Groundbreaking held for ‘Planes of Fame’ aviation museum in Santa Maria
SANTA MARIA, Calif. - A groundbreaking ceremony was held Thursday morning to officially kickoff construction of the long-awaited Planes of Fame Air Museum in Santa Maria.
Plans to create the new attraction at the Santa Maria Public Airport have been in the works for more than two years.
" This is really huge for us here," said Steve Hinton, Planes of Fame President. "Believe me, I've been jumping up and down for six months, and sometimes you got to catch your breath, and maybe I might be acting cool, but I'm really excited!"
After going through the long approval process with the City of Santa Maria, work to build the museum is now set to take off.
"We finally have our building permits to start our construction," said Hinton. "This has been two years here at Santa Maria working with the city and the airport and with the local contractors to come up with a plan and it's all come together right now."
On Thursday, with an estimated 150 people on hand, including Planes of Fame officials, local dignitaries, members of the public and other aviation enthusiasts, a celebration was held at the construction site located next to the Radisson Hotel.
"I think this is very exciting because this is a $12 million museum that will be built here and it'll be a huge impact," said Planes of Fame representative Jim Bray, who served as the groundbreaking master of ceremonies. What I think is unique about this museum is their mission is to fly as many aircraft as possible, as opposed to just static displays, and that's a big part of the mission is to make it a living history so folks can actually see these very wonderful historic aircraft fly. They can actually hear what they sound like and I think that is a unique vision of Planes of Fame Air Museum."
Planes of Fame will be built by a Chino-based nonprofit organization on the 12-acre site at the southern end of the airport.
"Planes of Fame will house collection of probably 60ish kind of airplanes and 25 of them will be flyable kind of aircraft," said Hinton. "They're all historical airplanes, part of history. They all have a story and our goal really is to inspire young people and acknowledge history, acknowledge pioneers and the people who made the sacrifice of the years and the achievements of what aviation means to civilization."
Planes of Fame already has a location at its home base in Chino, where is houses a museum that is home to nearly 100 aircraft.
The planned Santa Maria expansion will be a multi-phase project that will first include display hangars, maintenance and restoration facilities and an events center.
In addition, both the city and builders say the new Santa Maria Planes of Fame will also offer STEM educational opportunities, tourist appeal and revenue generation for the region.
"Because of the Planes of Fame Museum being built here, thousands of people will come to Santa Maria Valley," said Michael Boyer, Santa Maria Valley Chamber President/CEO. "They will stay in our hotels. They will eat in our restaurants. They will really affect many of our business infrastructure here. It's going to be great for our community. It's just a wonderful new museum. There's really nothing like it around."
For more information about the future Santa Maria Planes of Fame Air Museum, click here to visit the official website.
