8th Air Force Control Tower — Attraction in Riverside

After or even before going into the Air Museum, this outside museum is a nice stop. The buildings on the right are the 8th Air Force Control Tower and Nissan Hut. Just make sure you get there between 9:00 am and 4:00 pm (open April - December). This is if you want to go into the buildings, otherwise the planes are accessible while the main museum is open. Of course I got there after 4:00pm, so I could only see the planes.

You don't have access to see inside, but you will find them entertaining all the least. There are a couple planes that have weird nose configurations. These would be the Conair NC-131H Total In-Flight Simulator and the Boeing EC-135E Aria. Due to necessity of their function, the noses are a bit warped. The remainder of the planes would be tankers or cargo carriers. These are a Boeing KC-135R, McDonnell Douglas KC010A Extender and a Boeing C-17 (this is a massive beast).

All but the C-17 had an information plaque if you wanted to know more about the plane. Since the amount of people there was limited, you could take your time looking around. Seeing these out on the air field was more impressive than in the hangers. Out further in the field you will see a lonely orange boxcar. There is not signage, but I was able to find out that is a prototype for the Peacekeeper Rail Garrison Car. As the name suggestions, this was developed for rail deployment of the Peacekeeper ICBM during...

There is so much to see you will need to spend 2 days to see it all. FREE ADMISSION. This place very kept up until you visit the CAFE on level 2. Absolutely terrible food and service. You can't bring food inside the museum so you need to be prepared and leave it in your car and eat meals outside. They say the cafe is being remodeled but, no sign of any workers. The people that work in the cafe look and...

After touring the main facility, I discovered this tower quite by accident, unfortunately after closing. The posted hours for the season stated 9AM to 4PM. Since I had some extra time, I made it a point to revisit the next day at 10AM, but found the building closed anyways. Wish the correct info was posted. The three stars were for having some...