Castle Air Museum: Preserving Military Aviation Heritage for Future Generations

A Navy RA-3 Skywarrior will be displayed at the Castle Air Museum after spending about two years in this hangar, where volunteers are meticulously restoring it.

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In 1981, the Castle Air Museum Foundation was created in order to collect and restore historic military aircraft for public viewing. Thirty years later, the Castle Air Museum in Atwater, California offers a striking display of planes rescued from "decades of neglect and the salvage torch," according to the museum's brochure.

Most recently, in May, 2011, the wings were cut off a massive Navy RA-3, the largest aircraft which can take off and land on an aircraft carrier, so it could be hauled up to Atwater from Southern California on a flatbed truck. A group of museum volunteers, working in a hangar at the former Castle Air Force Base, will spend the next two years restoring the decommissioned plane, donated by the Navy. According to volunteer Charles Stice, "This is a reconnaissance version, completely different inside from the bomber." He points out the windows on the underside of the plane's nose used for photographing enemy targets.

The plane's serial number will be used to trace its complete history before moving it to the nearby museum for display as part of the impressive collection.

Other aircraft on display include the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird spy plane, used from 1964-1990, and reportedly still the fastest aircraft in the world; one of four remaining Convair B-36 Peacemakers, the reconnaissance version of the largest bomber ever built, which entered the service in 1948; the Curtiss C-46 Commando which carried troops and cargo over the eastern Himalayas ("The Hump") from India to China during WW II; and the Douglas B-18 Bolo - the first aircraft to sink a U-Boat and the most important bomber in North America between 1937-1940. And there are plenty of others.

The Castle Air Museum is open seven days a week, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. from November to April; and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. from May to October. There is an entrance fee. Guided tours are available with advance notice. The museum is closed on New Year's Day, Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas. For more information, call (209) 723-2182.