Visit to Chino Planes of Fame Museum (1 Viewer)

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davparlr

Senior Master Sergeant
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Mar 23, 2006
Southern California
I visited the Planes of Fame Museum in Chino, California last week and was shown around by GregP and another forum member, whose name, I am ashamed to say, I can't remember, of course it is a struggle to remember mine. Greg has a vast knowledge of the aircraft at the museum and their history. His hands-on experience and exposure to those who flew the planes, both today and in the past, is invaluable and certainly makes me envious. Talking with him and his friends was certainly enjoyable and educational. I'm posting some of what I think is the most interesting shots. The museum is a combination of professionally restored aircraft, including many that are flyable, and quite a few awaiting restoration or parts aircraft (kind of like a junk yard). To me this was heaven. Like my life, there is no order. Notice that this is a working environment.

The Boeing P-26 is in beautiful shape and is flyable, but is not flown often. Note the machine gun barrels poking out between the cylinders at the 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock positions. One of my favorite looking aircraft, I do think it is too cute to be a fighter.

The third picture is of a couple of old antiques, Greg and the P-59 he is working on. They are trying to get the P-59 into flying condition. If you have $50k laying around they could have it flying quite quickly.

Don't know too much about the D4Y Judy, but I thought it looked very American.

The N-9M is a one-third scale aircraft of the XB-35 flying wing built by Northrop to test the design. This flying wing first flew in 1942 and is still flying.
 

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Here is a pix of an old B-17 fuselage. The second pix is looking from the back towards the instrument panel.

The F-104 Starfighter is a study in aerodynamic cleanliness. Note that I am taking this picture from eye level. Gives you some idea of how small this "missile with a man in it" really is.

The F8U is one of the aircraft I would have loved to fly. However, I went into the AF and the F-8 had been retired by the time I flew anyway.

This RF-84 is a special aircraft. Note the strange device in front of the cockpit. This is for hooking on to a trapeze on a B-36 for testing the possibilities of the B-36 carrying its own fighter escort. Not a great idea.

I saw this B-29 parked in an ally way. Note the gun emplacement on top. Cool.

Another look at the B-29 fuselage.
 

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Another picture of an alley with aircraft. In this case you can see a F-86 fuselage and behind that a Mig-15 (17?).

Old jet engines in a row

A flyable (I think) Mig-15. I know this because Greg pointed out that Mig-15 only have two wing fences (little fins on top of the wing) per wing.

A Mig-17. I know this because ......

The Navy D-558-2 Skyrocket. This is a real Skyrocket aircraft. The Skyrocket aircraft was the first aircraft to exceed Mach 2. Beautiful aircraft.

Mig 21

Small racing aircraft. Again note that I am taking this picture from eye level. These racers are very small.
 

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Fw-190 with modern engine.

Japanese Me 163. Seems no one has volunteered to make this a flyable aircraft and fly it!:shock:

The only flyable A6M "Zero" with a real Sakae engine.

There are no plans to make the J2M Raiden figther flyable because of corrosion of the main spar.

Greg stated that this is the most complete G4M Betty bomber in the world and there are planes to rebuild it to flyable!

Another view.
 

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He 162 in great shape. I believe the owner does not want to fly wooden winged aircraft. Again notice how small this is. My head comes up to the intake.

Bf-109F recovered from a lake in Russia. It appears in good shape and is expected to fly again. It was shot down and has bullet holes in it.

Picture of the wing. The gold looking object in the middle of the pix is a rifle caliber bullet exit. Entry in on top of wing but I could not get a good pix.

A picture of the fuselage of the Bf109 with cannon hole towards the top left of pix.

Spanish Bf-109 modified to use a Merlin engine.

It is a great museum and I certainly would encourage any interested in old aircraft visit there when in the Los Angeles area. They typically fly some planes on Saturday, they were flying a P-51 when I was there, and have a great airshow in May.
 

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Great pictures! That B-17 is an early model, a B-17E by the look of it. I know they pulled one out of a swamp somewhere in the pacific a year or two ago. I bet that's the one.
 

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