Sept. 10--For nearly 20 years, acquiring an EC-121 airplane has been on the top of the wish list for the Castle Air Museum. If about $200,000 can be raised, that rare military aircraft now languishing in Montana might find a home in Atwater.
Tony Rocha, the museum's curator and chief operations officer, said the plane, built in the late 1940s through the mid-1950s, would really stand out in Castle Air Museum's collection and might be as big a draw as the Air Force One presidential plane acquired last year.
"It's almost imperative we get this somehow," Rocha said. "It's a little crusty in places, but what a gem to have! It's a time capsule."
The EC-121, built by Lockheed, is the military equivalent of the Constellation commercial plane popularized by TWA, Western Airlines, Pan Am and Eastern Airlines. It has a distinctive rear wing with three tailfins and is powered by four piston-driven, propeller-equipped engines.
Joe Pruzzo, the museum's chief executive officer, said if the EC-121 isn't preserved, it could be scrapped and that would be a shame. He said several hundred of the planes were manufactured and many of them were chopped up about 35 years ago.
Originally used for electronic countermeasures in the sky, the plane was an early warning radar surveillance aircraft and intelligence-gatherer during the Vietnam War and a goodly portion of the Cold War with the Soviet Union.
Rocha said the museum is hopeful it can raise the $200,000 it would take to dismantle, transport and reassemble the plane, now stored near the Helena Vocational Tech Center in Helena, Mont. It last flew about seven years ago.
Pruzzo said the EC-121 was donated six years ago by the federal General Services Administration to the Evergreen Air and Space Museum in McMinnville, Ore. When the museum was unable to move the plane, the GSA took it back and offered it to Castle Air Museum.
"The GSA has tremendous confidence in our abilities," Pruzzo said. "We have a reputation of getting the job done. The public has really supported the museum throughout its history and we hope to receive support again."
Pruzzo said it was determined that dismantling the plane and transporting its 116-foot-long fuselage, wings and other parts on seven truck-trailers would be more cost-effective than rebuilding it. Harsh Montana winters have degraded the plane's airworthiness and rebuilding it could cost three times more.
Nebraska-based Worldwide Aircraft Recovery Ltd. can dismantle the plane, transport it across great distances and put it back together in several months' time, Pruzzo said.
Rocha said all the military gear installed in the plane still remains, and it's probably the best-preserved of the dozen or so EC_121s that remain. Aviation enthusiasts likely would be eager to watch the plane being reassembled at the museum, he added.
Pruzzo said the museum has approached several foundations and donors in the Fresno and Modesto areas to underwrite the cost of moving the plane. The museum has written several grants to acquire the plane but hasn't heard back yet.
The museum has picked up a supporter in Steve Gomes, Merced County superintendent of schools. Gomes said the Merced County Education Foundation is establishing a charter school in Merced that would stress science, technology, engineering and mathematics, with help from the Merced County Office of Education.
Gomes thinks having the EC-121 here would provide a living museum where students can study the applied aspects of physics, electronics, aircraft design and history in the pre-digital era.
"Instructional lessons in science, math, history and the arts are endless as I look at this particular plane," Gomes said. "The Castle Air Museum, located four miles from (Merced Area STEM School's) site, will be an ideal living lab to give students hands-on, rigorous and real-life lessons."
Pruzzo said students could be inspired to become aircraft designers by studying the EC-121 airplane. The Castle Air Museum has 60 vintage military airplanes on display and five others awaiting restoration.
Sun-Star staff writer Doane Yawger can be reached at (209) 385-2407 or [email protected].
Copyright 2014 - Merced Sun-Star (Merced, Calif.)
