The Oakland Aviation Museum in California is now accepting reservations for the Solent Flying Boat Experience.
This two-hour evening experience offers guests an immersion into the luxury of food and service provided during the Golden Age of travel. The gourmet menu is the same as that served originally by British Overseas Airways Corporation on the Southampton to Johannesburg schedule the museum’s Solent made between 1949 and 1951.
OAM’s ex-BOAC Short Solent Mark III flying boat, once owned by Howard Hughes, substituted for a Boeing China Clipper in the movie “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”
When the museum offers guided tours on the weekends, most people flock to the flying boat. A copy of Life Magazine marks the seat where Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones character sat in the movie.
Seating is limited to eight passengers per dinner. The summer price has been reduced $25 per person to $125 for the experience.
The Oakland Aviation Museum, located at old North Field at Oakland Airport, is housed in the 1939 Boeing School of Aeronautics building at 8252 Earhart Road. For more information: OaklandAviationMuseum.org or 510-638-7100.
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I think the must be the one that was beached in the North Bay area in the 1970s, lived in by a couple of free-thinkers who had somehow acquired it. Guess they never got it restored; glad the museum has it. I’m sure(?) it’s not flyable. – ds
If this “bird” is coming to the East Coast – I’ll cancel my reservation at the Four Seasons!