built by Westland Aircraft. Design and development In 1928, Westland began work on a small three-engined airliner, suitable for low volume, "fee ...

, the

Fairchild 22 The Fairchild 22 Model C7 was an American two-seat touring or training monoplane designed and built by the Kreider-Reisner division of the Fairchild Aircraft Corporation at Hagerstown, Maryland. Development The aircraft was designed by Kreider- ...

, and the Miles Hawk * 65 horsepower Continental, A-65, 4-cylinders, horizontally opposed * 220 horsepower Continental, R-670-4, 7 cylinders * Kiekhaefer, Model V-105-2 * McCullock, Model 4310-A * Nelson, Model H-44 * Salmson, Model 9-AD * Pratt and Whitney, R-1830

Hangar 2

Hangar 2 consists mainly of complete aircraft, and a car-helicopter that was donated. Near the exit there is a flight simulator and collection of

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...

and flight instruments.

Outdoors

Outside the hangars, there is a 1938 American Eagle A-101, 1934 Aeronca C-3, 1934 Pietenpol Air Camper, 1940 Stinson Model 10]. Various experimental aircraft and the

Vickers Viscount The Vickers Viscount is a British medium-range turboprop airliner first flown in 1948 by Vickers-Armstrongs. A design requirement from the Brabazon Committee, it entered service in 1953 and was the first turboprop-powered airliner. The Visc ...

are also on display. Many of the restored or partially restored aircraft have working flight surfaces that are controllable through the cockpit. B-25 from far away

References

External links

Official website

GREAT ESCAPE: Wings of History Air Museum
Aerospace museums in California Museums in Santa Clara County, California Non-profit organizations based in California {{SantaClaraCountyCA-struct-stub