I visited Castle AFB recently and spent a few hours looking through the museum and collection of aircraft. The museum has an exhibit all about the filming of this movie and includes some props from the film. If you love historical aircraft then I heartily recommend a visit to Castle AFB if you have the time. Each of the aircraft from this film are there and lots more...the B-36 is particularly impressive, and they even have an actual thermo-nuclear bomb on display!
shareYes, I need to go back. I was born on base in 1950 and haven't been back since we left late in 1957. I wonder if I'd recognize anything now.
Marcus Hill
My Dad remembers them shooting this picture when he was stationed at Castle AFB. Mom and my sister were there, and Dad also was stationed at March AFB, during this time. My brothers are 18 months apart, I can't remember which one was born at which base! I didn't come until '65. My dad remembers the director and production crew were really nice people and would talk to them after filming for the day about the planes and what tbeir jobs were to get them loaded and ready. Unfortunately, he did not have very nice things to say about Natalie Wood. My dad is now 81 yrs old, and can remember this like yesterday. I think they even had a kind of a "wrap party" for the af personnel on the flightlines and engine shops. My parents were about 21-22 yrs old, so I'm sure they would have gone, to get away from my siblings for a night!
shareI saw "Bombers B-52" on TCM last night and it inspired me to fly my airplane to Castle/Atwater Airport (KMER) today. It's about 55 miles from my home base airport. I did a landing, and then taxi'd back to the end of the runway, and took off again. I took a few pictures. I've been to Castle dozens of times. Their museum has an amazing collection of planes, including, not surprising, a B-52. The huge, 11,000 runway can easily handle any type of big jetliner such a a Boeing 747, but this town, out in the middle of nowhere, has not been able to attract much business since the air force base was closed decades ago. It's mostly deserted. Interestingly, the only ones that really use the airport are flight schools training mostly foreign pilot trainees who fly small airplanes like Cessnas and Pipers. They use only a fraction of the gigantic runway. The airport does have a tower that is open during daytime hours. A few of the scenes from the movie were filmed at Castle (Other scenes were filmed in Burbank studios and at March AFB in Riverside, CA.) Some of the buildings from 60 years ago still seen in the film still stand and look pretty much the same today. The farm countryside and terrain that the planes overfly in the movie is virtually unchanged.
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