Since it was officially opened to the public in 1981, the Castle Air Museum at the former Castle Air Force Base turned Merced-Castle Airport in Atwater, California has become a refuge for Cold War-era aircraft, from fighters such as the Lockheed F-80 Shooting Star and the McDonnell-Douglas F-15 Eagle to intercontinental bombers such as the Convair B-36 Peacemaker, Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, and even an Avro Vulcan. Yet inside the museum’s restoration hangar sits a long-neglected Convair TF-102A Delta Dagger fighter-trainer set to be restored and displayed on the museum grounds with the rest of the museum’s vast open-air collection.
Constructed in 1956 by the Convair Division of General Dynamics in San Diego, California as a TF-102A-45-CO, construction number 8-12-96, it was taken on strength with the United States Air Force as serial number 56-2364 and was assigned to the 48th Fighter Interceptor Squadron (FIS), 85th Air Division, at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia. After being transferred to the 64th FIS, 326th Fighter Group at McChord Air Force Base, Washington, TF-102A 56-2364 was transferred yet again, this time to the 59th FIS, Goose Air Defense Sector at Goose Air Base in Labrador, Canada by April 1960. With the introduction of new interceptors such as the McDonnell-Douglas F-4 Phantom II, many of the F-102 and their trainer variants were being reassigned to Air National Guard units across the country, and after its deployment to Labrador, 56-2364 was reassigned to the 179th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, 148th Fighter Interceptor Group of the Minnesota ANG at Duluth International Airport.
By 1971, the aircraft was transferred to the 186th FIS, 120th FIG of the Montana Air National Guard, Great Falls Air National Guard Base, Montana. Two years later, in 1973, the aircraft came to be with yet another Air National Guard when it was assigned to the 102nd FIS, 106th FIG of the New York Air National Guard, stationed at Suffolk County Airport (now named Francis S. Gabreski Airport). The mid to late 1970s, though, would see the phasing out of the F-102 Delta Daggers from the three air forces around the world with which it served (the US Air Force, the Hellenic Air Force of Greece, and the Turkish Air Force), on May 8, 1975, TF-102A 56-2364 was sent to the Military Aircraft Storage and Disposal Center (MASDC) at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Tucson, Arizona, and was given the inventory number FJ380.
The aircraft remained in the Boneyard at Davis-Monthan AFB until August 13, 1983, when it was transferred to the FAA’s offices in Los Angeles. The unrestored aircraft was later shipped up north to Sacramento International Airport, where it remained in a field in poor condition, and was also used to train airport firefighters in how to make holes in the fuselage of an aircraft to extract crash survivors. In September 2006, the aircraft was acquired by the Castle Air Museum, which by this point had already placed both an F-102A Delta Dagger (serial number 56-1413) and a Convair F-106A Delta Dart (serial number 58-0793 (painted as F-106A 57-2456)). With the aircraft’s poor condition, however, the museum placed the TF-102A in their storage hangar.
In July 2025, officials at the museum decided to pull 56-2364 from the storage hangar and place it in the adjacent restoration, both about a mile from the main museum display area. Museum restoration volunteer Greg Stathatos stated “…we have two volunteers that only do metal work, so we have nothing for them to do, so we brought this in.” The current plan for the aircraft is to restore the cockpit and the fuselage, but since the restoration hangar also contains two of the museum’s other ongoing projects: a Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk 85-0813 Toxic Avenger (see our previous article HERE) and a Bell UH-1V Iroquois “Huey” 68-16165. Once the fuselage has been restored, tthe Castlee Air Museum restoration volunteers will begin working on the wings, but due to the lack of space in the hangar, one wing at a time will be restored.
After the second wing of TF-102A 56-2364 will be finished, the volunteers will reassemble the TF-102A Delta Dagger and tow the restored aircraft to be placed on display with the rest of the collection. Though it will eventually go on outdoor display, along with the rest of the collection, the museum is still raising funds to build an indoor section to house a portion of the collection, and in the meantime, volunteer detailers will continue to maintain the aircraft to be presentable to the public. There is no estimate for when the TF-102A’s restoration will be completed, but when the restoration has been finished, the Castle Air Museum will be one of the few aviation museums where visitors can be able to see an example of an F-102A, TF-102A, and an F-106A together, and we look forward to when that day will come. For more information, visit the Castle Air Museum’s website HERE.
