Castle
AFB Museum, CA, USA - 08/02/2007
Having
we spent the early part at
NAS
Lemoore we continued our
journey northwards towards
our overnight destination
of Sacramento.
Rather
conveniently the route took
us past the former Castle
AFB and the now resident Castle
Air Museum.
The
weather was still grey and
horrible with drizzle in the
air, but despite that you
couldn't help but be impressed
by the collection of airframes
on display.
On
the bomber front alone examples
of the B-17 Flyingfortress,
B-18 Bolo, B-23 Dragon, B-24
Libertator, B-25 Mitchell,
B-29 Superfortress, B-36 Peacemaker,
B-45 Tornado, B-47 Stratojet,
B-50 Superfortress, B-52 Stratofortress
and the B-57 Canberra could
be seen.
The
bare metal Boeing B-47E Stratojet
had been one aircraft I'd
really looked forward to seeing,
resplendant in Strategic Air
Command (SAC) titles and carrying
the name "Spirit".
Undoubtedly
the most impressive airframe
on display was the awesome
Convair RB-36H Peacemaker.
Not content with six 3,800
hp Pratt & Whitney R-4360-53
radial engines, the Peacemaker
also has four General Electric
J-47-GE-19 jet engines, each
delivering 5,010 lbs of thrust
strapped on to the wings.
For
most of us this was our first
encounter with the type and
we were totally blown away
by the sheer enormity of it.
Representing
the transport element are
a C-45 Expeditor, C-46 Commando,
C-47 Skytrain, C-56 Loadstar,
C-97 Stratofreighter, C-119
Flying Boxcar, C-123 Provider,
C-131 Samaritan and C-135
Stratotanker.
As
you would expect there's a
healthy smattering of fast
pointy things around too.
F-4 Phantom F-14 Tomcat, F-80
Shooting Star, F-84 Thunder
Streak, F-86 Sabre, F-100
Super Sabre, F-102 Delta Dagger,
F-104 Starfighter, F-105 Thunderchief,
F-106 Delta Dart and F-111
Aardvark are all represented
in the collection.
Completing
the rest of the collection
were a CF-100 Cannuck, a HU-16
Albatros, a U-6A Beaver, A-26
Invader, a T-33 Shooting Star,
HH-43 Huskie, O-2 Super Skymaster
and U-3A Blue Canoe.
 
A
lovely collection and one
I'd love to return to visit
on a sunny day!
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