Castle Air Museum.......

ffuries · **Posted:** Sun Feb 20, 2022 9:19 pm

Don't know if this has been posted already. Apparently Castle Air Museum is expanding its aircraft display, by adding two helicopters.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/castle-air-m ... 18464.html

JohnB · **Posted:** Mon Feb 21, 2022 12:10 am

Always glad to see helicopters preserved...even if they are turbine.

Noha307 · **Posted:** Mon Feb 21, 2022 3:20 pm

These are actually only two of the six aircraft the museum is/has received from Naval Air Museum Barbers Point.[1][2] As best as I can tell, the full list is:

Bell AH-1W SuperCobra, BuNo 162558
Douglas A-4E Skyhawk, BuNo 150023 or 151030 or 152061
Sikorsky CH-53D Sea Stallion, BuNo 156964
Sikorsky SH-60B Seahawk, BuNo 162102
Sikorsky UH-3H Sea King, BuNo 148043 or 152701
Stinson L-5 Sentinel, BuNo 03969

I just hope they can find the funding for their new Aviation Pavilion so they can be moved inside.

Warbird Kid · **Posted:** Mon Feb 21, 2022 3:48 pm

Looking at Merced on Google Maps, I notice a MASSIVE hangar that looks like there is no activity around it. Anyone know if its being used as a hangar or otherwise? Seems like it'd be easier to put the majority of the collection in that hangar then build a brand new building.

Pat Carry · **Posted:** Tue Feb 22, 2022 12:15 am

Noha307 wrote:

These are actually only two of the six aircraft the museum is/has received from Naval Air Museum Barbers Point.[1][2] As best as I can tell, the full list is:

Bell AH-1W SuperCobra, BuNo 162558
Douglas A-4E Skyhawk, BuNo 150023 or 151030 or 152061
Sikorsky CH-53D Sea Stallion, BuNo 156964
Sikorsky SH-60B Seahawk, BuNo 162102
Sikorsky UH-3H Sea King, BuNo 148043 or 152701
Stinson L-5 Sentinel, BuNo 03969

I just hope they can find the funding for their new Aviation Pavilion so they can be moved inside.

I wonder what happened to the DC 8 that was part of the museum in Hawaii?

sandiego89 · **Joined:** Mon May 21, 2012 12:28 pm **Posts:** 1161

Warbird Kid wrote:

Looking at Merced on Google Maps, I notice a MASSIVE hangar that looks like there is no activity around it. Anyone know if its being used as a hangar or otherwise? Seems like it'd be easier to put the majority of the collection in that hangar then build a brand new building.

I seem to recall that most of the "good" hangers at Castle are in full use by other paying customers/operations, most of them not aviation related. The museum is lucky to have their maintenance hangar. And if they got some hangar space, splitting the collection between the current location near the entrance road and to a more isolated hangar location would be sub-optimal. The base is pretty desolate from its heyday.

Warbird Kid · **Posted:** Tue Feb 22, 2022 9:40 am

I think if they could acquire the rights to that specific gigantic hangar, they could move the entire museum there, being able to house the majority of the collection, I'm sure many of them being operated out of that hangar originally. Not to mention it looks like it has six bays that you could probably stick the six largest tails outside to conserve indoor space. Just my $0.02

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