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| Come Grow With Us! |
The Estrella Warbirds Museum has always been "the place to go" for local meeting, group dinners and company events.
If you enjoy working with people and groups and are interested in making some extra money each month, we are currently in need of a part time facility rental coordinator. Experience preferred.
Contact us today! We'd love to hear from you.
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Monthly Dinners are still on hold due to COVID-19 restrictions
There is always more than one way to cook a goose and we've been looking at several options to bring back our monthly dinner. Bear with us as we may have a solution shortly.
Estrella Warbirds Museum is open during our regular hours with some restrictions on how many people can be present in one building at a time. However, we have plenty of buildings many acres of out door display areas, so continue with the plans to visit us soon. Currently masks are required in doors.
Visitor attendance has been steadily increasing.
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2008 American General M1123 Restoration Progress -- Your Help is Needed to Finish!
The restoration crew has once again done the impossible and taken a rusty bucket of bolts and turned it into the envy of many museums! (See picture in header.) The transformation of the 2008 American General M1123 (Humvee) has been incredible! The restoration pays homage to all the special forces personnel that served in the Gulf War. This will be a "rolling display" and sure to be a favorite at local parades and events. However, the restoration crew is about $3,000 short on restoration funds to complete the project and add replica (non functional) M240 and M2 machine guns to help authenticate and finish the display. Your donations are greatly appreciated! Please help us out and donate to the cause! All donations to the museum are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.
Click on either picture to see more information on this restoration project!
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OV-10A Bronco Restoration Nearing Completion
Our OV-10A Bronco has gone through several restoration projects since it was first acquired following its final flight days with CALFire. Several items which were always missing have been the engines and propellers. OV-10's were used in combat during the Viet Nam conflict and as recently the Gulf War. Now with a fresh paint scheme and propellers this OV-10 Bronco was painted in tribute to Gulf War veterans. As you can see the final decals have been applied and by the time this newsletter is published, you should be able to see her in full glory when you next stop by
Estrella Warbirds Museum in Paso Robles.
More information on this OV-10A can be found
here. All our vehicle, aircraft and static restorations are completed by dedicated volunteers. If you have an interest in restoration, (wether with experience or willing to learn) we'd love to
hear from you and would welcome you to join us on our next project!
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Aviation Club Racks Up Success!
Members of
Estrella Warbirds Museum
High School Aviation Club have been busy this summer finishing up one project and starting on another. In the top two and lower right pictures, we see them starting the restoration of the
Stinson V-77 Reliant aircraft. In the bottom left picture, final decals were added on their finished restoration of the McDonnell F-4J rolling Blue Angels display. It was a fantastic job! We are so proud of them! These future pilots and aviation experts are attendees of the local high schools and learning through well supervised hands-on projects, serving as plane captains, hearing guest speakers, and doing community service. If you are interested in participating or have a high school student whom is interested, contact Brad Eaton, chief sponsor.
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We're On the Move!
If you have been out to the museum during the past two weeks, you may have seen quite a few changes going on. The cast and crew, headed up by Museum Chief Operating Office, Scott Stelze, have come up with a grand new layout for all the aircraft. In the past many years, we've placed aircraft in locations as room was available. Now the crew has been busy under the hot summer sun, rearranging and resetting aircraft in locations by period. Bear with us as the move continues. We know you will love the new layout when completed!
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| Scott moves the Saab Draken, hopefully to a place where the birds don't use it for frequent target practice runs... |
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Did Somebody say another "Swap Meet"?
During the month of June, we held a "last minute" swap meet, selling off excess items that the museum no longer had use for plus items donated by local members. It turned out to be a raring success!
Stay tuned, because coming up in late September or early October, we will be holding another and you are invited to participate. Plans are not finalized, but stay tuned, they will be shortly and we will let you know the details. Save your sellable items for now and we'll wait until the hottest summer days have passed. More information, coming soon!
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Look What's New in the Woodland Auto Display
The latest addition to the
Woodland Auto Display
is a 1948 Lincoln Continental convertible powered by a V-12 flathead engine. Edsel Ford Sr., commissioned the Ford Motor Company Chief Stylist to design and build a one-off Lincoln convertible. The results were an instant hit so the car was directly put into production. The vehicle was first built in 1940.
After WW II, production continued through 1948. A point of interest is that the design called for the passenger compartment to be moved toward the rear of the car which did not allow room for a spare tire in the trunk. That problem was resolved by moving the covered spare tire to the rear of the car and thus the term, "Continental Kit" which has been used by practically all automobile manufacturers, especially from the 1950's through the1980's.
In the display engine department, Mr. Woodland was finally able to locate the parts and pieces needed to build a Barnes/Chevy racing display engine. These engines were designed and built by John Barnes in Southern California in the early through late 1980's. Richard Woodland ran one of these rare engines in his own sprint car and they were definitely ahead of their time. It was probably the 2nd most powerful small block Chevy combination in its' day with only the 4-cam Moser engine having more power. Come on down to Estrella Warbirds Museum and check out all the latest at the Woodland Auto Display buildings!
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