Walt Disney’s Private Plane Has Been Restored, and Visitors Can Now Go Inside at Palm Springs Air Museum
Walt Disney’s private plane’s interior has been restored, and the general public is finally getting a chance to go inside.
The Palm Springs Air Museum will hold the first of five special interior tours on October 17. According to the museum, the events are the first time non-D23 members can tour the restored cabin.
The Grumman Gulfstream I has been at the Palm Springs Air Museum since 2022. Disney restored the outside before moving it west, while the museum and Phoenix Air later took on the much bigger job of recreating the inside as it looked when Walt used it in the 1960s.
The plane still has plenty of nostalgic Disney touches. The interior included a galley kitchen, two restrooms, couches, a desk and custom stationery and matchbooks with Mickey Mouse details.
The first public tour is October 17
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The October 17 event runs from 6 to 8 p.m. and requires a separate ticket. Admission is $65, or $50 for Palm Springs Air Museum members, while children 12 and younger are free with a paid adult.
Mark Malone and Walt Disney Archives manager Ed Ovalle will speak that night. Malone’s father, Chuck Malone, was Walt’s personal pilot, and Mark later flew the Gulfstream himself for Walt Disney Productions.
Four more interior-tour nights are already scheduled for 2027. They are January 16, February 20, March 6 and April 3. The March event will feature Disney Legend, Bob Gurr.
Walt used the plane while planning Disney World
Disney acquired the Gulfstream in 1963. After he received his own plane in early 1964, he used it for trips to Florida while the company was working on the project that eventually became Walt Disney World.
The plane also made repeated trips between Burbank and New York during preparations for the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair.
It also has a Pirates of the Caribbean ride connection. Disney flew to Puerto Rico in 1964, where Castillo San Felipe del Morro in Old San Juan helped inspire the look of the Disneyland attraction.
Over its years with Disney, the Gulfstream logged about 20,000 hours and carried an estimated 83,000 passengers.
The plane spent years at Disney-MGM Studios
The Gulfstream made its final flight to Walt Disney World in 1992 and was displayed at Disney-MGM Studios, now Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
It stayed there as part of the Studio Backlot Tour until 2014. The plane eventually returned to California for the 2022 D23 Expo before moving to Palm Springs on long-term loan from the Walt Disney Archives.
Visitors without a ticket to an interior event can still see the plane and its Walt Disney Archives display during regular museum hours.
That display includes items from the aircraft such as Walt’s flight instruments, a telephone handset that connected him to the cockpit and a flight bag decorated with Mickey Mouse.
