Castle Air Museum
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008On the way back from Yosemite, I took a detour to the Castle Air Museum, in Atwater, California. I rate this place as “very cool for airplane geeks who have read too many Dale Brown novels.” :)
I found out about the museum late one night, when I was playing “1980’s Soviet Spy,” which is a game I invented where you use Google Maps satellite photos to try and find U.S. warplanes on military bases. I wondered if there were still any SR-71’s operational anywhere I could look for, and some googling told me no, but there was one on display at this museum about 4 hours from my apartment.
They also had a B-52 there (hence the Dale Brown reference.) I knew from books that it was big, but I didn’t know it was thaaat big! The little white blob under the nose is some random tourist posing.
However, the aircraft I found myself most in awe of was one I’d never even heard of before: The Convair B-36 Peacemaker. It’s the largest piston-engine aircraft ever made, and its six propellers face backwards.
There are plenty of other pictures up on my Flickr Page.