FLYING Magazine
The Palm Springs Air Museum (PSAM) is planning to take three of its historic vintage warbirds to the National Championship Air Races at Roswell, New Mexico, and it could use your help.
The California museum is asking for donations to help support the team’s trip to the event on September 16-20 at the Roswell International Air Center (KROW).
The PSAM will be bringing its two P-51 Mustangs and one of the last flying P-63 Kingcobras left in the world. Museum officials note these are living pieces of history, so they require a dedicated team both on the ground and in the air to keep them flying.
Contributions are being requested to support the transportation, maintenance, fuel, lodging, and operational expenses necessary to transport, operate, and display these historic aircraft at the Roswell air races.
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Officials note that while the nonprofit PSAM is underwriting this effort, community support is essential to making the mission successful.
“Taking three historic warbirds to a National Championship Air Races event is much more involved than simply flying the airplanes to Roswell,” said Fred Bell, vice chairman of the Palm Springs Air Museum. “The aircraft must be prepared before departure, supported throughout race week, and inspected and maintained continuously while away from their home base. The support team is what makes safe and reliable flight operations possible.”
Bell said there are substantial expenses involved in deploying and operating three vintage warbirds away from Palm Springs, including:
• Aviation fuel
• Oil and other aircraft consumables
• Maintenance and required inspections
• Spare parts, tires, and maintenance supplies
• Ground-support equipment
• Transportation and support vehicles
• Lodging and meals for crews
• Aircraft insurance
The PSAM fundraiser is intended to help offset a portion of those expenses and allow it to continue a tradition that stretches from Bob Pond’s passion for air racing, through the Reno, Nevada, years and Bob Friend’s involvement, to the new home of the NCAR in Roswell.
The public is invited to purchase some PSAM swag, such as key chains, T-shirts, license plate frames, backpacks, etc., with the proceeds helping support the aircraft effort.
More information and how to donate can be found here.
“For the museum, this is about much more than racing airplanes,” Bell said. “It is about keeping history alive, honoring the people represented by these aircraft, and carrying the vision of our founders forward for future generations.”
The PSAM’s aircraft are being flown by experienced warbird pilots with what Bell describes as “significant time in high-performance historic aircraft and experience with the National Championship Air Races.”They are:
• Ken Gottschall : P-51D Man O’ War
• Time Nightingale: P-51D Bunny (race No. 62)
• Patrick Nightingale: P-63 Pretty Polly (race No. 63)
All three aircraft will be competing in the NCAR’s Unlimited Class field.
Bunny and Pretty Polly participated in the inaugural Roswell event in 2025 as warbird demonstration aircraft rather than race competitors because there was no Unlimited Class division.
In addition to the three race pilots, the PSAM effort involves aircraft mechanics, ground crew, flight-operations personnel, logistical support, and volunteers. Bell anticipates there will be a team of approximately 8-9 people supporting the aircraft.
For race attendees this will be a chance to see these rare warbirds fly, compete, and demonstrate the capabilities that made them aviation legends. In addition, between races the PSAM will be offering ride experiences in one of the P-51 Mustangs.
Bell said the PSAM’s participation in the National Championship Air Races goes back to the years at Reno, when museum aircraft were flown before a national audience, allowing the public to see and hear them in flight.
PSAM was founded by the late Bob Pond, a World War II Naval aviator and successful businessman who spent decades collecting and restoring historic aircraft. That eventually evolved into the museum, which opened on Veterans Day in 1996.
“Bob also had a very personal connection to the Reno National Championship Air Races back to the late 1980s,” said Bell. “That history makes the museum’s participation in today’s National Championship Air Races especially appropriate. Air racing is part of the Palm Springs Air Museum’s heritage. Our involvement at Reno, and now at Roswell, continues a tradition that reaches directly back to Bob Pond himself.
“Bob’s philosophy also remains central to the museum today. These airplanes were built to fly. We preserve them not simply as static artifacts but as operating aircraft that allow the public to experience aviation history in a way that a stationary display simply cannot duplicate.”
Another especially meaningful part of the museum’s air racing history involves the P-51 Mustang Bunny and a Tuskegee Airman, the lateBob Friend.
According to Bell, Friend was a special member of the Palm Springs Air Museum family. He served with the famed 332nd Fighter Group—known as the Tuskegee Airmen—during WWII flying combat missions in the European Theater.
The museum painted its P-51 with the markings of Friend’s wartime aircraft, Bunny, making it a flying tribute to the pioneering aviator and to the larger legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen.
“Bob himself participated with the museum during the Reno air races years, making Bunny’s presence there particularly meaningful,” Bell said. “Spectators were not simply seeing an aircraft representing history. They had the opportunity to meet one of the men who had actually lived that history. The relationship between Friend, the Tuskegee Airmen, and Reno was so significant that the Reno Air Racing Association incorporated a Tuskegee Airmen tribute and flyby into its welcoming ceremonies for several years.”
Bell said that connection will continue as Friend’s daughter will be joining the PSAM at Roswell this year in honor of her father.