The Mouse Is Back: Walt Disney’s Private Plane That Was Left to Rot Is Now Restored

The Mouse is Walt Disney’s private jet, the Grumman G-159 Gulfstream I he introduced as the company’s work shuttle in 1964, after a 3-month period of customization. It wasn’t the only private jet he owned and used both for business and personal reasons, but it is the most iconic. Strange then that it should have been left to rot for so many years in a field in Florida.

There is happy ending to The Mouse, even if it’s not a complete one. Earlier this year, Disney announced that, in a partnership with Amazon, it was on a mission to restore the aircraft and bring it for display at the D23 Expo in Southern California, after which it would move to its new permanent home at the Palm Springs Air Museum. It’s only fitting to have such an iconic aircraft in a museum, especially if you think that it had been abandoned since 2014, slowly deteriorating in the humid Florida weather.

“It’s an honor for us to introduce Walt’s Plane to all of you,” Bob Chapek, Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company, told the media at the D23 Expo in September. “As you can see, our friends at the Walt Disney Archives and our friends at Imagineering have restored the aircraft to its full original glory.”

That would have been great news if it were completely accurate, which it is not. The Mouse is completely empty inside, having been gutted in 2014. But this is still a good comeback story, even if it's only partial.

Walt Disney started thinking about getting into corporate aviation in the ‘60s, when he’d already grown disillusioned with commercial flying and scheduling he had no control over. For a short while, he flew on chartered jets, but he bought the first plane in 1963, a piston-engine Beechcraft Queen-Air 90 that he registered as N234MM, integrating Mickey Mouse’s name in the registration number. Later that same year, he realized that his travel schedule required something with a longer range and higher passenger capacity, so he bought a brand new, straight out of the factory Grumman G-159 Gulfstream I, commissioning the Pacific Airmotive Corporation (PAC) with outfitting it.

The Queen-Air was in service for another two years, after which it was replaced with a Beechcraft King-Air, whose use was limited only to short flights. The King was retired in 1967, and Walt ensured that the unique (and now-iconic registration number) was transferred to the Gulfstream.

Initially wearing a white with orange and black stripes livery (to match the Walt Disney Productions logo), The Mouse could seat 15 passengers plus the pilot, a co-pilot and one flight attendant. It featured a complete galley that could cook and serve meals for 18 people, including Walt’s favorite chili, at the exact temperature he liked it. It also had two bathrooms, one for use of the passengers in the main cabin, and one for Walt, who had his own space behind a see-through partition embedded with leaves from the garden outside his family home.

Walt was a passionate aviator, so he made sure he got the best seat in the house on his plane, literally. His cabin seat was right by the window – it would be his “eye in the sky” – and the bulkhead included an instrument panel with altimeter, airspeed gauge, and custom Mickey Mouse-branded clock.

Everything onboard was branded with the mouse that had made Walt famous, from the pieces of stationery to the matchboxes, the crew uniform, and specially-made gifts and memorabilia. But there was also a very homey vibe to the place, because Walt and his wife Lillian had creative input into the final layout. Since they would use the airplane in their spare time but also for business, they wanted to strike the right balance between homeliness and a corporate environment.

The Mouse would continue to be used by the Walt Disney Corporation mostly for charity runs until 1992, when it took its final flight to the Walt Disney World Resort. This marked the end of an era of flying public figures and politicians, and a total of 83,000 passengers, starring in two films, and helping to carry out countless charity missions. Also then, it was stripped of everything inside and, with the exception of a few pieces, all items were either discarded or sold off. Those pieces were put into storage and were included in the D23 Expo display, as you can see in the video below. They included Walt’s cabin seat, letters, stationery, the gauges, and other small stuff.

It took several large trucks to move The Mouse from Florida to California for the restoration. The plane is no longer airworthy and will never fly again, but Disney hopes to be able to restore the interior as well, one day.