diff --git a/HISTORY.rst b/HISTORY.rst
index 8290b57..4554113 100644
--- a/HISTORY.rst
+++ b/HISTORY.rst
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ History
 
 X.Y.Z (YYYY-MM-DD)
 ------------------
+* Open FITS files as memory-mapped on local file systems (:pr:`24`)
 * Remove obsolete logger (:pr:`23`)
 * Support lists of fits files (:pr:`21`)
 * Test stacking in the globbing case (:pr:`20`)
diff --git a/tests/test_xarrayfits.py b/tests/test_xarrayfits.py
index 451b566..11f8579 100644
--- a/tests/test_xarrayfits.py
+++ b/tests/test_xarrayfits.py
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 """Tests for `xarrayfits` package."""
 
 from contextlib import ExitStack
+import mmap
 import os.path
 
 from astropy.io import fits
@@ -14,6 +15,7 @@
 import xarray
 
 from xarrayfits import xds_from_fits
+from xarrayfits.fits_proxy import FitsProxy
 
 
 @pytest.fixture(scope="session")
@@ -200,3 +202,34 @@ def test_distributed(beam_cube):
         expected = np.arange(np.prod(xds.hdu0.shape)).reshape(xds.hdu0.shape)
         assert_array_equal(expected, xds.hdu0.data)
         assert xds.hdu0.data.chunks == ((100, 100, 57), (100, 100, 57), (15, 15, 2))
+
+
+def test_memory_mapped(beam_cube):
+    with fits.open(beam_cube, memmap=True) as hdu_list:
+        hdu_list[0].data[:]
+        astropy_file = hdu_list.fileinfo(0)["file"]
+        assert isinstance(astropy_file._mmap, mmap.mmap)
+
+    proxy = FitsProxy(beam_cube)
+    assert proxy.is_memory_mapped
+    proxy.hdu_list[0].data[:]
+    astropy_file = proxy.hdu_list.fileinfo(0)["file"]
+    assert isinstance(astropy_file._mmap, mmap.mmap)
+
+    proxy = FitsProxy(beam_cube, memmap=True)
+    assert proxy.is_memory_mapped
+    proxy.hdu_list[0].data[:]
+    astropy_file = proxy.hdu_list.fileinfo(0)["file"]
+    assert isinstance(astropy_file._mmap, mmap.mmap)
+
+    proxy = FitsProxy(beam_cube, memmap=None)
+    assert proxy.is_memory_mapped
+    proxy.hdu_list[0].data[:]
+    astropy_file = proxy.hdu_list.fileinfo(0)["file"]
+    assert isinstance(astropy_file._mmap, mmap.mmap)
+
+    proxy = FitsProxy(beam_cube, memmap=False)
+    assert not proxy.is_memory_mapped
+    proxy.hdu_list[0].data[:]
+    astropy_file = proxy.hdu_list.fileinfo(0)["file"]
+    assert astropy_file._mmap is None
diff --git a/xarrayfits/fits.py b/xarrayfits/fits.py
index 7b1f73a..e4518f3 100644
--- a/xarrayfits/fits.py
+++ b/xarrayfits/fits.py
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
 import dask
 import dask.array as da
 import fsspec
+from fsspec.implementations.local import LocalFileSystem
 import numpy as np
 
 import xarray as xr
@@ -58,8 +59,16 @@ def slices(r):
     return (slice(s, e) for s, e in zip(r[:-1], r[1:]))
 
 
-def _get_data_function(fp, h, i, dt):
-    data = fp.hdu_list[h].section[i]
+# https://docs.astropy.org/en/stable/io/fits/index.html#working-with-large-files
+# https://docs.astropy.org/en/stable/io/fits/index.html#working-with-remote-and-cloud-hosted-files
+
+
+def _get_data_function(fits_proxy, h, i, dt):
+    if fits_proxy.is_memory_mapped:
+        data = fits_proxy.hdu_list[h].data[i]
+    else:
+        data = fits_proxy.hdu_list[h].section[i]
+
     return data.astype(dt.newbyteorder("="))
 
 
@@ -213,8 +222,10 @@ def xds_from_fits(fits_filename, hdus=None, prefix="hdu", chunks=None):
 
     datasets = []
 
-    for filename in (f.path for f in openfiles):
-        fits_proxy = FitsProxy(filename, use_fsspec=True)
+    for of in openfiles:
+        fits_proxy = FitsProxy(
+            of.full_name, use_fsspec=True, memmap=isinstance(of.fs, LocalFileSystem)
+        )
 
         # Take all hdus if None specified
         if hdus is None:
diff --git a/xarrayfits/fits_proxy.py b/xarrayfits/fits_proxy.py
index 298db55..5fe12ea 100644
--- a/xarrayfits/fits_proxy.py
+++ b/xarrayfits/fits_proxy.py
@@ -45,6 +45,10 @@ def __init__(self, filename, **kwargs):
     def from_reduce_args(filename, kw):
         return FitsProxy(filename, **kw)
 
+    @property
+    def is_memory_mapped(self):
+        return self._kwargs.get("memmap") in {None, True}
+
     @property
     def hdu_list(self):
         try: