July 14, 2008 - Planes of Fame
Museum, Chino CA
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Lynnette and I didn't have to board the cruise boat until 2PM or so, so
we drove out to Chino Monday morning. I treated Lynnette to a
deluxe breakfast at Flo's Cafe.
Then I toured a museum I've been wanting to visit
for a long time: the Planes of Fame
Air Museum. I had the place to myself for the most part.
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| Boeing P-26A
Peashooter in flying condition. Beautiful plane. |
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1903 Wright Flier replica. I'm guessing this is
one of the Chino planes that doesn't fly. Probably for the best, considering that the
original was way underpowered -- the only reason it flew at Kitty Hawk
was the Wrights were going into 40 mph of wind and it was cold. I've seen a
number of Wright Fliers but this was the first one I could get right up
to and really look it over.
I've always wanted to see a Wright Flyer replica fly,
as well as a Spirit of St. Louis replica -- note to AirVenture and
Sun 'N Fun: make it happen!
I think the aviation community missed a
golden opportunity back on December 17th, 2003. Instead of trying to duplicate
exactly the original Wright Flyer, they should have put an engine
with more horsepower on the replica and made sure the thing would actually fly
for the millions of people that tuned in to watch. Instead millions of
people watched it flop into a mud puddle.
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The only Japanese Zero in the world that still flies. The Zero was
very effective the first six months of the war. But once the
Zeros encountered U.S. Navy pilots in F4F Wildcats at Coral Sea, the odds
evened. The light weight that enabled the Zero's great maneuverability also made it
flimsy. If you could hit it with bullets, it would go down.
Conversely, Zero pilots found Wildcats, Dauntlesses, B-25s and B-17s didn't go
down nearly as easy. Navy pilots soon learned to stay fast, and not turn
with the Zero. Once the F6F Hellcat came onto the scene,
the Zeros really had a tough time. |
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| First Japanese
Betty Bomber I've ever seen. Needs a little restoration work, of
course. Actually, I liked the way they put the Betty in a jungle
diorama. |
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A diorama of Kido Butai -- the Japanese carrier striking task force that
attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. All Kido Butai ships
were present: the carriers Akagi, Kaga, Hiryu, Soryu, Zuikaku and Shokaku,
the two battleships Hiei and Kiroshima, cruisers Chikuma, Tone and Abukuma and eight
destroyers.
Six months later four of the six carriers would be sunk by the U.S.
Navy at the Battle of Midway, one of history's most decisive Naval
battles. For a great book about the battle, read Shattered
Sword by Jonathan Parsall and Anthony Tully.
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A Douglas SBD Dauntless, the U.S. Navy dive
bomber that was the tip of the spear in the first half of the Pacific War.
This particular Dauntless looked great with its dive brakes
open and aft machine gun pointing up in the air. I'd love to see
one of these demonstrate a dive bombing attack at an airshow. Start the
dive at 10,000 feet, come down at a 70 degree angle, drop a fake
bomb at 3000 feet, putting it right on top of a smoke marker. |
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A neat display of the World War II
aircraft carrier U.S.S. Enterprise (CV-6) contrasted with the
present-day nuclear powered U.S.S. Enterprise (CVN-65). Look how much
larger the flight desk on the newer ship is. The old
Enterprise survived WWII, having fought in almost every major naval engagement
in the Pacific, but regretfully was scrapped and turned into razor
blades after the war. She should have been saved and made into a
floating museum.
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A guy was washing
this P-51 Mustang outside. This was the WWII fighter plane
responsible for gaining air superiority over France and Germany, and
enabling the invasion at Normandy. |
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The famous Chino Northrop flying
wing. Precurser to the B-2 Bomber. I'd love to see this
one fly. I was surprised how small it
is.
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| Big ex-Soviet AN-2
Biplane. |
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Ah yes, the old T-2 Buckeye. An
intermediate trainer for the U.S. Navy from the late 1950s to 2004, this
jet will always be one of my favorites because I flew five times in one --
rear seat -- as part of my Naval Flight Officer training back in
1981. Privately-owned T-2s are starting to show up at fly-ins
and airshows
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| Last of the gun
fighters: the Chance-Vought F-8 Crusader.
Served as a U.S. Navy fighter from 1957 to 1976. Good
dogfighter. |
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Having spent my
Navy career as an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) specialist, I was
interested in the submarine models. From left to right: U.S.
Los Angeles attack sub, U.S. Trident ballistic missile sub, Soviet Alpha
attack sub, and Soviet Typhoon ballastic missile sub (yeah, you know it as
Red October). I was struck by how small the Alpha was and how big
the Typhoon
was. |
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The first allied jet fighter, the
British Gloster
Meteor. First operational in June 1944, they used it to shoot
down German buzz bombs but it was not used over Germany until the war was
almost
over. |
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The German Fiesler Storch -- the
original short takeoff and landing (STOL) airplane. I was surprised
to find out that the British general Montgomery used a captured Storch to
fly around in. I was surprised at how big it
was.
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| P-47
Thunderbolt. A monster of a fighter. Although the P-51 Mustang
gets all the press, the "Jug" was a very effective fighter and ground air
support bomber. Designed before the U.S. got into the war, they
built over 10,000 of them. Legendary for ability to take a hit and
bring the pilot home. |
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| P-39 Air
Cobra. Interesting WWII Fighter you don't hear much about.
Engine behind the pilot. Some say it was a good fighters; other
say it was a dog. The Soviets liked it. Who knows? |
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I was all over this plane: a
Fokker DR-1 Triplane of World War I fame. A replica -- no originals
remain -- this plane is airworthy and they fly it. Notice the
tailwheel instead of the skid they used back 95 years
ago.
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You can buy plans to build this plane. Link.
There are quite a few flying in the U.S. or under constructions. The
following link
is where the current Triplane builders hang out. The guy that is
restoring Bruce's Cub has built a couple of Triplanes. I'm toying
with the idea of someday having him weld me up a Triplane fuselage and
build the wing spars -- sort of a Triplane quickbuild
kit. Wouldn't it be awesome to show up at Oshkosh, Sun 'N Fun
or a local fly-in in one of these? Or maybe do a little airshow
act? Editor note: Are you crazy? You
havn't even finished the RV-7 or Kitfox!
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Most of the museum hangars had
display cases filled with plastic model airplanes. Thousands of
models. Probably every plastic model kit ever made was
displayed. Except ... I did not see the mighty P-3
Orion.
I've always liked plastic model
airplanes. Someday I'm going to build every World War II plane, 1/32
scale.
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