North Bay Air Museum, Sonoma County

About North Bay Air Museum

North Bay Air Museum, located at Sonoma Valley Airport in Sonoma County, preserves historic aircraft and celebrates aviation pioneers who later shaped automotive design. Visitors experience restored warbirds through museum exhibits and authentic flights in aircraft including a Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk and North American P-51 Mustang, which accommodate passengers from age eight upward. The museum highlights the legacies of figures like Carroll Shelby, a former U.S. Army Air Corps pilot who created the Shelby Cobra and Ford GT, and Karl-Gottfried Nordmann, a WWII fighter ace who led Mercedes-Benz in North America. Display aircraft throughout the museum showcase aeronautical engineering across multiple decades. The airport itself, founded after World War II, continues its flying heritage with the Vintage Aircraft Company operating 1942 Boeing Stearman biplanes and a T-6 Texan alongside the museum's collection. Educational exhibits and community events explore the intersection of flight and ground transportation design and innovation.