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Bargain Travel West guide to unique destinations, history and culture, budget travel
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Travel Bargain destination in California

CASTLE AIR MUSEUM
Incredible Collection of WWII and Cold War Era Aircraft

During Vietnam and the “Cold War” era B52 bombers and KC 135 refueling planes would skim over the orchards and vineyards outside of Atwater, California in a steady drone of the military exigencies of the time, skirting the low fence between the suburban rural fields of the Golden State’s central valley. After Vietnam the B52’s stopped their flights from Castle Air Force base, but the facility remained a refueling and training base home for the KC 135 tankers that kept America’s nuclear deterrent shield flying in the sky. Training pilots would turn in never ending circles between Merced and Turlock, making touch and goes on the base’s long runway. Like hundreds of military bases around the country, Castle Air Base, named for Brigadier General Frederick Castle who was killed in 1944 in a B17 over Belgium and posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, closed as the country moved on to other priorities.

The Castle Air Museum in the California Central Valley opened in 1981, originally a collection of some left over aircraft from the base’s heyday parked near some unused hangars. Today the Museum as grown and developed into an amazing collection of WWII, Korea and Cold War era aircraft, displayed in a peaceful park like setting on the edge of the property dedicated to aviation history. The outdoor exhibit is eleven acres of some of the giants of the air power past rarely seen elsewhere. There are a few jet fighters at Castle Air Museum but the display focuses more on bombers and larger behemoths of the late Second World War and cold war.

ACES: Action Packed Novel of WWII Fighter Pilots

There are the familiar and classic Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and Mitchell B-25 made famous in Jimmy Doolittle’s raid over Tokyo and B-24 Liberator, but also much rarer B-29 Superfortress like that which dropped the first atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but the truly stunning transitional bomber which took the United States into the nuclear ere The Consolidated-Vultee B36 Peacemaker, the largest propellered bomber ever built. This ungainly behemoth, with its odd combination of rear facing propellers combined with four jet engines in end-wing pods was referred to as America’s “Big Stick” in the transition to the SAC nuclear era, familiar to anyone who has seen the Jimmy Stewart film “Strategic Air Command” Also here is a B-47 Stratojet, a Vietnam era B-52D and unique to America at Castle a British swept wing Avro Vulcan as seen in the James Bond movie “Thunderball”.

Among the jet fighter and fighter-bombers on view at the air museum are a North American F86 Sabre Jet the king of Korea’s Mig Alley, an F-100 Super-Sabre, the first American jet to exceed the sound barrier in level flight, two delta wing fighters of the 50’s the McDonnel F-101 Voodoo and Convair F-102 Delta Dagger and later F-106 Delta Dart. The Vietnam fighter-bomber workhorse Republic F-105 Thunderchief a General Dynamics F-111 and hands down the two coolest aircraft to come from the Lockheed “Skunkworks” the F-104 Starfighter and SR-71 Blackbird.

The museum’s indoor display presents history of the time and aircraft development, engines and a B-52 flight simulator cockpit and other flying memorabilia from WWII, Korea, Vietnam and the nuclear age. There is a café and gift shop where visitors can purchase aircraft models, clothing and insignia decals. The museum is located along old Highway 99 in Atwater, California, 8 miles north of Merced, off Bruhach Road exit of Interstate 99 and is open all year around except for 5 holidays, New Years Day, Christmas Day and Eve, Easter and Thanksgiving. © Bargain Travel West

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Castle Air Museum

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See also:

MARCH FIELD AIR MUSEUM - RIVERSIDE

YORKSHIRE AIR MUSEUM (England)

LAVENHAM - 487TH BOMB GROUP SIGNITURE WALL (England)

ZEPPELIN MUSEUM (Germany)

RENO AIR RACES Warbirds in the Nevada Desert

PALM SPRINGS AIR MUSEUM

WWII AIR MUSEUM - CAMARILLO
CAF Commemorative Air Force Flying Warbirds

PATTON DESERT TANK WARFARE MUSEUM

COVERED WOODEN BRIDGE OF KNIGHTS FERRY
River Rafting Gold Rush River Historic Site

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