SAAM is a volunteer organization with no paid staff. All volunteers are required to be members of SAAM. All members will go through both an acceptance and an induction process before commencing work at SAAM. This includes a police clearance and/or a working with children clearance.

If you have an interest in aviation and would like to help, then SAAM might be the place for you. You might choose to work on the desk greeting visitors or be trained as a tour guide. You might work behind the scenes in the library, cataloguing donated books or digitising photographs. Maybe you could join the curator or display teams or maintenance and landscaping. If you have a background in aircraft maintenance and engineering, you might find a place in our workshop restoring aircraft or associated aviation equipment.

For more information on SAAM membership, click here.
For a copy of the Membership Application Form, click here.

Our main hangar is a World War II PENTAD aircraft hangar. It is a 1943 design exclusive to the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm. It differs from conventional aircraft hangars in that it has sloping walls at an angle of eight degrees. This was done to deflect the gale force winds often encountered at some Fleet Air Arm airfields. An interesting aspect of its construction is that most of the frame sections are in six-foot lengths. This made shipping and assembly a much simpler task. The hangar originally went to Darwin in WWII and was used to house Spitfires in the defence of Darwin during some of the 67 Japanese air raids. The building was brought to Port Adelaide shortly after the war and was used as a wool store until 1996. It was occupied by the Museum soon after. In 2006, SAAM was forced to relocate due to the Port River Expressway Project, and the hangar was relocated to its current location. The amazing mural on the front of the hangar is a full-size depiction of the Vickers Vimy flown by Ross & Keith Smith from England to Australia in 1919. It was painted by one of our members (Janice) for the Centennary of the flight.

The Museum began as a group of people interested in aviation and the restoration of aircraft in 1984. The group formed into the South Australian Aviation & Warbirds Restoration Group, which was incorporated on 1 August 1984. The group at that time leased premises in the old Ravens Garage behind the former Pier Hotel at Glenelg. The site housed the museum's first aircraft, the Avro Anson as well as the start of our collection of aviation artifacts for two years. The group became The South Australian Historical Aviation Museum Incorporated on 18 March 1985 (later simplified to The South Australian Aviation Museum Inc.).

In January 1996 a further move of premises was carried out into a vacated Pentad aircraft hangar, at the corner of Ocean Steamers Road and Honey Street, Port Adelaide. After moving to that location the museum's collection was revitalized, a mezzanine gallery was installed along with modern updated artifact displays including video displays and public entry to some of the aircraft. This site opened for business in January 1997.