Walt Disney's Vintage Gulfstream I Offers Glimpse into 60's Traveling Style

The Palm Springs Air Museum opened up Walt Disney's refreshed and refurbished Grumman Gulfstream I for public exhibition, just in time to celebrate the man's 121st birthday. 

The aircraft is mintier and cleaner than ever before, brought back to its heyday after years behind a Florida warehouse. Along with the plane's custom fittings and styling touches, attendees can see a series of items from the business aviation world, fresh from 1963. The museum has entered into a 40-year agreement with the Disney Corporation to house the aircraft for exhibit, giving fans a chance to see one of the earliest examples of an infamous bizjet brand. 

The "Mouse", as it was called throughout Disney's tenure as a passenger, became an integral part of the company's history, used to ferry company personnel and scout out land purchases for the park that later became Disney World. Around the time of the exhibition's release, museum director Fred Bell said that the aircraft wasn't a stranger, relating a time he'd seen the aircraft languishing on a back lot in the hot Florida sun. The aircraft was a frequent fixture in the Orlando Hollywood Studios tour from 1992 to 2014.

"I said to my wife at the time and my children who were running all over Orlando, 'That airplane should be in a museum,'" Bell recalled. "To think about the fact it's here 30 years later and it's Walt Disney's airplane, it's amazing. With every airplane we've restored, we have a responsibility. We have a responsibility to millions of Disney fans, The Walt Disney Company and everybody that put time and effort to get the airplane to where it is."

His hopes were met by the company, who embarked on a cost-sharing restoration agreement with the museum and Phoenix Air Group. For now, only the exterior livery and furnishings look as they did decades ago - its Rolls Royce engines have been removed and its interior stripped to begin its own refurbishment.

"The plane had 20,000 hours on it when it was retired," Bell said. "It's not an airplane I imagine we would ever offer. Some of the airplanes we fly are very rare, but this would be one of the rarest airplanes in the world if you were to fly in it."

FMI: www.palmspringsairmuseum.org