Western Museum of Flight, Zamperini Field, Torrance

Date of visits: March & November 2015, September 2023, May 2025.
The Western Museum of Flight is located at Zamperini Field, the municipal airport in the coastal city of Torrance in the South Bay region of Los Angeles County, California.

The museum is a non‑profit educational institution dedicated to preserving and displaying aircraft history and artefacts of Southern California's aviation heritage.

The origins of the museum are attributed to an early restoration project of a rare Northrop N‑3PB World War II‑era aircraft which had crashed in Iceland in April 1943, while serving with the Royal Norwegian Navy Air Force. The project started in 1979 when Northrop Corporation in partnership with the Icelandic Aviation Historical Society and the Norwegian Aviation Historical Society began a recovery effort to salvage the aircraft. In 1979 the aircraft remains were recovered and transported to the Northrop plant at Hawthorne, California where volunteers worked on the plane, many in their own time, eventually completing the restoration in November 1980.

The successful completion of the restoration inspired the creation of the Aerospace Museum to preserve other vintage aircraft, which in 1983 led to the formation of the Southern California Historical Aviation Foundation, which operates the museum today. The museum was originally based at Hawthorne Municipal Airport till it was forced to close to the public in July 2006 when the rental became to expensive. The museum collection was put into storage till the museum reopened at Zamperini Field in March 2007.

Zamperini Field
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Red Baron Hangar # 3
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The museum occupies Red Baron Hangar #3, a double hangar structure on the western side of the airfield which provides indoor space for the museum's smaller aircraft along with its varied collection of target drones, piston and jet aircraft engines, other aviation related components and accessories, extensive model collection, restoration work and artefact storage. The hangar on the opposite side of the apron houses a Hawker Siddeley Harrier T.4 (which now resides at the California Science Center in Los Angeles) and is used as a presentation hall for the monthly Celebrity Lecture Series which features presentations by aviation and aerospace experts (see my Trip Report September 2023).

At the south end of the airfield the museum has an outdoor ramp where the larger aircraft are exhibited, notably the Northrop YF‐17 and YF‑23 prototypes, along with a Grumman F‑14 Tomcat and until recently a Northrop T‑38A Talon. The enclosure is only accessible when accompanied by a museum docent, to enable access to the locked compound. For special events and presentations individual aircraft are sometimes exhibited on the apron in front of the main hangar.

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Torrance Airport Gate Guard
A Lockheed T‑33A Shooting Star displayed on a pole at the entrance to the Torrance Municipal Airport, Zamperini Field. Though located near the Western Museum of Flight I believe it is not a part of the museum collection.

T‑33A Shooting Star (52‑9239)
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