The museum was founded in 1986 and houses a collection of South African Airways memorabilia such as photos and aircraft scale models.

[2] The flying aircraft of the museum are known as the South African Historic Flight collection, the aircraft are owned by the South African Airways Museum Society and are leased to the company Skyclass Aviation, who operate them for charter usage.

[8][9][10] As of 2020[update], the museum has a collection of static display aircraft that includes a Lockheed Lodestar, a de Havilland Dove, a Vickers Viking, a Lockheed Starliner, a Douglas C-54, a Boeing 707-320C forward fuselage, a Boeing 737-200, the 747-244B and the 747SP-44.

The DC-4 was delivered with a certificate of airworthiness and Vermeulen was able to introduce it to service before the Historic Flight was formally approved by SAA.

At the end of 2007 all the SA Historic Flight's assets were donated to the SAA Museum Society and one of the DC-3s was sold to Vermeulen.