Just off of the 14 Freeway, near where the 58 crosses it, you’ll find the Mojave Air Museum Legacy Park.
It’s not a huge museum by any means, but has an easy charm that makes it a must-see if you’re on your way up to Bishop, or heading out to Las Vegas.
Actually, there are TWO museums in the Mojave Air and Space Port. First is the trio of historic aircraft parked right at the main entrance. Beyond them, closer to the airport’s Administration Building, is another, smaller museum that features a composite scale model of Virgin Galactic’s Space Ship One and the Rotary Rocket Roton ATV, the first rocket to lift off from the Mojave Air and Space Port.
We were more interested in the first museum, which features a Convair CV990 Coronado, a McDonnell/Douglas F4 Phantom II, and a Saab T-35 Drakken.
Your tour here is entirely self-guided, and the only prohibition is to not climb on the aircraft. What makes it a great visit is that you can actually touch these pieces of aviation history.
As for history, the CV990 was used to test the main landing gear for the Enterprise space shuttle. There’s a huge seemingly iron-bound cavity in the center of the lower fuselage in which the landing gear system once sat. It is most impressive.
The F4 Phantom began her life in Missouri in 1964, and spent most of it doing hard duty in Vietnam. She was transferred out to Edwards, and retired to this museum, in the mid-1980s.
What makes her so interesting – and once you look, you’ll find all sorts of fascinating details – is that she had been converted to a drone before she was retired. The rearview mirror still sits on the canopy bow, but there are no ejection seats visible through the cockpit canopy.
The Saab T-35 was a trainer during her active days. The intakes, flared at the front and then pinched in below the cockpit, make her look menacing, and supremely aerodynamic. She has what looks like a periscope, comic in its binocular stare over the front cockpit, faired into the canopy bow.
Like the other two jets, the Drakken is available for you to touch and examine and pose for selfies with.
All three of the aircraft appear to be in very good shape – the Coronado still has its engines. They are free from graffiti, although someone was able to slip a small band sticker way up high on the Phantom’s fuselage, right below the fuel ditch port. The little park is well maintained, and even features some benches along the concrete walkways that surround the planes.
You can find this great little museum right at the entrance to the Mojave Air and Space Port, at 1434 Flight Line, in Mojave.
Marvelous Air Museums 