Stanley Hiller Jr. founded Hiller Aircraft in Palo Alto and developed a series of innovative helicopters, including the UH-12 that became one of the most widely used military and civilian helicopters of the 1950s and 1960s. His company's contributions to rotorcraft design included the first helicopter certified for commercial use by the FAA. The museum houses several of Hiller's original aircraft, along with flight simulators and interactive exhibits that make aviation engineering accessible to visitors of all ages.

The museum sits alongside San Carlos Airport, a general aviation field where small aircraft take off and land throughout the day. The proximity is deliberate -- the museum's exhibits gain context from the active runway visible through the windows. Visitors can watch aircraft operate while studying the evolution of flight technology, from biplanes to modern composite designs. The collection includes Boeing 747 nose sections, experimental aircraft, and the kind of homebuilt planes that reflect Northern California's long tradition of aerospace tinkering.

Northern California's aviation history is deeper than most people realize. Before Silicon Valley was about computers, it was about aircraft. Moffett Field housed Navy blimps in the 1930s. Lockheed was the region's largest employer from the 1950s through the 1980s. NASA Ames tested every crewed spacecraft in its wind tunnels. The Hiller Aviation Museum preserves this earlier technological identity, reminding visitors that the valley's culture of innovation did not begin with semiconductors but with wings.