Walt Disney’s Grumman Gulfstream G-159 is being restored at the Palm Springs Air Museum. (Image: Kathryn)

Nicknamed The Mouse, Walt Disney’s plane is being refurbished at the Palm Springs Air Museum.

In 1962, Disney purchased a piston-engine Beechcraft Queen-Air 80, which was soon replaced by a Grumman Gulfstream G-159. It’s the Gulfstream that is at the air museum. It still has the white with orange and black stripes painted on the outside which was to resemble Walt Disney Productions’ logo.

With Disney’s long connection to Palm Springs and having had a vacation home there, it makes sense the plane eventually found its way to the desert.

While Disney died in 1966, the plane continued to be used by the company until it was retired in 1992.

Disney had the plane customized to accommodate 15 passengers, two pilots, and a flight attendant.

“The galley maintained a sink, a warming oven, food storage containers, two hot cups for heating soup, and undoubtedly, one of Walt’s favorite dishes, chili. The main cabin, along with its seating, was equipped with a drop-down desk, storage area for stationery, lamps, ashtrays, and drink holders,” according to the museum. “There was also a fully functioning lavatory for passengers sitting in the area. A compartment divider ensured that Walt, whose seat and lavatory were in the rear of the aircraft, was also able to enjoy his privacy while on board. An aviation enthusiast, Walt had an instrument panel, complete with altimeter, airspeed gauge, and clock installed on the bulkhead by his seat so that he could keep tabs on any in-process flight.”

An original seat and window from Walt Disney’s Grumman Gulfstream G-159. (Image: Kathryn Reed)

Inside the air museum are several panels dedicated to Walt Disney. Even though Disney was too old to be drafted in World War II, the company helped with war efforts.

“After the attack on Pearl Harbor, with the U.S. fearing a Japanese invasion of the West Coast, 500 United States Army soldiers occupied Walt Disney Studios for eight months, earning Disney credit as the only Hollywood studio to come under military occupation in history,” one panel reads. “The Army was tasked with implementing ‘passive defense measures’ for all vital installations along the Pacific coast, nicknamed Camouflage California. During the Battle of Britain in late 1940, U.S. observers learned how the British camouflaged empty fields as factories, causing the German Luftwaffe to waste thousands of bombs.

“The U.S. Army received help from all the major movie studios in Hollywood, which offered up their set designers, landscape artists, lighting experts and prop men. They camouflaged some 34 air bases, and key manufacturing facilities along the West Coast, including the Douglas Aircraft & Lockheed-Vega aircraft plants in the Los Angeles Area. The Lockheed-Vega plant was fully hidden beneath a suburb complex replete with rubber automobiles and peaceful rural neighborhood scenes painted on canvas. Hundreds of fake trees and shrubs were positioned to give the entire area a 3-D appearance. Maintaining the illusion of a neighborhood required careful timing and planning. The suburb had to show signs of life and activity, so workers occasionally relocated automobiles.”

During the war Disney Studios also helped by producing propaganda.

“The medium itself was ideal—brief and uncomplicated films and posters with recognizable characters either instilled patriotic fervor or issued warnings for the public to be vigilant against wartime threats. Approximately 1,300 units had a Disney-designed unit patch, including the flying Tigers,” according to the museum.