February 1, 2023

On a cold February morning, our photo group met at Castle Air Museum in Atwater, California. We walked the grounds photographing vintage military aircraft ranging in age from pre-WWII to present-day fighters. (Most of the information provided here can be found at the museum’s website: https://www.castleairmuseum.org/)

There were bombers, fighter and attack planes, tankers and transport planes, and more. I found the decorative artwork on the fuselages noteworthy. Interestingly, nose artists were in high demand and paid well during WWII. Flight crews believed that nose art brought luck to the planes.

Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress
This is a four-engine heavy bomber. It flies up to 182 mph and carries 10 crew members.

North American B-25J Mitchell
A true workhorse of WWII. This plane weighs 36,047 lbs. It flies a maximum speed of 275 mph and carries seven crew members.

Boeing B-29 Superfortress
This is a propeller-driven heavy bomber flown during WWII and the Korean War. It flies up to 358 mph and carries ten crew members.

Opposite side of the B-29 showing how many bombs were dropped.

Curtiss C-46 Commando
This is a transport aircraft. It was used in the largest one-day airborne mission of WWII. It dropped 30 paratroopers in support of allied efforts to cross the Rhine River while sustaining anti-aircraft hits to the fuselage, one hit to the port wing, and numerous hits from machine gun fire. The mission, Operation Varsity, was successfully completed and no casualties sustained. The pilot was awarded the Silver Star.

B-47 Stratojet
This was designed to fly at high subsonic speed and high altitude to avoid enemy inceptor aircraft. It flies up to 650 mph and carries a crew of three.

North American F-86H Sabre
This is best known as the United States’ first swept wing fighter that could counter the similarly winged Soviet MiG-15. This single-seater flies up to 692 mph.

Fairchild C-123K Provider
An American military transport aircraft. This plane carries three crew members and flies up to 205 mph.

Vought RF-8G Crusader
This aircraft is the last American fighter with guns as the primary weapon earning it the title, “The Last of the Gunfighters.”

Grumman F-14D Tomcat
This is an American supersonic, twin-engine, two-seat, fighter aircraft. You may recognize it from the movie Top Gun. It flies to a maximum speed of 1,544 mph (Mach 2.38).

Convair RB-36H Peacemaker
This plane has the longest wingspan of any combat aircraft ever built. Its wingspan is so big that I couldn’t capture it with the camera lens I brought.

Republic F-105B Thunderchief
When our group reached the Thunderchief, a supersonic fighter-bomber used by the U.S. Airforce, we stopped and listened to Larry–one of our members. He spoke about how he flew this same one-seater plane during the Vietnam conflict when he was a young lad in his early 20s. It flies a maximum speed of 1,390 mph.

What an incredible day it was remembering and honoring the aircrew and personnel, those living and those who perished in the defense of our nation.