Estrella Warbird Museum

By:      Norm Goyer

The Estrella Warbird Museum, located in Paso Robles, California, has a great collection of military aircraft featuring Korean and Vietnam era aircraft.

My daughter Celeste is an event planner, along with her many other art design skills. She recently called me and suggested I write a column about a new Warbird Museum which had just been dedicated in Paso Robles, California, close to her studios in Cambria. Celeste started her warbird flying in the back seat of one of my SNJs when she was way under five years old and the love of old fighting iron has stuck, as it has for me. As usual, she was right on with her instincts for a good story.

Celeste Goyer and Stephen Price stand near a Grumman Intruder, workhorse of the Vietnam carrier war, and star of the "Flight of the Intruder" movie and novel.

We arrived at 10:00 am at the Paso Robles Municipal Airport, which was a P-38 fighter training base during World War II. The gate guard for the very large indoor and outdoor display hangars and areas was one of my favorite light jets, a Cessna T-37 “Tweety Bird”. Just behind a small fence, were lines of warbirds in their natural colors and conditions, that of fighting aircraft which had served their country proudly, and were now enjoying siesta time in the bright California sunshine. Lines of military helicopters and jet fighters, dating back to the very early Lockheed T-33/F-80 Shooting Star were on display. Exotic iron, like the Lockheed F-104, the “Missile with a man in it”, and the very famous Grumman Tracker “Short Ugly Little Fellow”, sorry I had to clean up that name for family Internet reading. This aircraft served in the US Navy as an anti submarine warfare aircraft and a carrier capable courier/mail plane, then a radar aircraft carrying a huge round antenna on top of the fuselage and finally years of having belly tanks installed in the bomb bar and filled with fire retardants for the California Forestry Department as a borate bomber. This short ugly, you-know-what, earned its keep, big time.

The Estrella Museum has a Grumman S2F Tracker rescued from the fire wars. (see Bird of the Week for more Tracker photos)

Both the movie and the book “Flight of the Intruder” were smash successes. The star of the book/movie was a Grumman Intruder, side-by-side attack aircraft. Many years ago, with the help of a Grumman employee flying friend and a press card from a major network, I was able to tour the Grumman plant in Long Island where they were building Intruders and F-14s and modifying F-111 Aardvarks with new avionics. The Estrella Warbird Museum has a beautiful Intruder and an F-14. These are impressive aircraft. I really liked this museum because you could walk right up to the old birds, scratch their tail feathers, some even had access to their cockpits. Old military pilots better bring a box of tissues ’cause you are going to need them.

Now, who can resist a beautiful aircraft with one's initials on it, not me. These markings were on an Intruder.

Another big plus to the Estrella Warbird Museum is the fact that you will see aircraft that you seldom have a chance to view up close. Sun ‘n Fun and AirVenture have hundreds of World War II aircraft and a few later jet fighters but not all of the aircraft that made up the rosters of our Air Force, Navy and Marine aviation units, or the planes that flew from carriers during the height of Vietnam and even the early Gulf wars. These are not air show aircraft, they are working aircraft, the very same ones and looking just like those whose pilots and crews accomplished unbelievable feats of courage during the heights of battles on the sea and in the air.

There is a WWII era Link trainer display, including a full set of controls. This is a very rare exhibit.

How did a group of dedicated aircraft lovers manage to obtain 26 prime aircraft from the US Navy and Air Force? It wasn’t easy, but it certainly was worth the hard work of over 500 museum members. Would you believe that they average over 100 guests every month attend the dinner and business meeting? Now that is very unusual for a club. The members incorporated as a nonprofit organization dedicated to displaying our nation’s air power. Thus they became eligible to receive surplus retired aircraft from the military on a lease per plane basis. The 500 members of the museum receive these aircraft, then the hard work begins. Many have weathered years of unprotected outdoor storage and need new paint and markings. Many have dings and dents that must be repaired so the aircraft appear to be airworthy. The museum does have an airworthy Douglas C-47 which recently participated in the gathering of DC-3s and C-47s in Illinois.

We also toured the display buildings and saw some very unusual objects, antique military vehicles, authentic uniforms of many countries, and, one of my favorites, a genuine complete Link Trainer. I used one of these while I was a flying officer for the CAP in Massachusetts many years ago, this display brought back many memories. The museum also has modern military simulators which can be rented. Another new addition is the addition of many famous racing cars, including NASCAR, dirt Track and Indy cars. It is an excellent assortment for auto racing fans.. Racing cars and aircraft have always had a close relationship.

The museum is easy to get to via car and aircraft, yours of course, not the cigar tubes. It is located just off Interstate/California 101 in Paso Robles, there are excellent road signs and the museum has weekend hours and by appointment. I highly suggest you check out their web site for a list of aircraft and hours of operation. Log onto www.ewarbirds.org or call them at 805-227-0440. If you go, give the short ugly little fellow a nice pat on the nose, ugly airplanes also need a little love. NG