f14 fighter jet – marvelousairmuseums.com

Point Mugu Missile Park Video

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.

Mojave Air Museum Legacy Park Video

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.

Commemorative Air Force Southern California Wing Video

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 Video

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.

Blackbird Airpark Video

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 Video

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.

Joe Davies Heritage Airpark Video

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.

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.

Point Mugu Missile Park

Naval Air Road, Port Hueneme, CA

This free air and space museum is easy to find, easy to get to, easy to get in and out of, and, well, genuinely easy.

The museum is quite small, containing just three aircraft and a fascinating assortment of air-to-air, air-to-surface, and surface-to-air missiles.

The three aircraft are quite impressive, not only for what they are, but also for how they are displayed.

McDonnel Douglas F4J Phantom

The F4J Phantom was the first airplane to show up at the museum and has been on display there for well over a dozen years. She’s mounted atop a ten-foot-tall pylon, looking like she’s heading out to sea on a mission over Vietnam.

Tail number 157259 was built in St. Louis in November of 1969 and joined the Navy on December 12. She appears to have served her naval days at Pensacola Naval Base until 1986, when she was transferred to Point Mugu Naval Base. She was transferred to her current location in 1992.

Despite her blacked-out canopy and empty engine bays, she makes a striking and deep impression. The sheer size of the airframe, when balanced above you, is truly stunning.

Grumman F-14 Tomcat

Build number 158623 joined the PMMP fleet in 2021, having served the majority of her career right here in Southern California. Built at the Grumman factory in Bethpage, NY, in 1971, she officially joined the Navy in 1973.

Here work here in California included a stint at Miramar in the combat traininng squadron. She was subsequently transferred to Point Mugu where she was reconfigured to provide evaluation data on the F-14 airframe itself.

Like the Phantom, her intakes betray empty engine bays, and her canopy is blacked out. But nothing detracts from her impression as a huge and powerful combat weapon.

Grumman EA-6B Prowler

Unlike the other birds, this four-seat ELINT aircraft sits firmly on her own landing gear. Her canopies are still clear, allowing you to see the cockpit coaming and ejection seats inside. Like the other aircraft, here engine bay is empty. But there is no block in either the tail cone or the intakes, so you can look right down the length of the inside of the aircraft.

This particular airframe, 163890, served in Qatar in 2018, and was the very last of the EA-6Bs to be flown. The sides of the fuselage are littered with the names and callsigns of dozens of the brave crew that flew in her throughout her career.

How to Get to the Museum

The Point Mugu Missile Park is unfenced and open air, meaning that it never closes.

Take Highway 1 either South from Oxnard or North from Malibu. You’ll be able to see the park from the freeway.

Take the Wood Road offramp. The park is west of the freeway – you literally can’t miss it. The museum is actually on Naval Air Road, near the entrance to Naval Base Ventura County.

Bring your camera and prepare to be blown away by these three impressive aircraft, and the dozens of missile displays at this free air and space museum.

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.