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Welcome! to the world's most famous airplane hangar. Used in the 1963 Hollywood all-star comedy movie, "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World," the hangar is located on the southeast corner of the Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport, next to the Pacific Coast Air Museum, in Santa Rosa, California, USA 95403. |
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"It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" airplane hangar
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Seen by hundreds of millions of people, around the world, who have watched the movie over and over again for nearly 50 years, it is everyone's favorite airplane hangar. Known as the Butler Building and once part of the Santa Rosa Army Air Field, the Quonset-style hangar was built during World War II by Butler Manufacturing, a Kansas City, Missouri company, founded in 1901, that produced 90% of all prefabricated steel hangars for the Army & Navy throughout the war, and the hangar itself is the last World War II hangar of its type still standing, and is still in use today. |
In the movie, famous stunt pilot Frank Tallman flies a Beech D-18 full bore, at about 150 knots, through the hangar in less than a second, with only 23 feet of clearance from wingtip to wingtip, and only 15 feet from the top of the tail to the hangar ceiling. Flying from west to east, the plane needed to go into an immediate left bank after clearing the hangar, in order to avoid hitting the trees bordering the airport on Laughlin Road. Tallman made several practice passes before actually flying through only once, with no retakes. |
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The museum sponsors an annual weekend Air Show, at the airport, in August, featuring military jet demo teams, skydiving, hang-gliding, and biplane aerobatics plus tours of all the museum's airplanes. |
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Established in 1989, the Pacific Coast Air Museum displays a varied collection of over 30 American military, propeller & jet, aircraft from World War II, the Korean War, and Vietnam War.
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Manufactured by Douglas Aircraft Co., the A-26 became well known for its speed, survivability and offensive firepower. Originally built in two diferent configurations, with either a type B "solid" nose or a type C "glass" nose(also known as a "bombardier" nose) with a Norden bombsight for medium altitude precision bombing. The museum's particular A-26 was delivered to the US Army Air Force on Oct. 9, 1944, and assigned to the 9th Air Force, in the European Theater of Operations, for the duration of the war, then rotated between various stateside & US European Air Bases for the remainder of its active service. During Apr. 1952, the museum's A-26 was modified to a type C "glass" nose, and later declared excess in 1958, when it was sold on the civilian market and converted to a water bomber fighting forest fires. In 1992, the museum acquired the aircraft, named it the "City of Santa Rosa" and began restoration. |
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A flight crew of three - pilot, navigator/bombardier, and gunner - operated the aircraft and weapons systems, at a maximum altitude of 22,100 feet and a fully loaded bombing range of 1,400 miles.
From the rear gunner's compartment, access to & from the cockpit was only possible via the bomb bay when that was empty. |
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With its impressive concentration of firepower that included up to eight .50 caliber machine guns mounted in the nose, along with two each in the dorsal and ventral turrets, and six .30 caliber guns in the wings, combined with up to 6,000 lbs. of internal and external ordnance consisting of bombs and rockets, made the A-26 Invader capable of devastating strafing sweeps on enemy ground targets with usually destructive results.
The A-26 Invader was the first bomber to incorporate laminar flow airfoils, slotted flaps, and remote controlled gun turrets - which allowed the guns to swing faster than possible with hand held guns, and is the only aircraft type to see combat in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. |
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First flown in 1950, and entering service in 1954, the Ilyushin IL-14 was a Soviet twin-engine, short-range utility light transport aircraft, that was exported to 31 countries, mostly within the Soviet Bloc, where they were used by both military and civilian organizations.
with a flight crew of 4 - transporting 24 to 28 passengers |
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After being built in 1954 at State Aircraft Factory #34 in Tashkent, USSR, the museum's IL-14 was accepted into the Polish Air Force on June 17, 1955, and spent most if its career transporting Polish military & political VIP's. In the late 1980's, under U.S. Government contract, it was flown from East Germany to the USA, and eventually ended up being stored at Stead Air Force Base near Reno, Nevada. Later, it was offered for sale by the government, and with donations from PCAM members, the museum purchased the airplane. |
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Last flown in August 1994, for the flight from Stead AFB to its new home in Santa Rosa, the engines still work, and are started periodically to maintain them in running order.
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Hot Dog Thursday! Still only $5 - includes admission - large hot dog - chips - and soda. First Thursday of the Month - 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM from April thru October |
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For many more selections from Amazon, please visit the Crabtree Hot Springs Bookstore.
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Crabtree Hot Springs
Public Library &
Museum
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PLAYROOM PRESS @ Crabtree Hot Springs, California, USA 95485
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