For those that have taken the Studio Back Lot tour at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, I’m sure you remember the narration along the way describing what is referred to as Walt Disney’s personal plane, having the call letters of N234MM.
Yes, in fact this was Walt’s 1963 G-151 Grumman Gulfstream 1. It had 21 seats, 2 Rolls-Royce Dart 529 turbo prop engines and took about 7 hours to cross from Los Angeles to Orlando, which it did many times up until retiring in 1992.
The narration also mentions that this is THE plane that Walt used to scan the Florida landscape to locate the spot for his Florida Project. Well, this part is not necessarily true. Walt made his decision on the current Florida location on November 22, 1963, while on en route to New Orleans for a refueling stop. Walt was aboard his first aircraft, a Beechwood Queen Air, a smaller twin propeller aircraft that was put into service in 1963. The Gulfstream was not put into service until 1964. Walt also learned of the assignation of President John F. Kennedy this same day.
And what of those call letters and numbers? The tail number that is currently listed on the plane are not original. In the days when Walt was flying aboard, the call number was N732G. N234MM was originally on the Queen Air, then transferred to another plane owned by Disney, a King Air, then finally to the Gulfstream we see on display to this day.
Air traffic controllers would pronounce the name as N or November, two, three, four, metro-metro which is the phonetic FCC regulation pronunciation. Eventually they got familiar with the aircraft and it’s owner and began using the familiar N234 Mickey Mouse, or “The Mouse” for short. In the beginning, the plane’s name was…George!
The plane was landed for the last time along Florida Interstate 4 and transported by crane to its current home at The Disney Studios. It was gutted and sealed so there is no chance of it to fly again. It does make a great lawn ornament if you ask me!
I also learned that the original paint scheme for the plane was one orange stripe that crossed the window panels and a small Mickey Mouse emblem on the tail section. There was no other verbiage or company insignia to indicate it was a Disney Corporate Jet. Walt and his wife Lillian personally chose the interior design and color palette.
You can also find these call numbers on the license plate of a bright red MINI Cooper that also has a mouse ears hat in the back window. Yep, that’s me. Be sure to wave!
