Exploring Life anyway possible!!: December 2018

We recently visited the Planes of Fame Air Museum in Chino Ca.

While I am not an aerospace buff or even an airplane buff, Jim understandably is.

Jim's military service was spent in the Air Force during the Vietnam era. He served at March Field in California March Field and Yokota Air Base west of Tokyo, Japan. Yokota Air Base

I have more knowledge of prairie type plains than air planes, but I knew visiting an airplane museum with Jim would be fun and informative, sort of like a muppets show.

Jim drove, which was a real treat for me. I could look around and see things you just miss as a driver.

For example, right here good old Santa Clarita, while driving out on Newhall Ave, I saw a sign indicating the way to the Pioneer Oil Refinery. The sign is on Newhall Avenue past Hart Park and points the way down Pine Street, which runs parallel to the railroad tracks along their West side. I hope to explore this refinery with my camera in the early New Year.

There is a very good restaurant and brew pub in OTN (Old Town Newhall) named for the refinery. Newhall Refinery it's owned and operated by a lovely couple, Simon and Shannon.

City of Chino

We knew we had arrived in Chino by the agricultural aroma that greeted us on the outskirts of town. I enjoyed the smell of natural fertilizer, being an old country boy, but Jim maybe not so much him being a city slicker and all. Perhaps he's never smelled pig slurry spread over his growing vegetables before.

We had had a wee storm blow through around this time and the snow-capped San Gabriel mountains made for a nice picture.

All the information on how to get the the Air Museum is available on their well maintained website . https://planesoffame.org

The museum itself is very welcoming, with friendly staff, and you have freedom of movement throughout.

A few things gave me a wry smile:

The Restroom Sign

The Airplanes:

Here is where Jim will take over the writing:

Three 1930s ships. The yellow and blue Boeing P-26 on the left once flew out of March AFB, so that was a connection for me, although separated by 40 years.

Ah, wing wires and open cockpits. When airplanes had character.

A pursuit ship built by Seversky in the late 1930s. There was a Clark Gable/Spencer Tracy movie made in the era that featured one of these as a racer that Gable flew, the "Drake Bullet." Good movie, shows up on TCM once in a while

The museum has this Boeing B-17 parked outside; it is undergoing restoration. Another connection for me; my Uncle Phil flew B-17s on bombing missions over Germany.

That ball turret under the plane's belly was usually home to the smallest gunner on the crew; cramped quarters to say the least.

After World War II, many former fighters were heavily modified for the post-war air races, and many continue to fly and race to this day. This re-worked P-51 Mustang is capable of 530 miles per hour.

P-51 Mustang. The paint scheme suggests post-war duty in the Air National Guard.

Vought Corsair. Most of these saw action in the Pacific Theater of the war. Like most fighters operating off of aircraft carriers, it featured folding wings so more aircraft could fit into below-deck hangars.

531.64 mph.

Grumman OV-1 Mohawk. Intended mostly as an observations and reconnaissance aircraft, although it could also by used in ground attack duties.

Faircraft Ranger. Executive transport in the 1930s, the business jet of the era.

Curtiss P40. This one served with the Royal Canadian Air Force

Some German airplanes in the foreign aircraft hangar

U-142 is a Pilatus from Switzerland

Other interesting artifacts included:

The Real Original Enterprise (for Star Trek Fans)

Real or Movie Prop ? A small sign indicated in was used in the recent "Dunkirk" movie

On the door to the restoration workshop

Jim actually salivated at this view.

Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, often called "the missile with a man in it." Big engine, tiny wings. This one is in West German marking (when there was still a West Germany.) The U.S. sold a lot of them to the Germans, who had problems with them leading to many crashes. They were hot and hard to handle.

Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star, the first operational fighter for the U.S. Air Force, introduced in 1945.

Sherman Tank - I always thought they were bigger !

War damage? Or another movie prop? Hard to tell.

Russian motorcycle by the Ural company. Although looking vintage, these motorcycles are still in production

World War I Sopwith

Front end of a German "Natter" (Adder) aircraft. This was a desperation design by the Germans late in World War II; meant to be launched vertically against Allied bombers, once at altitude this cluster of rockets would then be fired . After that, the pilot was meant to bail out. A one-time-use aircraft; none actually flew in combat.

The Golden Age of Aircraft Racing:

Jim will explain why this particular section of museum was of special interest to him.

"For my Master's degree in Mass Communication, I conducted intensive research into the National Air Races of the 1930s. These was annual events that attracted millions of spectators over the decade. From my research I was able to write a documentary film script about the races and the aircraft, based on my research into newspaper and newsreel archives from the period."

This is and accurate flyable replica of the Miles and Atwood special, built in San Bernardino. First appeared in the 1933 races, and competed for several years. Unfortunately, at the 1937 races a wing-wire fitting failed, causing the wing to fold and the aircraft crashed, killed pilot Lee Miles.