When the closure of Castle Air Force Base was announced in 1994, a group of dedicated enthusiasts in the Atwater-Merced area formed a non-profit organization called the Castle Air Museum Foundation, Inc. Their purpose was to assume custody of the collection of aircraft. It was their dream to build a museum in which faithfully restored historic aircraft could be exhibited for public enjoyment.
Castle Air Museum represents history in a way the whole family can share with our awe-inspiring majestic warbirds. To stand under the wing of the Convair RB-36H Peacemaker or the Boeing B-52, you can imagine the sky around the bombers filled with enemy fighters!
Then there's the B-25 Mitchell, similar to the planes Jimmy Doolittle led off the carrier U.S.S. Hornet during this country's first desperate attempt to bomb Tokyo. The B-29 is here too... the bomber that ended World War II in the Pacific.
On the other end of the spectrum are the B-47 Stratojet and the British Avro Vulcan B.2... this nuclear bomber was the first of it's type to be put on display in the United States... and from our closest allie and northern neighbour Canada, comes the Avro Canada (A.V. Roe Canada, Ltd.) CF-100 Canuck Mk V... the first straight-winged aircraft to ever break the sound barrier!
The aircraft on display at Castle Air Museum are as much a part of America's heritage as Independence Hall and the Battlefield at Gettysburg, yet only a handful of these flying testimonials of our country's Air Force and Navy have survived decades of neglect and the salvage torch.
The museum has been self-supporting since Castle AFB closed in 1995. Although most of our aircraft belong to the U.S. Air Force Museum, it does not provide any funds for maintenance and repair. Monies to operate the museum, maintain the aircraft and grounds and, hopefully, to add to the collection come from admissions, memberships, fund-raising events and donations. Contact us now and find out how to become a volunteer or a museum member. Since the Castle Air Museum is a non-profit organization, your tax-deductible contributions are also greatly appreciated.
In the early 1960s, Grumman was working with General Dynamics on the carrier-based version of the TFX, the F-111B. That design had serious problems with weight and size. Even before the Navy rejected the F-111B as unsuitable, Grumman was preparing its in-house design 303 for a carrier fighter to replace the F-4 Phantom. That design became the F-14A, using a variable sweep wing and the same TF-30 engines proposed for the F-111B. The first two F-14 squadrons were formed in 1972 and went to sea for the first time in 1974. The F-14A was considered to be underpowered and the TF-30 engines suffered a number of problems. The most serious was compressor stall at high angles of attack and, unless the pilot reacted very quickly, the aircraft could be lost. The Tomcat was equipped with..... [read more]
Upcoming Events/Meetings at Castle
You are visitor
since January 5, 2002
Make a Rosie The Riveter donation by clicking on the PayPal donation button below, and you will receive a 'Rosie The Riveter' sticker (the sticker is different from the image shown to the left).
This site is periodically modified with new features and is optimized for IE 6 & later at 1024 x 768 (or better) screen resolution. Copyright ©2006-2011 - The Castle Air Museum Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved.
Rosie the Riveter was most closely associated with a real woman, Rose Will Monroe, who was born in Pulaski County, Kentucky in 1920 and moved to Michigan during World War II.
Please contact the museum during inclement weather (to make sure the museum is open). They can be reached at: (209) 723-2178
T-1A Jayhawk image © Pieter Taris
Castle's newest
Project Aircraft
(click the logo to view images)
last edited on 05-26-09
