{"id":467761,"date":"2026-09-18T09:18:27","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T09:18:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/467761\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T09:18:27","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T09:18:27","slug":"see-how-aerospace-museum-of-californias-planes-get-cleaned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/467761\/","title":{"rendered":"See how Aerospace Museum of California\u2019s planes get cleaned"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than 35 aircraft \u2014 from fighter jets to commercial airliners \u2014 reside at the Aerospace Museum of California\u2019s outdoor airpark, just a stone\u2019s throw from Sacramento\u2019s McClellan Airport.<\/p>\n

Thousands of people visit the museum every year, admiring the airplanes parked in the sun. As one might expect, the aircraft get pretty dirty from the daily exposure to visitors and weather.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where volunteers step in. Dozens of volunteers show up every year to help maintain the park\u2019s aircraft.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, one such group of volunteers was doing just that. Around 40 members of SAFE Credit Union\u2019s employee resource group VALOR, which stands for veterans and loved ones resource, arrived to scrub the dirt from several planes including the museum\u2019s camo-green Fairchild-Republic A-10A Thunderbolt II \u201cWarthog,\u201d<\/a> its Douglas A-1E Skyraider<\/a> and a Sikorsky CH-3E \u201cJolly Green Giant\u201d<\/a> military helicopter.<\/p>\n

\"A A volunteer helps carry a fire hose to wash aircraft exhibits at the Aerospace Museum of California in Sacramento on Thursday. ZIYU JULIAN ZHU julian.zhu@sacbee.com <\/p>\n

According to Tom Jones, CEO of the museum, the resource group has been helping care for the planes for about 2 years and they\u2019ve developed a method to clean the planes using big wash totes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose things hold about 300 gallons worth of water and two of them are fresh water, one of them soap,\u201d he said, adding that the soap tote contains an entire canister of Tide. \u201cWhen you hit that thing with a fire pump and a fire hose it just shoots soapy water all over the aircraft.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones says the volunteers are divided into teams and given brushes \u2014 some of them attached to 25 foot poles \u2014 and they scrub the plane down.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey come up, scrub, scrub, scrub, and then scrub all the way around the plane, getting as high as they can,\u201d he said \u201cand the dirt just sheds right off the plane.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A A volunteer washes an aircraft on exhibit at the Aerospace Museum of California in Sacramento on Thursday. ZIYU JULIAN ZHU julian.zhu@sacbee.com <\/p>\n

According to Kimberly Ross, a project manager at SAFE Credit Union and one of the event\u2019s organizers, the plane washing event was born out of SAFE Credit Union\u2019s deep ties to both the museum and McClellan Air Force Base. While SAFE no longer has a location at McClellan, SAFE\u2019s first Credit Union location was opened there in the 1940s.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow many times do you get to say that you\u2019ve washed a plane?\u201d Ross said. \u201cThey have to get washed anyway, so why not have the opportunity to make it fun and invite the SAFE volunteers to come out and do it?\u201d<\/p>\n

For James Kline, a wealth advisor for SAFE Financial Services, cleaning the planes gave him an opportunity to give back to the community and preserve history. To him, getting under the planes and seeing their mechanics made the day memorable.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust seeing how big they are in person is pretty amazing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

According to Jones, this event marks the most planes they\u2019ve been able to wash at once at 16 planes.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou think about the visitor experience when somebody comes into the aerospace museum and they see clean planes instead of planes that are really filthy,\u201d he said. \u201cIt just makes a great visitor experience for the public.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Volunteers Volunteers wash an airplane at the Aerospace Museum of California in Sacramento on Thursday. ZIYU JULIAN ZHU julian.zhu@sacbee.com \"Volunteers Volunteers wash an aircraft at the Aerospace Museum of California in Sacramento on Thursday. ZIYU JULIAN ZHU julian.zhu@sacbee.com \"Dre Dre Hernandez, left, learns how to use a fire hose to wash aircraft at the Aerospace Museum of California in Sacramento on Thursday. ZIYU JULIAN ZHU julian.zhu@sacbee.com \"SAFE SAFE Credit Union volunteer James Kline washes an aircraft at the Aerospace Museum of California in Sacramento on Thursday. ZIYU JULIAN ZHU julian.zhu@sacbee.com \"A A volunteer washes an aircraft at the Aerospace Museum of California in Sacramento on Thursday. ZIYU JULIAN ZHU julian.zhu@sacbee.com \"Dre Dre Hernandez carries fire hose to wash airplanes at the Aerospace Museum of California in Sacramento on Thursday. ZIYU JULIAN ZHU julian.zhu@sacbee.com <\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Julian Zhu<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n

Julian Zhu is a visuals intern for The Sacramento Bee. He recently earned his master\u2019s degree in journalism from Stanford University and holds a bachelor\u2019s degree in journalism from Boston University. His work has been recognized by the Boston Press Photographers Association.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 35 aircraft \u2014 from fighter jets to commercial airliners \u2014 reside at the Aerospace Museum of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-467761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}