Bakersfield Aviation Museum Has Planes and Artifacts, but Access for Visitors is an Issue

June 23, 2021

Jun. 23—The Golden Age Flight Museum in Bakersfield seems to have many of the raw materials needed to become a great museum.

It has historic airplanes, including some real rarities. It has aviation artifacts that could help tell the story of Kern County's important and pioneering local role in the age of aviation.

Even the hangar in which the museum is currently housed is historic, and is now more than 80 years old.

But the museum at Meadows Field Airport is missing a key component all museums need: Visitors.

"I can't even lease a hangar from the airport," said Todd Schultz, who founded the aviation museum in 2017 and subleases a portion of Hangar No. 6 from Atlantic Aviation to store and display some of the museum's planes and exhibits.

Schultz, who works full-time as a charter pilot for Golden State Air Charter, feels like he's been spinning his wheels with the airport and its administrators for years — and is still going nowhere.

He'd like to stay in Hangar No. 6, but his section of the sprawling hangar is already crowded with airplanes and artifacts. And there's another problem: It has no public access.

He's also been hearing that Kern County Director of Airports Mark Witsoe wants to demolish the hangar. It's a plan that has been on-again, off-again for at least a dozen years. The large white building near Skyway and Airport drives was tentatively scheduled to be torn down sometime in 2009, The Californian has reported.

"I worry about people being in it," former Kern County Airports Director Jack Gotcher told The Californian in 2008. "We just don't see any way to save it."

And yet the hangar remains standing.

Hangar No. 6 was built in 1938, and according to previous administrators, problems with the hangar included the failure of the building's drains, causing a weakening inside its concrete walls, pricey costs to redo the heavy metal roof and other issues.

Schultz is willing to move to another hangar, or hangars.

"There are hangars that have public access that are vacant," except the airport is storing a dumptruck and other equipment there, he said.

Witsoe did not respond to requests for comment by deadline.

However, in an email sent to a museum supporter, Witsoe made it clear he does not think a museum is a good fit for the airport.

" Meadows Field Airport is a Part 139 certificated airport with an active airport security program intended to safeguard the flying and traveling public," Witsoe wrote in early June.

"It is not likely that public access and an open hangar would be practical for this airport. We will be also be making investments to increase security, access control, and surveillance around the airfield in the years to come."

Witsoe noted that three hangars mentioned as possible homes for the museum are already leased to tenants.

"I plan to continue with the present arrangements," Witsoe said in the email. "It makes financial sense for the airport to support active aircraft operators. There is a growing need for aircraft storage at Meadows Field Airport which would have a priority over a museum."

David Day, a supporter and volunteer with the museum with a master's degree in military history and a doctorate in education, said thousands of area residents as well as visitors could benefit by the educational potential of the Golden Age Flight Museum.

"I was a little aggravated by the tone of the airport director," Day said.

The Pacific Air Museum in Hawaii was for years located at the airport in Honolulu, Day said. There are air museums at other active airports as well.

Security concerns can be addressed, he said.

For Day and Schultz, the museum would provide a unique avenue to honor military veterans from Kern County who served around the world — and many who never came home.

"I hope we can sit down with the airport director and come to an amicable agreement," Day said. "We think we can work something out."

Reporter Steven Mayer can be reached at 661-395-7353. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter: @semayerTBC.

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