C141Heaven

Click logo for Home Page


C-141 Tail Number: 63-8088

The Golden Bear has a long and exciting history, and was the first operational C-141 assigned to Travis. It has a long string of 'firsts'.

It is currently at Travis for their museum.

Arrival ceremony C-141A (Tail 63-8088) at Travis Air Force Base, CA on April 23, 1965.
This plane was assigned to the 44th Air Transport Squadron, 1501st Air Transport Wing at Travis.
The 60th Military Airlift Wing would go on to takeover the planes and host base
responsibilities from the 1501st on January 6, 1966.
Copyright:USAF Photo Source:60th Air Mobility Wing History Office.


Copyright:USAF Photo Source:60th Air Mobility Wing History Office.

Copyright: Bill Watkins
Source: contributed by Bill Watkins

Ceremony for a 'VIP' from the looks of it.
Copyright: USAF Photos

August 1982
Copyright:Paul Minert

At McChord, Date Unk
Copyright:Paul Carter

At McChord, Date:Sep 26, 1991
Copyright:Paul Carter

At McChord, Date:Oct 9, 1991
Copyright:Paul Carter>

At McChord, Date:Jul 2, 1994
Copyright:Paul Carter

At McChord, Date:Jun 26, 1994
Copyright:Paul Carter

At McChord, Date:Jun 28, 1991
Copyright:Paul Carter

These photos are of the towing of the Golden Bear towards the refurb area where it will be stripped and painted in the original grey/white colors.

USAF Photos by Amy M. Thurau

James Fuller was at Travis for a training seminar in December 2005 and stopped by the Golden Bear static display. Here's the series of photos he submitted for C141Heaven.

Copyright: James Fuller

We got the following note on January 2nd, 2007, from Irving Williams, LTCOL/USAF/RET

Mike, I flew the A models of the C141 at Travis AFB, California. I was Commander of the 301st Squadron and Aircraft Commander on the C-141.

Here are several photos of the C-141B Number 63-8088 now on display in the Aircraft Museum at Travis. The 63-8088 was the first C-141 assigned to Travis and I flew it mainly on missions to Southeast Asia during the early 1970s.

It is beautifully restored and looks like the Hanoi Taxi.

Thank you for the C-141 Heaven web site. It is great and I am so glad to see it.

Irving Williams, Lt/Col USAF Retired.

Copyright 2005: Irving Williams

Copyright 2005: Irving Williams

Copyright 2005: Irving Williams

Copyright 2005: Irving Williams

Note:This photo has been edited with Photoshop (though not especially skillfully, by Mike Novack) to remove a hideous traffic light pole that exists on the corner in reality (who needs/wants reality these days anyway?) It appeared right in the middle of the aircraft when the picture was snapped from across intersection, so I 'zapped' it for a much nicer image.

Copyright 2005: Irving Williams

C141Heaven got this note from Lloyd Tincher:

Friday, January 19, 2007

A couple of weeks ago, a friend from "the good old days", Bob Marler, stopped by. I hadn't seen him for 30 years. At age 73 plus he is still active in corporate flying.

Bob flew C-141s from 65 to 74, including a tour at the school house at Altus, and timeout for a Thailand tour in ACP and bootstrap at Omaha.

Bob and I shared a runaway pitch trim on an embassy run in 1966 while approaching Torrejon. While cruising smoothly at FL350, the airplane suddenly sat on its tail and we came over the top at 38.5. I surely thought the airplane was not going to respond to the emergency pitch trim. It was an experience that is very firmly entrenched in my memory bank.



In the picture Bob is on the left and I'm on the right.

Best regards - Lloyd Tincher

Here's three more nice shots of the Golden Bear from Rich Feiro, who visited the Travis display recently.