Rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the Auen Foun­da­tion joined many oth­er Palm Springs Air Muse­um donors as con­struc­tion on the orga­ni­za­tion’s fourth hang­er began. Three years in the mak­ing, the Ken­neth P. Miles Kore­an and Viet­nam War Hangar will house vin­tage air­craft and arti­facts from the Viet­nam, Kore­an and Cold War eras as well as a POW/MIA display.

As a vin­tage T‑28 amazed the crowd of about 100 with a fly over, Karen Miles, wid­ow of the late Major Gen­er­al Ken Miles, a loy­al sup­port­er of the muse­um, led the beam-sign­ing event. Oth­er donors and beam sign­ers in atten­dance includ­ed Lew and Dorothy Webb, Robert Webb, Fritz Frauchiger, Monte Marts, and Rhon­da Smith. Palm Springs Air Muse­um Board mem­bers attend­ing includ­ed Fred Bell, Robert Borns, Bill Bramer, Dan Gilbert­son, Jim Hous­ton, Bill Hugh­es, and Dr. Dave Thomp­son as well as muse­um staff, vol­un­teers, and var­i­ous com­mu­ni­ty sup­port­ers. Com­ments were made by Bell, Gilbert­son, Miles, Toni Aguil­lar for Con­gress­man Dr. Raul Ruiz’s office and Rita Massie for Super­vi­sor John Benoit’s office. All guests attend­ed a catered lunch by Carousel in the Pacif­ic Hang­er after the sign­ing ceremony.

Gen­er­al vis­i­tors to the muse­um were also offered an oppor­tu­ni­ty to sign the hang­er beam through­out the day. The fol­low­ing day, the beam was raised into posi­tion. The $2.25 mil­lion, 20,000 square foot hangar is 2–3 months away from com­ple­tion thanks to gen­er­ous sup­port of many addi­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty donors includ­ing the H.N. and Frances C. Berg­er Foun­da­tion, the Auen Foun­da­tion, Toy­ota Motor Sales of North Amer­i­ca, Mona and Ed Sher, Harold Matzn­er, Jolin­da Park­er, Phil Hixon and many others.

The Palm Springs Air Muse­um is locat­ed at 745 N. Gene Autry Trail, Palm Springs. The muse­um is open to the pub­lic dai­ly from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. The non­prof­it organization’s next fundrais­ing event is the Palm Springs Air Museum’s 20th Anniver­sary Gala on Fri­day, Feb­ru­ary 17. For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it palmspringsairmuseum.org or call 760–778-6262.