Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Trip to the Planes of Fame Air Museum (pics)

There is something about planes that appeals so much to my imagination I feel like a kid when viewing them. Add to that an appreciation of history and a genuine fascination with a turbulent era romanticized by film and television, I felt privileged to be able to view an amalgamation of these pleasures with a trip to the Planes of Fame Air Museum at the Chino Airport in California a couple Sundays ago. Having above just expressed my love for both World War II and aviation, it is ironic that this was my first trip to the Museum located a mere twenty minutes from my house. What can I say? Some mysteries in life just can't be explained. . .

My dad and me, and my nephew and his friend started the 35 degree morning off with steady rounds of Twenty Questions on the drive down to the airport. After a hearty, albeit greasy, breakfast at Flo's Airport Cafe, we were ready for a full day of gawking at planes. Good thing I brought my camera!

By far, the best part of the day was visiting the B-17G Flying Fortress display. Not only did we have the pleasure of viewing this magnificent plane, but we also met two gentlemen, Frank and Wilbur, volunteers at the museum and veterans of the Second World War. Wilbur actually served as a ball turret gunner on a B-17 named Kismet, flying 30 missions including 2 during D-Day until his tour was ended after catching a piece of flak over Munich.



A sign by the plane said crews of B-17s had to endure long hours and temperatures down to -50 degrees. While the flight suits looked warm, my dad and I didn't think they looked that warm. It turns out, those flight suits were like electric blankets requiring a crewman to plug-in to stay toasty. With some of the missions lasting over nine hours my dad asked how one went to the bathroom. Wilbur said they had tubes they hooked up to. Unfortunately, his plane wasn't equipped for such. So, he took it upon himself and headed over to the plane junkyard and stripped the parts needed. Now that's thinkin'!



Wilbur's 18th mission began with an early morning formation in the dark in preparation for the D-Day landing. Being the belly gunner, Wilbur had a spectacular view of the world below. Due to cloud cover, though, he wasn't able to see much on June 6, but a break in the weather on the second day gave him a glimpse of the massive amounts of ships and troops still moving in towards shore. He still seemed to be awed by the sheer scope and magnitude of the Allied invasion force.





Speaking of awe, both Frank and Wilbur still try to figure out how we managed to move enough supplies and fuel to sustain our war efforts. Each engine of the B-17 used an average of fifty gallons of diesel per hour. Just the act of taking off and forming up sometimes took up to two hours and must have burned up huge amounts of fuel.





An interesting thing that Wilbur pointed out were the blue lights on the tail wing. On the underside of the wing, right below the light was a wooden plug. Wilbur explained that this was so wing replacements need not be side specific. If your left tail wing got shot up and the only replacement available was a right wing, you just flipped the thing over and switched the blue lights and wooden plugs. Brilliant. I love little details like this.





The plan is to get this B-17 up and running again, but the restoration process is slow mainly due to lack of funding. Volunteer mechanics donate time when available, and many of the parts like exterior paneling need to be manufactured on site. Currently, work is being done on revamping the interior of the bomber so that people can get inside and look around.





I could have spent the rest of the day soaking up info from Frank and Wilbur, but we had more planes to see, and the kids were getting a bit restless. Well, I just realized it'd be really boring for me to describe walking around and staring at planes for the rest of the day, so. . .

For those interested, here is a link to a slideshow of the numerous pics I snapped. Mind you, I am not a photographer. There were a ton of planes and I had to resist snapping a pic of every single one. I'd like to note that a lot of these planes had oil pans underneath them--meaning they are kept in flyable condition and get taken out and flown on a regular basis. There was no set schedule for which planes would go, you just kinda had to be in the right place at the right time. Well, for us, when we came out of one of the last hangars we spotted a P-51 Mustang ready to taxi out to the runway. The Mustang is one of my favorite warbirds of all time. To see and hear the engine fire up and see the plane to take off was icing on the cake of a spectacular day!

looks like a great museum to visit Sean!

It was, Randy! Can't wait to make another trip.

Very cool. That's a great story about the replacement wings.

WOW Sean! As a devoted WWII history buff, I envy you that trip. I've spent some time up close with a B24, but have never been close to a B17.

I clicked on your link to the slideshow, and photobucket requires a password to view it. Unfortunately, the password to my photobucket account doesn't work.

Oh shoot! I've never created a link to a Photobucket album before. . .I'm not sure how to make it accessible. I've got a bunch of other photos that I wanted to share--including a couple of a B24.

Okay, to access the link use the password--axiompals

Hope it works.

It works!

Cool. Thanks, Charles!

WOW! They've got some great planes. Seeing a Zero was interesting. Loved the SBD Dauntless dive bomber - the plane that turned the Pacific war around at the battle of Midway. The P51 was universally considered the best US fighter of WWII, but I loved seeing my favorite, the F4U Corsair, with its wings folded. It had the highest kill ratio of any US WWII fighter (11 to 1), and with it's inverted gull wing was, IMHO, just a beautiful plane.

Thanks for the tour Sean.

Awesome pics and story, Charles.

Bren R.

I swear I had nothing to do with it.

I don't think the airplane would have ever made it off the ground using the diesel version of the Wright Cyclone R-1820 engine Sean. Although there was a diesel variant of this engine that was used in some Sherman tanks (450hp), the 1820 used in aircraft was rated at 1200hp and used 90 octane aviation gasoline.

I have the utmost respect for the guys who flew this this stuff back then, they were brave.

Awesome pictures Sean, I'll have to see the rest whenever I get back home from work later today ... thanks for sharing!

Sounds like a interesting place to visit. I had an opportunity to take a short flight in a restored B-17 several years ago, the expierience was incredible.

OH MAN! An ongoing dream of mine, if I can ever afford the fare.

Just fantastic, Sean! Thank you so much! That is a stunning collection. I will look forward to seeing it some day.

In the interest of adding value, I'll offer the following to those of you who enjoyed Sean's story.

Seattle's Museum of Flight at Boeing field is a truly amazing, world-class museum. I think it is one of the premier attractions of a great city. It includes "The Personal Courage Wing" which documents stories from WWI and WWII aviators. Better than the Smithsonian air and space museum, IMO.

Paul Allen's Flying Heritage Collection will be open in 2008 in Everett. "Rare World War II aircraft... restored to flying condition". The collection had previously resided in Arlington, WA. The move to Everett looks like it will facilitate greater public access. They are currently restoring a B-17 and a P-38, among others. Whatever you might think about Microsoft, Allen has earned the gratitude and respect of a large, diverse population by creatively using some of his resources for preservation and community.

The Spruce Goose now resides in McMinnville, OR at the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum. Decent collection of other vintage aircraft, too.

The Tillamook Air Museum in Oregon has a really nice collection of warbirds in a wooden blimp hangar. Cool.

I know there are dozens of other, possibly better aviation museums throughout the world. These are just a few that came to mind in my region; we remain tremendously proud of the history (if not the present) of the Boeing Company here in Washington.

That's really cool stuff.

Obviously, I don't understand aerodynamics as well as I thought I did. How on earth do you get lift out of a wing that's the same on both sides?!

Ken the horizontal stabilizer, or the *wing* on the tail as you and Sean may be referring does not provide any lift for the aircraft at all, it only helps stabilize the aircraft in flight as well as having the elevators attached that provide pitch control.

Ah, missed that. Now that I look at the pictures, it's obvious. Thanks!

Also a wing cross section can be symmetrical, that doesn't inpede the creation of lift in any way, since you need to remember that the AOA (angle of attack) is an important part of the equation for the creation of lift.

Here you go Jack ...

Collings Foundation

Alumninum Overcast

The Collings Foundation's B-17 and B-24 makes a stop here in Vero once a year and I keep telling myself that I'm going to spring a ride one of these days.

Oops.

Bren R.

Thanks for the multiple links Tom, I just went through each one and really enjoyed them all. The 'Flying Heritage Collection' videos of Bud Tordoff being reunited with his old P-51 was especially nice, he reminds me of several of the WWII pilots I've known over the course of my own flying career whose numbers, unfortunately, are dwindling much too fast it seems.

I hear ya, Rick.

My sister's husband has made friends with several WWII fighter pilots that he sees regularly in the San Diego area. I know that his association with them has been very rich and rewarding.

Heroes.

I love air musuems! Makes me feel like a kid again, when I spent my time building airplane models, reading books about airplanes, and spending afternoons drawing airplanes.

I want to add a section to my photo site just for trips to air museums around the country. I've got a few from the Smithsonian's Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles, and I've gone to a few local air museums, but want to hit some more of the biggies.

I would love to do something like that, too! What an experience.

Woohoo! Thanks for the links, Rick!! I'm going to look into those--adding to my birthday list right now. . .

I concur--thanks Tom.

Sadly, the number of WWII vets gets smaller and smaller. My grandfather was an aide to General Patton and I'm sure he had quite a few stories. Unfortunately he died when I was really young and I never had the opportunity to ask him about it. I'm sure there are many stories out there that never get the chance to be told.

Adam, I couldn't believe how my childhood fascination with planes just sparked back to life with my trip to the museum.

And, please, if you ever visit more air museums, share the photos. I'm sure yours will come out much better than mine.

Thanks Rick. Periodically, there is a B17 that comes into Cleveland and gives rides. I've just never been able to afford it. Someday, though.