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| Grumman F6F Hellcat |
Two Fascinating Aircraft Museums
Aircraft enthusiasts and historians will greatly enjoy what is one of the best collections of vintage aircraft in the southwest. The first location is Chino California. The museum operates as an independently operated non-profit organization.
As more and more aircraft were restored and the Planes of Fame collection grew, an additional display facility was opened in Valle, Arizona in 1995. This site is located halfway between Williams Arizona and the south rim of the Grand Canyon. The Valle-Grand Canyon site displays over 40 of the Museum’s vintage aircraft with many of them being flyable. Many of the vintage aircraft are kept flyable by the people who donate both funds and aircraft parts to the museum. Additionally many people have donated their time to help maintain the aircraft. Aircraft restoration is a big part of what this organization does.
Per the museum's web site "Our mission is to preserve aviation history, inspire interest in aviation, educate the public, and honor aviation pioneers and veterans". The organization claims to have the oldest air museums west of the Rocky Mountains. Another amazing thing is that the museums in total feature over 175 aircraft. between the two locations you have an absolutely superb collection of old airplanes which are probably better called vintage aircraft or antique aircraft.
The museum was first established in 1957 in Claremont California by Ed Maloney as the Air Museum. Today the museum is known by that name and also as Planes of Fame. The museum expanded at it became apparent that a second location should be added. The Arizona museum opened in 1995 at the reopened Valle-Grand Canyon Airport which at one time served as a TWA facility.
From time to time some of the Planes of Fame collection may be unavailable because of their participation in air shows, movie productions and often displays at various military airbases. Below is a partial list of the flyable aircraft on display at each of the two Plans of Fame Museum locations.
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| Grumman F8F Bearcat |
At the Valle-Grand Canyon Arizona museum...Standard W.W. I Trainer, Curtiss Robin Flying Replica, Martin Airliner, North America Trojan, Billy Walker Nieuport Flying Replica.
In addition to the above, there are many aircraft models on static display and some in various stages of restoration. There is an emphasis on Naval aircraft at the Chino location where a part of one building features the aircraft of the U.S.S. Enterprise, a sort of naval air museum within the museum. At the Arizona location one of the most interesting aircraft on display is the 1929 Ford 5-AT Trimotor. This aircraft was built by the Ford Motor Company as a passenger aircraft. The plane was sold all over the world for both civilian and military use. The Trimotor was very popular in it's time for providing both luxury ans speed. During it's years of production, a total of 199 Ford Trimotors were produced. The last Trimotor was built in 1933.
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| Ford Trimotor |
Avengers and Devastators
Another aircraft at Planes of Fame with quite an interesting story is the Grumman Avenger, a torpedo bomber introduced in World War Two. It replaced the Devastator World War 2 planes which were considered too slow especially against fast attacking Japanese Zeros. The Avenger was first deployed at the Battle of Midway along with the Devastators already there. In fact, there was a great rush to get the Avengers delivered from their factory on the east coas and out to the Pacific Theater.
Many of the old Devastators were ultimately lost in the Battle of Midway. An excellent book on the subject of both the Devastators and Avengers is "A Dawn Like Thunder" by author Robert J. Mrazek. The book is an account of the lives of the men of Torpedo Squadron Eight and the aircraft they flew in the Pacific War. You may also want to read the story of the Avenger and the U.S. S. Hornet on display and docked at Alameda California in the Bay Area. Also very interesting is the story of Wiley Post and his record setting Lockheed Vega.
Also, a bit north of San Francisco near Santa Rosa California is the excellent Pacific Coast Air Museum at the Sonoma County Airport. On display there is the F-15 fighter jet that was scrambled over New York City on September 11, 2001.
The Chino California location of the Planes of Fame Air Museum is at the corner of Merrill Avenue and Cal Aero Drive, on the north side of Chino Airport. The entrance is off Cal Aero Dr.
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| North American Trojan |
If your Arizona vacation or road trip also take you to southern Arizona you will also definitely want to stop at the Pima Air and Space Museum. It's a marvelous massive indoor/outdoor air museum which you easily spend an entire day at. I did and it has a terrific historic aircraft collection. The Pima Air and Space Museum is located on Interstate-10 on the eastern edge of Tucson Arizona.
(Article copyright Western Trips. Photos and images in the public domain)
