Qualla: The Hangar That Hollywood Flew Through

The Hangar That Hollywood Flew Through: Introduction

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CrabTree13, CC BY-SA 3.0. The hangar next door has a secret. It looks like any aging World War II structure -- corrugated metal, wide doors, the functional ugliness of wartime construction. But in 1963, stunt pilot Frank Tallman aimed a Beech 18 straight at it and flew through the building for the climactic scene in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Twenty-three feet of clearance from wingtip to wingtip. Fifteen feet between the tail and the ceiling. The Butler Building, as it's known, survived the stunt and is still standing, still in use, right beside the Pacific Coast Air Museum at Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport in Santa Rosa, California.

Image: CrabTree13 | CC BY-SA 3.0

The Hangar That Hollywood Flew Through: Born from Tragedy

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit en:User:Paul.h, Public domain. The museum's origin story carries a weight that its sunny tarmac displays don't immediately suggest. Founded in 1989 by aviation enthusiasts from EAA Chapter 124, the fledgling institution suffered a devastating blow the very next year when three of its members died in the crash ...

Image: en:User:Paul.h | Public domain

The Hangar That Hollywood Flew Through: A First Responder's Final Post

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CrabTree13, CC BY-SA 3.0. Among the museum's more than thirty aircraft, one carries a story that transcends aviation history. In December 2010, the museum acquired an F-15A Eagle that had launched from Otis Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts on the morning of September 11, 2001. It was among the fir...

Image: CrabTree13 | CC BY-SA 3.0

The Hangar That Hollywood Flew Through: Dope Shop to Display Floor

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit BrokenSphere, CC BY-SA 3.0. The museum's main building served as the dope and fabric shop for Santa Rosa Army Airfield during World War II -- the place where workers applied acetate dope to tighten and weatherproof the fabric covering on aircraft wings and fuselages. The airfield and a companion installatio...

Image: BrokenSphere | CC BY-SA 3.0

The Hangar That Hollywood Flew Through: Wings Over Wine Country

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit BrokenSphere, CC BY-SA 3.0. For years, the museum's signature event was Wings Over Wine Country, an airshow that grew from modest weekend open houses beginning in 1989 into a full-scale regional attraction by 2000. The show ran for two decades before ending in 2020, when organizers could no longer secure a ...

Image: BrokenSphere | CC BY-SA 3.0