US Air Museums

Air Museums >> USA > CA: Oakland Aviation Museum On the face of it, the Oakland Aviation Museum is a fairly standard collection of US built aircraft. There is however one big surprise awaiting the visitor. Paul Dunn visits the museum and finds a rare example of an aircraft from the golden age of air travel.

The Californian city of Oakland is situated on the eastern side of San Francisco Bay, opposite its more famous and glamorous neighbour. Oakland has a busy airport, popular with low cost carriers such as Southwest and JetBlue. Nowadays these carriers operate from the newer part of the airfield (the South Field), with the airport’s historic North Field now being mainly home to GA operations.

Also based at North Field is the Oakland Aviation Museum. Set up in 1981, it was originally called the Western Aerospace Museum before assuming its current name in 2007. The museum is based in a hangar once home to the Boeing School of Aeronautics and built in 1939 and also has a small external display area.

The outside exhibits are dominated by a real rarity – a Shorts Solent flying boat! The aircraft was built in 1945 as a Shorts Seaford, a longer ranged version of the Sunderland, designed for use in the Pacific. The end of the war meant that it was never used in this capacity, being stored before being converted into a Solent 3 and delivered to BOAC.

BOAC used the aircraft primarily on routes from Southampton to Johannesburg, South Africa. This journey now takes around 11 hours non-stop on a modern jet, but in the late 1940s it took four days! Named City of Cardiff and registered G-AKNP, it had a short service career, being retired in 1950.

After service with BOAC the aircraft passed to an operator in California who intended to use it on services to Hawaii and across the Pacific, but this came to nothing. The Solent was apparently acquired by Howard Hughes and eventually stored, along with two others in the San Francisco area.

In the early 1980s, it was sold to a new owner who intended to use the aircraft on survey work, but its poor state meant it was too expensive to restore to airworthy condition and it passed to the museum for display. Around this time it made an appearance in the film Raiders of the Lost Ark – Indiana Jones is seen boarding the aircraft for a flight across the Pacific.

The Solent is displayed in a simple white BOAC colour scheme – I have to admit that I didn’t think the colour scheme looked accurate for the aircraft until I found a period photo online showing the aircraft wearing that same scheme while in service. At weekends, tours are offered of the interior of the aircraft, with many of the original fittings surviving – unfortunately I happened to visit on a weekday so wasn’t able to get inside.

Whilst the Solent is by far the largest and most impressive aircraft in the museum, there are plenty of other interesting types on display. Many of these have a US Navy theme – a few miles north of Oakland Airport is the site of the former NAS Alameda, and several of the aircraft on display were based there at one time.

The largest of these is the Douglas KA-3B Skywarrior, an aircraft which I have always thought very impressive. Over the years, the Skywarrior was operated from Alameda by many different units, operating in the air-refuelling and electronic warfare roles – in fact, VAK-308 ‘Griffins’ operated the aircraft at Alameda as late as 1989.

Another US Navy tanker on display is the Grumman KA-6D Intruder. This dedicated tanker version of the A-6 is a fairly unusual museum exhibit – most preserved Intruders are former attack aircraft. The KA-6Ds were operated by fleet squadrons alongside the attack configured jets and provided a very useful refuelling service for the fleet which was sorely missed on retirement. The museum’s KA-6 has been restored in authentic and nostalgic high vis VA-95 ’Green Lizards’ colours.

Although never based at Alameda, the Grumman F-14 Tomcat is probably the most iconic fighter aircraft ever operated by the US Navy. The aircraft on display is apparently an NF-14A, which spent part of its career as a test aircraft and it is currently under restoration.

Further US Navy jets on display include a NTA-4J Skyhawk and an A-7E Corsair. The Skyhawk used to be operated by the Naval Weapons Center (NWC) at NAS China Lake, whilst the A-7E carries a rather curious colour scheme. The Corsair is an ex-US Navy jet, but is painted in the colours of a USAF aircraft from the 354th TFW at Myrtle Beach. Given the naval theme to the rest of the collection, and the relevance of the A-7E to NAS Alameda this seems an odd choice of colour scheme, but it is a smart exhibit nonetheless.

Another slightly suspect colour scheme is that carried by the museum’s TAV-8A Harrier. The Harrier is a former USMC aircraft which apparently suffered a landing accident during service and was rebuilt for display, acquiring a very smart NASA colour scheme along the way. Although never operated by NASA, the aircraft now represents the small number of Harriers operated by NASA, including aircraft flown from Moffett Field, also in the SF Bay Area.

In addition to the complete aircraft on display, there are also a few interesting components and unrestored hulks. These include a Republic RF-84F Thunderflash, another airframe apparently acquired from China Lake. This machine will require a great deal of time and effort to restore to display condition, but remains an interesting exhibit in its own right. Similarly, the museum also displays the forward fuselage of a former Macavia DC-6B.

The museum’s indoor display area is situated in the former hangar of the Boeing School of Aeronautics, a very atmospheric building indeed. With restricted headroom inside, interior aircraft displays are somewhat limited, consisting of mainly light GA types. Exceptions to this include a very smart MiG-15, which carries a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force colour scheme.

Dominating one end of the hangar is a Lockheed L.10 Electra, currently up on jacks due to its undercarriage being missing. The Electra is a very relevant aircraft for the museum’s collection given its connection to Amelia Earhart, who was last seen flying a similar aircraft during an attempted round the world flight in 1937. Earhart and her crew set out from Oakland on the first leg of their journey and the museum has extensive displays dedicated to her life.

The Oakland Aviation Museum is a good collection of aircraft, which is elevated to being well above average by virtue of its wonderful Shorts Solent. Well worth a visit for the Solent alone, and the setting amongst the original buildings of Oakland Airport is also very atmospheric.

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