Photo Gallery


The Castle Air Museum has its own website. Our friend Larry is a pilot, and recently he flew us down to the Castle Air Museum in his Cessna 182. The museum is located at the old Castle Air Force Base, which shut down in 1995. The base is located next to the Central Valley town of Atwater, CA. Click on any of the thumbnails to see them full-size.
Castle's runway is 11,800 feet long--an enormous path of concrete for a 182. We used only a few hundred feet to land, barely past the threshold. We then taxied forever to the tiedown area, which had huge jet blast deflectors. There was one other plane in sight, a 152. All that empty concrete looks lonely.
		Once you arrive, you can either walk the 1/2 mile to the museum, or ride a free shuttle. We decided to walk, as the heat hadn't set in yet. The walk takes you past many empty, silent hangers and buildings. Some are being converted. At the museum, the first aircraft you see is the Lockheed SR-71 parked out front.
Admission is $7. Once you enter the grounds, you are greeted with a superb example of the Consolidated B-24 Liberator. This is the M model, the last model produced. Many of these aircraft saw action in Europe, especially in the Ploesti oil field raids in Romania.
		Museum personnel had one aircraft open, a Boeing KC-97L Stratofreighter. This aircraft is very similar to the famous 377 Stratocruiser civilian airliner, and both derive from the B-29. This is a shot of the cockpit area from the flight engineer position.
The KC-97L was an aerial re-fueling vehicle. This photo of the cargo bay shows the extra fuel tanks.
		A British aircraft, the Avro Vulcan B-2, is also on the grounds. This bomber has a unique bat-wing arrangement with engines buried in the wings. I was lucky enough to see one of these fly at an airshow around 20 years ago, and I remember thinking it was a beautiful sight in the sky.
The North American B-45A Tornado was the first jet bomber built by the U.S., entering service in 1948. Its age is revealed by its straight wing and small engines.
		The Boeing B-50 Superfortress was a re-design of the B-29. It has larger engines and a taller tail fin. This is the WB-50D model, used for weather reconnaisance, sampling for fallout products of Soviet nuclear tests.
Here's an odd looking aircraft from our neighbor to the north. The CF-100 is quite large, and has a T-tail. It was used as an interceptor by the Canadian Air Force.
		The Douglas B-18 Bolo is a strange-looking airplane, also. It was derived from the DC-2 airliner. Although this was the bomber the US had the most of at the opening of WWII, the design was obsolete and saw little combat.
The Fairchild C-123K Provider saw extensive use as a cargo and troop transport during the Vietnam era. From the front, the aircraft sort of resembles a killer whale, don't you think?
		The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is well-known by the general public, as certain models of it still fly today. This is a D model, and saw extensive service over Vietnam. Almost one hundred of these nearly 50-year-old aircraft remain in service.
Slung under the wing of the B-52 was a North American AGM-28A Hound Dog missile. This was a nuclear-tipped (1+ MT warhead) "standoff" missile which could be fired at targets up to 700 miles away.
		This curious little plane is the Kawasaki KAQ-1, a drone used for target practice. What is surprising is that this little plane could fly at 220 MPH for almost 300 miles.
The McDonnell F-101B was used as a fighter-interceptor, and also as a supersonic reconnaissance aircraft in Vietnam.
		Originally designated the L-20, the deHavilland U-6A Beaver was used by the Air Force as an observation and utility craft. It is capable of very short takeoffs and landings.
This aircraft is very similar to the light aviation aircraft called a Cessna 337 Skymaster. It was used as a forward observation craft in Vietnam, and could also carry rockets. The civilian version is still seen, and has a very distinctive sound in the sky, hence the other name: "Mixmaster".
		The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter is an unusual aircraft, indeed. It has an extremely small wing, and a very powerful engine. A very fast craft, it set numerous speed records, and today, there are people attempting to use the fuselage and engine to set the land speed record!
A most unusual helicopter, the Kaman HH-43B Huskie was designed for rescue duty. It has no tail rotor, instead using dual, meshing rotors turning in opposite directions.
		The Douglas C-47 Skytrain is famous, and justly so. It was derived from its equally famous sister, the DC-3. These cargo/utility aircraft saw extensive service in WWII.
Also known as the P-80, the Lockheed F-80 Shooting Star was the first jet fighter put into service in the U.S., entering service right at the end of WWII. The craft was armed with six machine guns, visible in this photo of the very nose of the aircraft.
		The Republic F-84F Thunderstreak debuted at the beginning of the Korean War, and somewhat resembles the F-86. An audacious experiment was devised to have two of these attached to a B-36 as escort aircraft, because the B-36 could fly so far, but nothing ever came of it.
I believe the Boeing B-47 Stratojet was the first large jet-powered bomber to enter service in the U.S. It replaced the B-36 among others, and the transition was featured in the film "Strategic Air Command", with Jimmy Stewart. This example was restored in many thousands of hours of volunteer work and actually flew to Castle in 1986.
		Perhaps the most famous fighter of the Korean War, the F-86 routinely trounced its Soviet competition, the MiG-15. Several of these aircraft are still flown by civilans today, often in airshows. This is the H model, a bomber, with a larger scoop.
The Northrop F-89J Scorpion was a fighter equipped to use the "Genie", a nuclear-tipped missile meant for air-to-air combat! Seems like overkill to me, but the warhead was "only" 1.5 kT. A Genie missile, white, is seen under the wing just left of the nose.
		The cream of the crop of the Museum's aircraft, at least as far as I am concerned, is its Convair RB-36H Peacemaker. Ever since seeing a model of one of these enormous planes when I was a child, I had always hoped to see one in person. It's a hard thing to do, as only four of the original 380+ survive.
The size and layout of the B-36 is worth noting. I think it may be the largest propellor-driven plane ever built. It used six rear-facing engines mounted on a wing so huge that crewman could enter it in flight. Later, a jet pod containing two jet engines was added to each wing.
		The wingspan of the B-36 is 230 feet, or 110 feet longer than the length of the Wright Brothers' first flight. The tail towers almost 47 feet into the air. The plane is 162 feet long. It could fly almost 9,000 miles. The plane was designed during WWII to be able to bomb Germany from the US, should Britain go under. It didn't first fly until 1946, however.
Everything about this plane is unusual. The fuselage is essentially cylindrical, and the cockpit looks like a blister. Multiple crews were required to fly this plane on its long voyages.
		Here's what the wing looks like from behind. You can see the three propellors and the jet pod. This aircraft (thankfully) never saw combat and was replaced by the B-47 and B-52.
The Grumman HU-16B Albatross was an amphibious aircraft used for search and rescue duty. It is very rugged looking.
		Just visible beyond the museum fence is this carcass of a plane. I think it is a Convair TF-102, a special version of the F-102 built for training use. Let's hope it is on the restoration list.
The day we visited, it got quite warm. Still, the grass around the aircraft was very green, and I don't think I've seen more butterflies in one location in quite awhile. Ironic, considering what many of these planes were designed to do.
		The Fairchild C-119 was called the "Boxcar" because of its cargo capacity. It has a twin tail so that the rear fuselage can open up to accomodate large cargo. Some of these were later used in firefighting service.
The Douglas R-5D Skymaster was the Navy's version of the DC-4. These were used in ferrying service throughout the war, and later in the Berlin Airlift. The aircraft here participated in the Airlift.
		The F-106 was a modification of the F-102 to incorporate changes (the "Coke bottle" shape) which had been found to enhance speed. As a result, I believe the F-106 was the first fighter to be able to routinely fly supersonic in level flight.
The F-111 was the very first plane to use swing wings. The wings extended for slow flight, and were swept back for high speed. The F-111 is a very capable aircraft, and remains in service with foreign air forces.
		This small bomber achieved lasting fame when it was used for the Doolittle raid of 1942. Jimmy Doolittle and his group flew 16 of these off an aircraft carrier and produced the first bombing of Tokyo during the war. Japan saw that it was vulnerable.
The aircraft that wrought enormous damage on Japan, The B-29 was used both to create firstorms and also dropped the atomic bomb.
		Perhaps the most recognizable and famous bomber of WWII, the B-17 saw extensive action, mostly in Europe. It entered service before the war--in fact, a group of new planes being delivered arrived just as the raid on Pearl Harbor began.
It was time for us to fly back home. You can get a good look at the museum aircraft just after liftoff. Many aircraft are not shown here. This is a great museum, and should be on any enthusiast's list.
		You also get another good view to the right, this time of the Atwater Federal Penitentiary, one of the many new uses of the old air base.
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