March Field Air Museum

The March Field Air Museum is an aviation museum near Moreno Valley and Riverside, California, located at March Air Reserve Base.

History

The museum was founded in 1979 as March Air Force Base Museum. One of the first exhibits at the museum was a collection of art painted by Hazel Olson. It moved to a new location at the base's former commissary, where it reopened to the public in 1981. That same year, a B-29 was flown to the museum. The museum moved again in 1993 to its current location west of the runway along Interstate 215. Originally operated by the Air Force, the museum's operation was transferred to a nonprofit organization in 1996.

Exhibits

Indoor exhibits

Indoor displays include:

• A replica Wright Flyer
• A section of a Boeing B-47 cockpit which was used in the filming of the 1955 film Strategic Air Command starring Jimmy Stewart.
• Many movies playing on a regular recurring schedule
• A German 30mm cannon and jet engines
• Missile and bomb cross-sections
• A recreation of a World War II-era mural
• B-52 training modules

Memorials

• A memorial to War dogs.
• The Distinguished Flying Cross National Memorial Act, signed July 25, 2014, designated the memorial at the museum in honor of current and former members of the Armed Forces who have been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross as the Distinguished Flying Cross National Memorial. The national memorial was dedicated on October 27, 2010.
• A memorial to NASA astronauts killed in the Challenger and Columbia disasters that uses a Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster.
• 15th Air Force Commemorative Wall. Dedicated in 1998, the 15th Air Force Commemorative Wall at March Field Air Museum pays tribute to the men and women who served in the 15th Air Force during World War II.

Aircraft on display

File:Bell P-59A Airacomet ‘422614 - 88’ (26729519014).jpg

Bell P-59A Airacomet

File:44-31032 B-25J MITCHELL NORTH AMERICAN RIV MARCH FIELD MUSEUM (20376244810).jpg

North American B-25J Mitchell

File:Vultee BT-13A Valiant ‘65’ (N56488) (27165120975).jpg

Vultee BT-13A Valiant

File:Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress ’44-6393’ “Starduster” (26948137531).jpg

Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress

The museum has over 114 aircraft on display.

• Aero Commander U-9A 52-6218
• Bell AH-1F Cobra 69-16416
• Bell P-39Q Airacobra – Composite
• Bell P-59 Airacomet 44-22614
• Bell OH-58 Kiowa 71-61668
• Bell UH-1B Iroquois 62-12537
• Bell UH-1D Iroquois 66-0925
• Bell UH-1F Iroquois 63-13143
• Bensen B-8M
• Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress 44-6393 "Starduster" – This aircraft served as Lt Gen Ira C. Eaker's personal transport.
• Boeing B-29A Superfortress 44-61669
• Boeing B-47E Stratojet 53-2275
• Boeing B-52D Stratofortress 55-0679 – This aircraft flew 175 combat missions in the Vietnam War.
• Boeing KC-97L Stratofreighter 53-0363
• Boeing KC-135A Stratotanker 55-3130 "Old Granddad"
• Cessna A-37 Dragonfly 71-0790
• Cessna T-37B Tweet 57-2316
• Cessna O-2A Skymaster 68-11067
• Cessna O-2B Skymaster 67-21465
• Consolidated PT-6A 30-385
• Convair C-131D Samaritan 54-2808
• Convair F-102A Delta Dagger 56-1114
• Douglas TA-4J Skyhawk
• Douglas A-26C Invader 44-35224
• Douglas EA-1E Skyraider 132789
• Douglas C-54Q Skymaster 56514
• Fairchild PT-19B
• Fairchild C-123K Provider 54-0612
• Folland Gnat E1076
• General Atomics MQ-1B Predator
• General Dynamics FB-111A Aardvark 68-0245
• Grumman YF-14A Tomcat 157990 – This aircraft was the 11th prototype F-14.
• Grumman HU-16E Albatross 1293
• Hughes OH-6A Cayuse 68-17252
• Lockheed C-141B Starlifter 65-0257
• Lockheed D-21B
• Lockheed P-38L Lightning – Replica
• Lockheed R5O-5 Lodestar 12473
• Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird 61-7975
• Lockheed T-33A Shooting Star 58-0513
• LTV A-7D Corsair II 69-6188
• Martin EB-57B Canberra 52-1519
• McDonnell F-101B Voodoo 59-0418
• McDonnell Douglas F-4C Phantom II 63-7693
• McDonnell Douglas F-4E Phantom II 68-0382
• McDonnell Douglas RF-4C Phantom II 63-7746
• McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle 76-0008
• McDonnell Douglas KC-10 Extender 84-0185
• Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15
• Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17
• Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19
• Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21
• Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 0393215744
• MMIST CQ-10A Snowgoose
• Nieuport 11 – Scale replica
• Nieuport 11 – Scale replica
• North American TB-25J Mitchell 44-31032
• North American F-86H Sabre 53-1304
• North American F-86L Sabre 50-0560
• North American F-100C Super Sabre 54-1786
• North American SNJ-4 Texan 51360
• Northrop F-89J Scorpion 52-1949
• Northrop T-38A Talon 60-0593
• Northrop YA-9A 71-1368
• Piasecki H-21 Workhorse 53-4326
• Republic F-84C Thunderjet 47-1595
• Republic F-84F Thunderstreak 51-9432
• Republic F-105B Thunderchief 57-5803
• Republic F-105D Thunderchief 62-4383
• Sauser P6E
• Schweizer TG-2
• Sikorsky HH-34J Choctaw 148943
• Stearman PT-13D Kaydet 42-16388
• Stinson L-5 Sentinel
• Vultee BT-13A Valiant 41-21487
• Vultee BT-13A Valiant N54865 – This aircraft was converted to resemble an Aichi D3A Val Dive Bomber for the 1970 movie Tora! Tora! Tora!.
• Wright Flyer – Replica

In the media

Television

The March Field Air Museum was featured on an episode of Ghost Adventures in 2018. The team of paranormal investigators investigated paranormal claims of artifacts being thrown out of their glass cases by an unseen force while in the Main Hangar, voices of children who died with their mother from the flu when they lived on the property before the Restoration Hangar was built, and sounds of soldiers preparing for battle while in the Lockheed C-141 Starlifter display aircraft.