A F6F-5 "Hellcat" fighter from World War II is among the aircraft displayed at the Palm Springs Air Museum. Photos by Reed Parsell/Special to the Review-Journal. The Battle of Leyte Gulf, one of the key fights in the Pacific Theater during World War II, is chronicled at the Palm Springs Air Museum. Pictured is Gen. Douglas MacArthur. Visitors to the Palm Springs Air Museum can, for an extra charge, tour the insides of a B-17 bomber.

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. --

Walking into almost any museum is like stepping back in time, but in this famous desert town there is a facility that transports you to the past in an especially vivid, three-dimensional way.

Palm Springs Air Museum takes the "living history" concept for quite a ride. Visitors can circle around more than two dozen shiny, ready-to-fly aircraft from World War II that are displayed over 70,000 square feet inside three hangars. A squadron or two of elderly docents, many of them veterans, are ready to take your questions or show you around. Speakers play 1940s music nonstop. Scattered among the aircraft are several automobiles from the 1920s and 1930s, including a 1930 Packard and one of only 51 Tuckers built, which the museum's Web site reports "set the scene on the road to World War II."

Being organized is one of the cornerstones of effective military operations, and the Palm Springs Air Museum (which celebrated its 10th anniversary on Nov. 11) honors that concept by being exceptionally tidy. As you enter the front lobby and pass the Battle of Midway mural, you can imagine an unusually low-key drill sergeant telling you what to do. Left face, forward march into the Pacific Hangar. Right face, forward march into the European and B-17 hangars. At ease and watch "Mission Berlin," "PT Boats," "Nazi POWs in America" or one of the other films that are screened starting at 11 a.m. in the Buddy Rogers Theater.

With shoes scuffed, pants wrinkled and collar nonexistent, I was 100 percent civilian when I visited the museum last summer. For me, the most interesting aspect of the experience was being able to get a close-up look at the aircraft. One of the most impressive was in the Pacific Hangar, which concentrates on the Allies' fight against Japan that ended with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. All shiny and mostly blue, with a white underbelly and folded wings, the museum's F6F-5 "Hellcat" stands 13 feet tall, weighs 7 tons, has six 50-caliber machine guns capable of firing 400 rounds apiece and can fly nearly 1,000 miles at speeds up to 380 mph.

"Hellcats, once they came into the war (in August 1943), were in every naval air engagement until the end of the war," an accompanying plaque reads. "The F6F was possibly the single most effective aircraft in its class in the war in the Pacific Theatre." In one battle, popularly referred to as the "Marianas Turkey Shoot," the Hellcats led the way in downing 366 Japanese planes while losing just 26 of their own.

The hangar's other exhibits include one that details the Battle of Leyte Gulf, a three-day affair in October 1944 called "the largest naval battle ever fought." When it was over, the Japanese fleet had been reduced to almost complete ineffectiveness. Gen. Douglas MacArthur, a mid-20th century U.S. military and political icon, stars in another exhibit that includes original newspaper front pages that reported on his exploits.

Over in the European Hangar, visitors can -- for a supplemental charge -- tour this insides of a B-17 bomber. With a glass oval nose ringed by yellow metal, the plane's front section includes a provocative drawing of "Miss Angela," clad in a red one-piece swimsuit and windblown, curly blond hair. B-17s were a key player in the war, when 16 of them a day were completed at Seattle's Boeing facility. The "Flying Fortresses" (so named by a Seattle Daily Times columnist) made nearly 300,000 sorties during the Second World and Korean wars, including a 1,000-bomber raid on Berlin -- accompanied by 400 fighter planes -- in February 1945.

The museum's Web site, www.air-museum.org, contains a wealth of information not just about the facility but about the men and women who fought the war. Click on "Tuskegee Airmen" and learn about the 992 black aviators who flew some 15,000 sorties in the European Theater and completed more than 1,500 missions. They represented the only escort fighter planes not to have lost a bomber to enemy fire. Sixty-six of the airmen were killed in action; 32 were shot down and taken as prisoners of war. (An upbeat, 60-foot-long mural by Stan Stokes pays tribute to the Tuskegee flyers in the museum's European Hangar.)

For first-person reports of heroic, observational and mundane incidents during the fighting, click on "War Stories." Among the dozens of entries is this one by Bill Masters, under the subheading "C-46 Over the Hump."

"All in an instant I saw the tail of the ship go by my head, felt the cool air on my face and pulled the ripcord. The news thing I remember was the stillness -- after a few minutes of confusion in the airplane, there I was suspended in the night sky somewhere between India and China, clapping my hands together to keep them warm and humming to myself."

The Palm Springs Air Museum, a few miles northeast of downtown at 745 N. Gene Autry Trail, is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Admission is $10 general, $8.50 for seniors and students ages 13 through 17, and $5 for ages 6 through 12. For more information: (760) 778-6262 or www.air-museum.org.