Planes of Fame Air Museum
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Planes of Fame Air Museum is an aviation museum at Chino Airport in Chino, California.<ref name=flightjournal/>
History
Establishment in Claremont
The Air Museum was founded by Edward T. Maloney on 12 January 1957, in Claremont, California, to save historically important aircraft.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> By February 1959, when it acquired the last F-86A in the California Air National Guard, the museum had 14 aircraft.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> As the museum quickly acquired airplanes, its location proved too small and in 1960 it approached Long Beach, California about leasing a hangar at Long Beach Municipal Airport.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Two years later, it suggested relocating to Torrance Airport.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Move to Ontario
By 1962, the museum's collection of 72 aircraft had outgrown its original home.<ref name="AE p58">Mormillo 1983, p. 58.</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In February of that year, it began renovating a hangar leased by the Southern California Aircraft Corporation at Ontario International Airport in Ontario, California and made a request to the city to sublease the building.<ref name="Ceremony" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The city was skeptical, questioning the museum's quality, but eventually approved the request in early April after the museum agreed to maintain the property.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> A month later the flyable portion of its collection started arriving there.Template:Efn<ref name="Ceremony" /> Following an initial opening to the public in July, the museum held a grand opening on 3 August 1963 with 27 aircraft on display.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Ceremony">Template:Cite news</ref>
After the expiry of SCAC's lease in 1966, the museum offered to take over the building.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The city tentatively approved a one to three year lease that June.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Move to Buena Park
In 1970, redevelopment of the airport at Ontario forced the museum to move again.<ref name="AE p58"/>
Three years prior, in December 1967, James Brucker, who had accrued a collection of vehicles from his business supplying Hollywood productions, opened the Movieland: Cars of the Stars Museum in Oxnard, California.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Two years after that, construction was begun on a new location in Buena Park, California near Knott's Berry Farm. Plans called for the facility, called Movieland: Cars of the Stars and Planes of Fame Museum, to feature two Template:Convert buildings side by side and with a common entrance.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The museum's 25 non-flyable aircraft were disassembled and trucked to the new building, which opened on 5 June 1970.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Efn
Meanwhile, the airworthy aircraft were moved to Chino Airport, about Template:Convert away.<ref name="AE p58"/>Template:Efn The last aircraft left the property on 12 November 1970.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Consolidation at Chino
When Movie World closed in 1973, the name "Planes of Fame" was transferred, along with the static planes, to the flying collection at Chino.<ref name="AE p58"/>Template:EfnTemplate:Efn The following year, when the museum reopened, it was combined with the old "Air Museum" name to become the Planes of Fame Air Museum.<ref name="History" /> After first leasing a building at the airport, it presented a plan to construct a Template:Convert hangar in October 1981.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Around the same time, the museum began restoration on its N-9M flying wing.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In the early 1980s, Robert Pond was establishing Planes of Fame East at the Flying Cloud Airport in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
A hangar to display the museum's Japanese aircraft was completed in December 1982 and opened in April 1984.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The first step in a three phase plan, phase two involved an additional hangar and phase three would see a new office complex.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
The museum imported an An-2 from Hungary in 1987 and a MiG-15 and MiG-17 from Poland in 1988. However, the following January, after the aircraft had passed through customs and been placed on display, they were determined to have been acquired in violation of government regulations about imports of military equipment from certain countries.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The museum stated that it was unaware of the restrictions and began a petition to keep the airplanes.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> As a result of Congressional action, the museum received an exemption in November.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Steve Hinton became president and CEO of the museum in 1994, taking over from Ed Maloney. At the same time, a new foundation was formed to provide direction.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
As more aircraft were restored and the collection grew, an additional display facility was opened in 1995 at Valle, Arizona.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Located halfway between Williams, Arizona, and the south rim of the Grand Canyon, it houses more than 40 of the museum's aircraft, many flyable.
Planes of Fame East closed in 1997, with Bob Pond's personal collection being transferred to the Palm Springs Air Museum.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Expansion at Chino
An agreement signed in February 2000 allowed the museum to grow to Template:Convert. It subsequently announced plans for a Template:Convert hangar as the first part of a four phase expansion.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
The Chino facility opened its Template:Convert Enterprise Hangar in 2002.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Designed to resemble the hangar deck of a World War II aircraft carrier, it contains a number of items from the USS Enterprise (CV-6) donated by members of her crew and flight squadrons. It also houses many aircraft typical of those that served on the Enterprise during the war.
By the end of 2003, the third phase had begun with the construction of a third, Template:Convert hangar.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
The Chino facility was further expanded in 2004–08, adding two new hangars, new offices, a gift shop, library, and the Hands-On Aviation youth education center. Display areas for jets and other aircraft of the Korean War, Cold War, and Vietnam War were added. In October 2009, another new hangar was dedicated, this one built by the 475th Fighter Group to store their memorabilia and house the museum's rare Lockheed P-38 Lightning.<ref name="History">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
An F-14 that the museum had received in trade from the Yanks Air Museum was seized by the U.S. Navy in March 2007. The aircraft had been insufficiently demilitarized when they were sold to a salvage company and there were concerns that an Iranian front company may have attempted to obtain parts from them.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
The museum was the subject of a lawsuit brought by Yanks Air Museum and other tenants at Chino Airport in 2016 who argued that the museum's airshow interfered with other flight operations.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
The Valle facility closed during the COVID Pandemic and has not reopened as of 2024.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Expansion to Santa Maria
The museum announced plans to open a new location at the Santa Maria Public Airport.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It received planning permission for the Template:Convert facility in December 2024.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It broke ground on the new location in February 2025.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Exhibits
475th Fighter Group
In the late 1990s, members of the 475th Fighter Group (Satan's Angels) established a permanent home for the artifacts, photographs, records and memories of their U.S. Army Air Forces unit, which recorded 562 victories, received two Presidential Unit Citations, and produced 42 "Aces" in the South Pacific combat area. It was the first all-Lockheed P-38 group and the only one formed overseas in Australia.
This new museum was dedicated in October 1997, at the expanding March Field Air Museum complex at the former March Air Force Base near Riverside, California, where the first test flight of the P-38 took place. The March Field Museum chronicles the history of U.S. military aviation since 1917. Legally known as The 475th Fighter Group Historical Foundation, Inc., the museum was housed in a Template:Convert modern steel building reminiscent of a World War II military hangar.
In 2005, the museum's board decided to merge the museum into The Air Museum Planes of Fame. As of 2015, a Template:Convert hangar at Planes of Fame was under construction for the 475th.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Update inline
Collection
Aircraft
The museum's collection of Japanese aircraft is the largest of its type in the world. This collection includes the only authentic airworthy example of the Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter in the world,<ref name=ww2museums>World War II Museums Template:Webarchive, Planes of Fame Air Museum, Retrieved March 5, 2011.</ref> with its original Sakae engine and an Aichi D3A featured in the movie Tora! Tora! Tora!.
Many other rare aircraft are maintained in flyable condition,<ref name=warbird>Exploring The Air Museum - Planes of Fame Chino, Warbird Alley, California, Retrieved March 5, 2011.</ref> such as a North American P-51A Mustang, a Boeing P-26A Peashooter, a Lockheed P-38J Lightning, and a Republic P-47G Thunderbolt.
Many of the museum's roughly 150 aircraft were built in Southern California, and about 30 are flyable.<ref>Ogden, Bob. Aviation Museums and Collections of North America, Sudbourne, England, 2007. Template:ISBN.</ref><ref>Parker, Dana T. Building Victory: Aircraft Manufacturing in the Los Angeles Area in World War II, Cypress, CA, 2013. Template:ISBN.</ref> Others are under restoration in the full-time restoration facility.
Template:As of the complete collection consists of:<ref name="CompleteList">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Template:Columns-list The museum was previously home to the world's only surviving Northrop N-9M flying wing, which was destroyed in a crash on April 22, 2019.
Ground vehicles
The Military Vehicle Corps, often referred to as the Motor Pool, is a small group within the Planes of Fame Air Museum. The Military Vehicles in their collection are primarily from World War II and are maintained and operated by a group of Museum volunteers. These vehicles are used in parades, public events (e.g. Marching Thru History), and WWII re-enactments. The following vehicles are some of those that are on display at Chino.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Events
The museum holds a monthly mini-airshow around a certain theme,<ref name=flightjournal>Flight Journal, Aces of the Red Star at Planes of Fame Air Museum, Aviation in the Movies, February 2, 2008 – Chino, California, Retrieved March 5, 2011.</ref> such as: "World War I Aviation", "Experimental Aircraft", "Korean War Aviation", "Airplanes In The Movies" and "Naval Aviation". Each mini-airshow starts with one or more talks or seminars given by people involved with the featured aircraft (such as combat pilots), followed by a flight demonstration of two or three aircraft related to that day's theme.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Beginning in 2021 the museum changed the name of these monthly events to "Hangar Talk".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The museum flies all of its airworthy aircraft, as well as many other warbirds visiting from other museums or brought by private owners, during its annual airshow. This event is the largest gathering of warbirds in the western US. Many aircraft are rare or one of a kind.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2022, the museum began a new event with the gathering of military vehicles and historical reenactors named "Wheels, Tracks, and Wings" held on June 18.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The event expanded into a two-day event in 2023. For 2024, the event was renamed "Wings, Tracks, and Wheels" to be held on May 4-5 with over ten warbird aircraft expected to fly, special presentations, historical reenactors, military vehicles, and concluding with a M4A1 Sherman Tank demonstration.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>