ATWATER, CA — One of the biggest planes to ever fly off an aircraft carrier is getting a second life at Castle Air Museum.
Volunteers will roll out a Douglas RA-3B Skywarrior Wednesday morning, making it the 56th plane to be displayed at the museum.
The aircraft made it through battles over Vietnam and also made it through the Cuban missile crisis. It had two sister planes, but both were shot down in Vietnam.
It was originally designed to be able to combat aggression from the Soviet Union. The aircrafts had the ability to strike with nuclear weapons off of aircraft carriers. They stayed in use until 1991.
Joe Pruzzo, CEO of Castle Air Museum Foundation Inc., said the museum’s Skywarrior was converted into a reconnaissance plane and is the only reconnaissance model in existence. Aside from reconnaissance, other Skywarriors have been modified to refuel other planes or take part in electronic warfare.
Castle Air Museum’s Skywarrior is on a long-term loan from the National Museum of Naval Aviation. It was hauled up from an aircraft storage facility in the city of Mojave in late 2010. Since then, volunteers have been working on restoring the plane, which is also known as “The Whale” because of its enormous size.
Weighing 82,000 pounds, the plane is 76 feet long with a wingspan of 72 feet, Pruzzo said.
 
Castle Air Museum to unveil new plane