At North Field of Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport is a museum with a flying boat you can tour and a 1940 building that once housed the Boeing School of Aeronautics.
What's there
The museum, formerly called the Western Aerospace Museum, has more than 30 vintage and modern civilian and military planes, according to Wikipedia. The star is the Short Solent Mk III, a big four-engine British flying boat that arrived in 1987. The museum's website offers tours inside it.
The galleries focus on Oakland's role in aviation history. Exhibits cover the Tuskegee Airmen, women in aviation, Jimmy Doolittle, the Eighth Air Force, U.S. naval aviation, and Oakland-based airlines Transocean Air Lines, World Airways and Trans International Airlines. There's also an aircraft engine room. The collection includes the only Thorp T-3B, donated in 2012 to 2013, and a Lockheed Electra that arrived in 1989.
A building with its own history
Ron Reuther founded the museum in 1980. It opened in 1986 in a room inside Hangar 5 at the airport. In 1988 it moved to Building 621, the former Boeing School of Aeronautics, built in 1940, where it still is today.
Plan your visit
- Hours: Wednesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Closed Monday and Tuesday, according to the museum's website.
- Where: 8252 Earhart Road, Oakland, at North Field of Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport.
- Open Cockpit Days: The museum has announced three for 2027: Sunday, March 14; Sunday, June 20 (Father's Day); and Sunday, Sept. 19. On those days, visitors can climb into the cockpits.
- Holidays: The museum lists a "Royal Gingerbread Land" event. Check its events page for dates and tickets.