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Never Quote Me the Odds

George J. Marrett is the historian at the Estrella Warbirds Museum in Paso Robles, CA. An amazing individual, he worked for Howard Hughes, has written at least half a dozen books, has test-flown nearly every jet the United States produced since World War II, flew death-defying rescue missions in Vietnam, is building homeless shelters in Paso Robles, and happens to be just about the nicest guy you’re ever going to meet.

My wife and I spent a nice trio of hours talking with him about the museum, about Howard Hughes, and about the many aircraft he’d test-flown. The man is remarkably sharp, and, at 88, still flies. He said he’d keep flying until nobody wanted to fly with him anymore.

So many of the stories he told stuck with me, but there was one in particular that I’m still pondering.

During the Vietnam war, he flew fourth position in a flight of four A-1E Skyraiders – big, propellor-driven fighter planes produced right after the end of World War II. They were slow compared to the jet fighters, but they were robust, and they carried lots of weapons.

His job, along with the other three Skyraiders, was to clear the jungle around a downed American pilot by firing at the Viet Cong soldiers intent on making a capture, so that the Huey helicopters could come in rescue him. The big fighter planes would lumber over the jungle, firing a spray of machine gun bullets at anything that moved towards the downed pilot.

The Viet Cong often fought back. In one flight, George watched the plane in front of him get hit, watched the pilot parachute away, and then actually watched the plane spiral down to crash among the trees.

“It was an amazing sight,” he grinned. He had inadvertently applied the air brakes in his own plane, called Sock It to ‘Em , and was flying too slow to be safe. But it gave him time to watch the crash.

When he returned to base, his crew chief, the guy who takes care of the plane when it’s on the ground, told him he’d been hit.

“You got a couple of bullet holes in the wheel well,” the chief said. “You wanna see ’em?”

George thought about it for a moment, and then said “No. Don’t even tell me that.”

Focus on the success, right? Let’s not recount how close we almost got to failure. His first book, the one about those rescue missions, is called Cheating Death.

That’s a profound way to look at high-risk tasks, isn’t it?

It reminds of the Star Wars line when C-3PO starts to tell Han Solo his chances of success…

“Never quote me the odds!”

Focus on where you’re going, not where you’ve been. I know George may have meant something far more profound that this, but we always apply the things we hear to ourselves, right?

So, when you’re taking a risk, and you hear that voice that starts to doubt the odds of your success, now you have an answer.

“Don’t tell me that. Never quote me the odds.”

You can learn more about the amazing George J. Marrett on Wikipedia and his many books on Amazon. And more about the impressive Estrella Warbirds Museum right here at California Air Museums.

Happy flying.

Marvelous Air Museums is part of the John D Reinhart content family. Writer, illustrator, videographer, and accidental filmmaker — find the whole story at JohnDReinhart.com.

Convair CV990

The Convair 990 was a commercial airliner produced between 1961 and 1963. The narrow body could move up to 121 people across the country at Mach .84, around 585 miles per hour, which seems plenty fast. But it wasn’t quite the Mach .89 Convair, or its parent company General Dynamics, had promised American Airlines when they made the contract.

Sadly, only 37 of them were ever produced, although they flew for airlines all over the world. They operated from 1961 all the way through to 1994 – and that last flight was made by the CV990 that’s parked at the Mojave Spaceport.

This Coronado, #810, had the right combination of flight dynamics, weight, and, frankly, availability, for NASA to use as a stand in for the still-building shuttle Enterprise in 1993.

NASA hacked an enormous bay carved out of her fuselage, right between the main landing gear. That bay, which looks kind of Frankensteined together, is where they wedged the Enterprise landing gear assembly. Her own main gear was still intact, but she actually took off and landed on the shuttle gear.

The engineers at NASA test the landing gear system’s crosswind braking and tire wear capabilities. As a result of 810’s performance, the Enterprise‘s approved to land in crosswinds up to 20 knots, an upgrade from the previous 15.

Oddly enough, while the McDonnell Douglas F-4J Phantom II and the Saab T-35 Draken are displayed with their engines removed, the Coronado still has rotating parts in those engine nacelles. We were surprised to hear the Mojave wind that pushed its way around the plywood intake cover on the number three engine, gently spinning the turbine fan with a lonesome tick-tick-tick.

These images of 810 were taken on a breezy afternoon at the Mojave Air Museum Legacy Park – an interesting and open-air museum that’s right outside the Spaceport.

Marvelous Air Museums is part of the John D Reinhart content family. Writer, illustrator, videographer, and accidental filmmaker — find the whole story at JohnDReinhart.com.

Grumman EA-6B Intruder

The Grumman EA-6B Prowler was a 4-seat electronic countermeasures attack aircraft developed during the Vietnam War. You can quickly differentiate an EA-6 from the A-6 Intruder upon which it was based by the longer airframe, the second cockpit canopies, and that distinctive bulb on the tail.

The A-6 Intruder was designed 1957 as a carrier-based strike and attack aircraft. That airframe was so successful that the last A-6 was retired in 1997. Along the way, Grumman produced several variants, including an airborne tanker, and the EA-6B Prowler.

The Prowler joined the Navy in 1971, serving in every theater of war from Vietnam through Afghanistan.

Her role was to identify, jam, and attack enemy air defense systems. She carried a pilot and three electronic countermeasures officers, referred to as ECMOs. The pilot brought the plane within range of the enemy’s defenses while the ECMOs located enemy radar installations.

The enemy’s defensive radar was to allowed to “sweep” the plane, which meant the Prowler was identified as a target. The Prowler’s defense was an aggressive and punishing attack on the installation, first by blinding the radar with radio waves and then destroying it with air-to-surface missiles.

It was hairy, dangerous work. Stunningly, not a single aircraft was ever lost in combat.

The Prowler’s mission and sophistication continued to evolve, such that by the time the plane served in Afghanistan and Iraq, the ECMOs could identify and disrupt specific cell phone communications.

Beginning in 2019, the Prowler’s role was beginning to move over to the two-seat Boeing EA-18 Growler, an adaptation of the wildly successful F/A-18 attack airframe.

In April of 2024, the Navy dedicated a plaque to the EA-6B at Point Mugu Missile Park in recognition of the service provided by these legendary aircraft.

Included in the gallery at the top of this page is an A-6 undergoing restoration at the Estrella Warbirds Museum for comparison.

These images were taken at the Point Mugu Missile Park in Point Hueneme, and at the Estrella Warbirds Museum in Paso Robles.

Marvelous Air Museums is part of the John D Reinhart content family. Writer, illustrator, videographer, and accidental filmmaker — find the whole story at JohnDReinhart.com.

Santa Maria Museum of Flight

The next time you find yourself on the Central Coast, make a little time to visit the Santa Maria Museum of Flight.

Sitting at the west end of the Santa Maria City Airport tarmac, the museum occupies a pair of hangers left over from the airport’s days in the US Army Air Force.

Back then, it was not uncommon to see Lockheed P-38 Lightnings roaring overhead. Inside, you find an amazing, and flyable, half-scale Lightning that was built to honor the brave guys and gals who flew the originals. Littered around the landing gear are the remains of some Lightnings that didn’t quite land as planned.

That’s actually one of the great things about the Santa Maria Museum of Flight – there’s a sense of history here, and also a sense of community, and a strong dose of folksy wisdom.

We met with docent Jerry Simas, who gave us a rainy tour of the museum ‘s wide-ranging collection. His laconic answer to my question about whether the half-scale Lightning could still fly was “Well, it was running when they shut it off.”

The museum was founded in 1984 to “preserve the past and present history of our aviation heritage, and inspiring future aviators in the Santa Maria Valley.”

There’s a memorial garden outside that is dedicated to the 99s – an international organization of woman aviators, mechanics, and innovators started in 1929 that is open to women who from over the world who love to fly.

You’ll find that the museum is packed with surprises, from dioramas and models to some pieces of genuine Hollywood history, like the Hughes H-1 mockup built for the movie The Aviator. It doesn’t actually fly – doesn’t even have an engine, but it does have an electric motor that turns the propeller. Some movie magic, there.

The 1991 Disney adventure film The Rocketeer was filmed right there, too. You’ll recognize the hanger, the runway outside, and of course, the Rocketeer’s iconic rocket-powered suit.

And up there is the Phoenix, a fictitious single-engine rescue plane built from the wreckage of a crashed Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar, made for the 2004 movie Flight of the Phoenix, with a miniature Dennis Quaid at the Controls. This is the model that was actually used in the film.

Outside, a huge F-4S Phantom II sits across from a A-4D Skyhawk, both made by McDonnell Douglas and both facing down the Czech Aero L-29 Delphin jet trainer. Inside the second hanger you’ll find a beautifully restored Folland/Hawker Siddeley Gnat – another gorgeous little trainer.

In fact, the more you look at the Santa Maria Museum of Flight, the more surprises you’ll find, like this Link Trainer. And like the flag that actually belonged to a World War II Japanese aviator.

It’s a fun little museum, jam-packed with fascinating memorabilia that is sure to delight the entire family.

Here’s a video we made of our tour.

And it’s easy to find the museum itself, at 3015 Airpark Drive. Get to the Santa Maria Airport, and head just a block or so west on Airpark.

It’s the only building that has a Phantom jet sitting outside.

They’re open Fridays and Saturdays from 10 to 4, and Sundays from 12 to 3.

Visit their website at www.smmuseumofflight.com

Marvelous Air Museums is part of the John D Reinhart content family. Writer, illustrator, videographer, and accidental filmmaker — find the whole story at JohnDReinhart.com.

Estrella Warbirds Museum

We journeyed out through the vineyards of Paso Robles wine country to visit The Estrella Warbirds Museum, an impressive collection of vintage aircraft adjacent to the Paso Robles Municipal Airport.

Estrella packs a huge number of surprises in a relatively small footprint. Their massive collection of mostly Vietnam-era fighter jets and helicopters is augmented by their huge cache of military transport vehicles, even a great M60A-1 Patton tank, undergoing refurbishment.

If that’s not enough, there’s the Red Ball Express, a second collection of transport vehicles from World War II. And make sure and check out the Woodland automotive museum, all on the same stretch of land.

We met with author, historian, and former combat and test pilot George J. Marrett, who guided our attention through the impressive array of airplanes that he actually helped develop.

For example, there’s a F-104 here in the museum that has George Marrett’s name on it as the test pilot.

All the standards from the Vietnam War are here, from the venerable McDonnell-Douglas F-4S Phantom II to the McDonnell Douglas A4-D Skyhawk, and a Chance-Vought A7 Crusader, and a beautiful little bug-like OV-10A Bronco.

The 1980’s are represented by an F-14 Tomcat (George Marrett’s favorite), and an F-16 Falcon. There’s even an A-6 Intruder and US-2 Tracker.

You’ll also find this beautiful little Northrup F-5A Freedom Fighter.

Out on the tarmac, beyond the still-flying Douglas C-47 Gooney Bird painted in D-Day invasion stripes, sits the International Collection. Here you’ll find a Saab S-35 Draken, an Aermacchi MB326 Impala, and a sweet little Fouga CM.170 Magister.

While most of these aircraft are restored, they’re generally for ground display only. But what a grand display it is, and how wonderful to be able to touch all these iconic aircraft, side-by-side.

It’s hard to imagine it from looking at it, but the Lockheed P-2V Neptune was actually equipped to drop a nuclear bomb. These red doors covered the intakes for the jet engines. Yes, the Neptune was a JATO – jet-assisted-take-off. They closed once the plane reached a safe altitude to save gas.

Estrella is absolutely packed up with treasures, not least of all is Captain Marrett and the depth he brings to the museum.

You can read about his years as a test pilot in Contrails Over the Mojave, published by the Naval Institute Press, and in Testing Death, published by Praeger Security International, and his wild combat-rescue adventures in Cheating Death, published by Smithsonian Books.

The next time you’re in the Central Coast Wine Country, do yourself a massive favor and head over to the Paso Robles Municipal Airport, and the Estrella Warbirds Museum.

Take Highway 46 east, get off at Airport Road, make a right on Dry Creek Road, and you’re sure to find them.

Just turn in at the A-4 Skyhawk…

Spend some time with us on our Video Tour and see just how great the Estrella Warbirds Museum is!

Marvelous Air Museums is part of the John D Reinhart content family. Writer, illustrator, videographer, and accidental filmmaker — find the whole story at JohnDReinhart.com.

One Motor, Many Planes

The Southern California Wing of the Commemorative Air Force features a number of spectacular pieces of World War II flying history.

Their first acquisition was the massive Curtiss C-46 Commando, the largest twin-engine plane built by the allies during the war.

The pride of their fleet is the North American PBJ maritime patrol bomber, the very last PBJ that still flies.

And the museum is quite proud of its beautiful Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter, an immensely important carrier airplane from WWII.

Although these three planes carried out vastly different missions, were built by completely different companies, and were operated by two different branches of the military, they all have one thing in common: the Wright R-2600 Twin Cyclone engine.

The R-2600 Twin-Cyclone is a 14-cylinder radial engine – where your car has 4, 6, or 8 cylinders arrayed in a line or a Vee, the radial’s 14 cylinders are arrayed in a circle around the engine’s crankshaft. It’s a big motor that weighs about a ton.

One of the advantages to this rotary layout is the power it achieves. Where your Toyota Camry cranks out about 200 horsepower, and a new Dodge Charger pushes out less than 300, the R-2600 generates a whopping 1,800 horsepower.

Another advantage is that these engines are air-cooled, like in a VW bug. Standard engines have a radiator full of coolant. A radial engine does away that, using passing air as coolant. They look different, with those big, finned cylinder heads, because they need a lot of air to stay cool.

Our story gets interesting because the R-2600 engine was developed specifically for the Curtiss C-46 Commando. Wright, the engine manufacturer, was a division of Curtiss-Wright, the maker of the Commando.

The engine proved to be robust, and quickly became a huge success among aircraft manufacturers.

In fact, North American Aviation put them into their new B-25 and PBJ bombers, the last of which is the pride of the CAF fleet.

And Grumman Aircraft Engineering put them into their new F6F Hellcat fighters.

When installed in the PBJ bomber, the two R-2600s could move the 18,000 pound airplane at 245 mph on its bombing runs against Axis submarines and warships.

In the much heavier, 48,000 pound C-46 Commando, the engines pushed her along at 135 miles per hour over the Himalayas and into China to thwart the Japanese invasion there.

That same engine, when mounted in the much lighter, 8,100 pound Grumman F6F Hellcat, gave the pilot a brisk 376 miles per hour in dogfighting Japanese Zeroes to defend the American carrier fleet.

Three different airplanes. Three widely different roles. One engine.

Curtiss eventually opted to fit the C-46 Commando with the even more powerful Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double-Wasp, 18-cylinder engines, which are what you’ll find on the China Doll.

Interestingly, Grumman also moved up to the 2,000 horsepower Double Wasp for the Hellcat, and that’s what you’ll find on display in Camarillo.

The PBJ still features the original Wright R-2600s.

In the annals of WWII aviation history, each of these three aircraft was a standout performer, contributing more than their share in defeating the global threat to democracy.

And all three of those airplanes, among literally dozens of others, got their start on the historic Wright R-2600 Twin Cyclone radial engine.

Marvelous Air Museums is part of the John D Reinhart content family. Writer, illustrator, videographer, and accidental filmmaker — find the whole story at JohnDReinhart.com.

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Marvelous Air Museums is part of the John D Reinhart content family. Writer, illustrator, videographer, and accidental filmmaker — find the whole story at JohnDReinhart.com.

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Marvelous Air Museums is part of the John D Reinhart content family. Writer, illustrator, videographer, and accidental filmmaker — find the whole story at JohnDReinhart.com.

Grumman F-14 Tomcat

The variable-geometry F-14 Tomcat first left the ground in December of 1970, and served all the way through to September of 2006.

The big fighter took it’s first tour aboard the USS Enterprise in 1974, replacing the wing of aging F-4 Phantoms. The twin-engine, supersonic, two seat carrier fighter was a natural match for the Phantom’s role as air superiority, ground attack, and reconnaissance airframe.

The unique variable-geometry wing system, first developed for the General Dynamics F-111, sweeps the wings forward for more lift during take-off and landing, and then pulls them in close to the fuselage for supersonic flight.

According to test pilot George J. Marrett, the Tomcat was far and away his favorite airplane. He’s credited with the first-ever “supersonic missile kill,” having fired a missile from an F-14 while above Mach-1

The air-to-air missile sped away from the supersonic Tomcat, climbing as it went, to drop almost ballistically onto the target, a drone displaying the characteristics of the vaunted Mig-21. The drone never saw it coming. Both Marrett and the F-14 were credited for the kill. Neither aircraft were ever within visual range of one another.

The Tomcat provided the backbone for the US Navy through the Gulf, Afghanistan, and Iraq wars, to be replaced by the nimble A/F-18 in 2006.

These images were taken at the Point Mugu Missile Park in Port Hueneme, CA, and Estrella Warbirds Museum in Paso Robles.

Marvelous Air Museums is part of the John D Reinhart content family. Writer, illustrator, videographer, and accidental filmmaker — find the whole story at JohnDReinhart.com.