The San Francisco Aeronautical Society News

Exclusive: Ed Trippe, son of Pan Am founder: ‘There was only one Mr. Trippe’

We had the pleasure of getting to know Ed Trippe, chairman of The Pan Am Historical Foundation and the son of Juan Trippe, founder of Pan Am. Trippe is a…

Pan Am Historical Foundation donates entire film archive to SFO museum

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2023 A large crowd of aviation enthusiasts gathered at the Louis A. Turpen Aviation Museum at SFO to honor this year’s Achievement in Aviation Award recipient Edward…

Supersonic time machine: New exhibit on display at SFO Museum

A new SFO Museum exhibit presents the legacy of first-generation SSTs through aircraft models, photographs and airline flight attendant uniforms just to name a few. Let’s begin with Concorde. The…

SFAS honors William R. Hearst III with Achievement in Aviation Award

The San Francisco Aeronautical Society would like to thank all of its sponsors and other attendees for their incredible support in making this year’s gala so memorable.  After a two year break, it was great to see so many familiar faces…

Fans honor Captain ‘Sully’ Sullenberger during movie night at SFO museum

The San Francisco Aeronautical Society wishes to thank everyone who joined us for this memorable event and a special thank you goes to Captain Sully Sullenberger. Nearly 100 people waited…

Louis A. Turpen Museum Receives New TWA Memorabilia

The San Francisco Aeronautical Society is proud to announce that it recently acquired a diverse and varied collection of TWA (Trans World Airlines) memorabilia that it donated to the SFO…

Our mentor, our friend

It is with heavy hearts that we accept the news that our mentor, friend, and namesake of the Museum and Library, Louis A Turpen, has transitioned to the next life. …

SFAS Board Member Angela Gittens Given Prestigious ACI-NA Downes Award

The San Francisco Aeronautical Society is excited to announce that one of its Board Members, Angela Gittens, was awarded the Airport Council International North America (ACI-NA) prestigious William E. Downes…

Transformation at the Aviation Museum & Library

By: Megan Callan, Assistant Director, Museum Affairs and Gabriel Phung, Aviation Museum & Library Manager | SFO Museum SFO Museum is excited to report on changes underway at the San…

A Day in the RV-8 with Ken Turpen

Aviation is extraordinary! Whether it is general aviation, commercial aviation, military aviation, it is all tremendously challenging and rewarding. I consider myself extremely lucky to have been surrounded by aviation…

Donation of 11 model airplanes representing nearly 50 years of aircraft development

In the fall of 2020, the San Francisco Aeronautical Society aquired and gifted to the SFO Museum, eleven model airplanes that represent nearly fifty years of aircraft development between the…

“A Conversation with John Hill” “Pan Am at War…How the Airline Secretly Helped America Fight World War II”

This video was produced by SFO Museum in partnership with the San Francisco Aeronautical Society. It documents SFO spokesperson Doug Yakel in conversations with author and former SFO Museum Assistant…

Legacy of Leadership

Paying tribute and presenting the Achievement in Aviation Award to Louis A. Turpen as the founding President of the Society and his outstanding contributions in the field of aviation, as…

Acquisition and Donation of Historically Significant Pilot Insignia Collection

The San Francisco Aeronautical Society is proud to announce the acquisition and donation to SFO Museum of a collection of commercial airline insignia spanning nearly seventy years of commercial aviation,…

In Praise of Pilots: Honoring the Flight Crew

Celebrating and paying tribute to the hard-working women and men of the commercial air transport industry, and the presentation of the Achievement in Aviation Award to Captain Chelsey B. “Sully”…

A Century of Airplanes

The celebration of the airplane as a thing of beauty, and the continuum of aeronautical engineering, design, and influence for over one hundred years was celebrated including the Jim Lund…

Fashion in Flight

Celebrating the history of airline uniforms which for over 85 years has been designed to signify a distinct role in the workplace, project the identity of their employer, and reflect…

California Flying – Catch Our Style

An exciting evening of aviation history, celebrating the remarkable growth of commercial aviation within California during the decades of the 1950s through 1980s as well as presenting Tony Bill with…

Ancient Dream of Flight, Building the Reality

From myth to the moon, and from the power of the imagination to reality, the courage and tenacity of those who dared to dream and make them a reality are…

SFO: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

A stunning celebration of the airport’s vision from a municipal airport with a dirt airstrip at Mills Field in the 1920s through burgeoning Jet Age in the 1950s, to the…

Mills Field Memories

The Society proudly celebrated the 85th anniversary of the San Francisco International Airport.  The first ten years of San Francisco International Airport (SFO) were filled with challenges and successes. Like…

First Flight 75: Celebrating Aviation History

Celebrating the 75th anniversary of the beginning of regular transoceanic commercial air travel with the start of passenger flights on October 21, 1936. Barely more than three decades after the…