A Showcase for Growth of Aviation

A Showcase for Growth of Aviation
Museum Offers Window to Travis' Past
By Brian Hamlin
Article Launched: 03/30/2008



A B-29 "Superfortress" has its home at the Travis Air Museum along with other bombers, trainers, fighters, and cargo aircraft. (Ryan Chalk / The Reporter)

Travis Air Force Base is now a bustling center of 21st century aviation technology.
A little more than 60 years ago, however, it was nothing more than an unattractive stretch of windswept prairie east of an unremarkable little town called Fairfield.

Today, visitors can follow the evolution of the base at the sprawling Travis Air Museum, where they'll find everything from a World War II Japanese fighter pilot's uniform to dozens of restored military aircraft with monikers like "Voodoo," and "Flying Box Car."

"We try to concentrate on the history of Travis and the history of flight in the Pacific, but it's really a pretty eclectic collection," said museum director Dr. Gary Leiser. "We have a little bit of everything from World War I to the present."

The 20,000-square-foot museum, located in a structure that once housed the base commissary, provides a remarkably broad view of life at Travis and of aviation history in general.

Although Travis didn't exist during World War I, military aviation of the time is painstakingly explored in one corner of the museum, replete with model aircraft, uniforms, official orders transmitting the news of the Armistice in 1918 and even a complete volume of the military newspaper, "Stars and Stripes," with issues between Feb. 8, 1918 through June 13, 1919.

The front page of one issue highlights advances in combat dentistry of the era, with a headline announcing: "Tooth Yanking Car is Touring France".

Nearby, museum volunteers are building a diorama representing a scene from the World War II D-Day invasion, including a restored Piper L-4 Grasshopper observation aircraft, portable field desks and equipment. When it's finished, a large wall mural depicting a D-Day scene will complete the exhibit.

Nearby, visitors can view a completed exhibit depicting a World War II medevac mission in New Guinea. Center stage is a restored Stinson L-5 Sentinel aircraft configured to evacuate wounded GIs from combat zones.

Wandering through the exhibits, visitors can learn everything they ever wanted to know about World War II's Gen. Jimmy Doolittle - who, although never stationed at Travis, reportedly enjoyed duck hunting in the nearby Suisun Marsh - or explore a life-sized mock-up of an early Mercury space capsule from the 1960s.

The latter exhibit is supposed to be popular with kids, but it's surprising how many adults pause to climb into the tiny spacecraft.

Leiser is quick to point out that he's sometimes unable to pinpoint exactly where some of the smaller museum exhibit pieces originated.

"You never know what's going to come through the door here," he said. "The donations just seem to arrive."

Elsewhere in the museum, there's an exhibit dedicated to the achievements of the Tuskegee Airmen, a cavernous jet engine from a C-5 Galaxy transport, a Korean War era .50-caliber ball turret assembly from a U.S. Navy PB4Y, and a genuine atomic bomb casing identical to that of the "Fat Man" A-bomb that helped bring an end to World War II when it was detonated over Nagasaki, Japan.

On a considerably less serious note, the museum also has acquired a complete studio set of the Starship Enterprise's bridge from the original Star Trek TV series. It's going to need some work, but Leiser says volunteers hope to have it ready for visitors sometime in the near future.

The Travis Air Museum has one of the largest collections of military aircraft on the West Coast, with dozens of fighters, bombers and transports from World War II through Vietnam standing silent vigil outside the museum structure.

The B-52 Stratofortress jet bomber, a workhorse of the Vietnam era, is there, along with a Korean War F-86 Sabre jet fighter and a World War II C-47 Skytrain transport, the latter a recent donation from longtime Solano County aviation enthusiast Duncan Miller.

The museum is free and open to the general public although, because of post 9/11 security measures, visitors without military ID should contact the Travis Visitor Center at 424-1462; or the museum at 424-5605, ahead of time.



Philip White, 16, (left) helps Isabella Blalock, 5, both of Antioch, out of a replica Project Mercury spacecraft on display at the Travis Air Museum Thursday. (Ryan Chalk / The Reporter)

Museum hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday.