by Julia Frey
Planes of Fame Airshow This Weekend
May 16, 2008 at 9:45 am in Events
I love airplanes. Old ones, new ones, they are all unbelievably cool. And this weekend the Planes of Fame Air Museum holds it’s biggest airshow at the Chino Airport. This is an Antique Aircraft show where you can get close up to many vintage planes you might have only seen in WWII movies. The P-40 Warhawk (seen here) the P-51 Mustang, the B-25 Bomber, the P-38 and just to see how far the military aircraft have come, an F-16.
On both Saturday and Sunday the show opens at 8 am and the flight demonstrations begin at 11 and last until 4. You will see vintage formation fly-bys, aerobatic demonstrations, wing walkers, Reno Air Racer fly-bys and a few other surprises along the way. In between flights you can wander through the planes parked on the tarmac to get even closer views of these amazing aircraft. There are also great food vendors if you don’t want to haul in a picnic.
Great family fun. Or just great fun for airplane geeks like me. Just check the weather and dress accordingly, it can be warm out there.
More pictures and details after take off.
I went to the air show in 2000 and dug out a few photos for this post.
Mustang and P-38 cruising together.
B-25: “Photo Fanny”
B-25: “Mitch the Witch”
In 2000 they had a Flying Wing as part of the show. This is the Northrop N-9M and is a 1/3 scale test model of what the military really wanted in the 40′s.
It is unbelievably stealthy in flight, until it gets close enough that the REALLY LOUD PROPELLER ENGINES give it away. She’s like a cartoon come to life!
And here is something you just don’t see every day: a P-51 (Mustang), a P-38 and and F-15. Awesome.
After the show, we were walking out past the actual Planes of Fame Museum and they have a B-17 Flying Fortress that you can walk through. I had seen one in flight at another antique airshow years before, but had not seen one up close and personal. I was excited and climbed in. Then something took over as I realized this aircraft, the symbol of American power in WWII, is in so many ways flimsy and tiny compared to the myth you might imagine. I’m not uber patriotic or anything, I just like airplanes and history and to step into both at once was very moving, imagining all those very young men (teenagers!) up there, mission after mission.
(I took all the photos posted here on good old fashioned film and then scanned the photos. They don’t get bigger.)
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