Oakland Aviation Museum

The Oakland Aviation Museum is housed in the original Boeing School of Aeronautics. Established by Boeing, it was an entire school dedicated to training pilots, mechanics and other personnel specifically for Boeing Air Transport, the airline subsidiary of the Boeing Airplane Company. The company chose a site at the Oakland Municipal Airport in California, the largest municipal airport in the United States at that time. The Boeing School of Aeronautics opened on Sept. 16, 1929. Today, one can still visit the site of the former school at the Oakland Aviation Museum, housed in Building 621. This original hangar was built in 1939 by the Boeing School of Aeronautics to train aviation mechanics for the US Army Air Corps and US Navy. The Oakland Aviation Museum was founded in 1981 as a non-profit organization under IRS Code 501 (C) 3 under the name of Western Aerospace Museum.The museum's first home was a small room at Hangar 5 at Oakland International Airport's historic North Field.In 1988, the Museum was granted use of the historic Boeing School of Aeronautics hangar built in 1939. The hangar serves as the primary facility of the Museum, providing indoor and outdoor exhibition space, an education room, a History Flicks room, a research library and aircraft restoration work areas. In 2007, Western Aerospace Museum was renamed Oakland Aviation Museum with the historical mission refocused on the important legacy of flight at North Field and the surrounding area.