The County of San Bernardino, Planes of Fame Air Museum Air Show May 14-15 2011
Pre-show report
by Victor G. Archer
Planes of Fame Air Museum, in conjunction with the County of San Bernardino, is proud to present "Air Show 2011: Celebrating 100 years of U.S. Naval Aviation".
This year’s show will feature over 40 historic aircraft as well as a salute to 100 years of Naval aviation. This, U.S. Naval Aviation Centennial event honors a century of men and women and recognizes their unique aviation-related achievements.
The Chino Air show means warbirds, lots of warbirds! Each year the Planes of Fame Air Museum steps up something special. Previous years there have been groups of P-47 Thunderbolts, P-38 Lightning’s, P-51 Mustangs and a very large display of Grumman aircraft.
Where else can you see over a dozen P-51 Mustangs tail chasing each other around the field? Or a flight of five Grumman F8f Bearcats? Every year there is something amazing to see and this year is no different with a salute to 100 years of Naval Aviation, once again we are going to get to see a large number of aircraft in flight.
The show starts with National Anthem Fly over with: Chance Vought F4U Corsair, Grumman F6F Hellcat, Douglas SBD Dauntless, Grumman TBM Avenger. Hartley Folstad and
Margi Stivers, Sliver wings wing walking team will take to the skies next with their timeless routine.
Rob Harrison the Tumbling Bear will be putting on an Aerobatic Performance in his Zlin 50LX and then we will get to see the Naval Air Power flight with a great number of aircraft represented here. Some of the aircraft flying in this group will be: Grumman J2F Duck, Grumman F3F-2 Flying Barrel, General Motors FM-2 Wildcat, Grumman F6F Hellcat, Grumman F7F Tigercat, Grumman F8F Bearcat, Grumman TBM Avenger, Chance Vought F4U Corsair, Lockheed PV-1 Ventura, North American PBJ-1 Mitchell, Douglas AD Skyraider and the Douglas SBD Dauntless.
Something new for the Chino show, Howard Pardue will be doing an Aerobatics Performance in his General Motors FM-2 Wildcat! After Howard’s routine there is a break in the action, a great chance to get something to eat and checkout the displays and the static aircraft.
Back to the action, the next group of aircraft will represent the Korean Air War era, with aircraft such as the North American T-6 Texan, Chance Vought F4U Corsair, Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star, North American F-86 Sabre and Russian Mig-15.
Taking a step back in time from the Korean Air War era the next group will represent aircraft from the US Army Air Corps of WW2. Aircraft flying in this group will be: Lockheed P-38 lightning’s, North American P-51Mustangs, North American B-25 Mitchell’s, Boeing B-17 Flying Fortruss, Curtiss P-40 Warhawk and the Bell P-63 Kingcobra. Typical at Chino the question is not which Mustang or Lightning will be flying, but how many of each will we get to see! Right after this group a foreign contingent of aircraft from WW2 will take to the skies, in this group, flying will be a Fock Wolf FW-190, Mitsubishi Zero, Fairy Firefly, Supermarine Spitfire, Yak-3 and an Aichi D3A VAL.
The Northrop N9M Flying Wing will be doing a flight demonstration and then an aerobatic routine from Brian Sanders, will Argonaut make it? Will it be in Dreadnought? It will be a great demonstration either way.
Then something Chino is famous for, the massive air power flight. They say they going to try and put up just about everything that can fly! And they usually do.
To close out the show there will be a demonstration from the USAF F-15 Strike Eagle followed by the heritage flight.
Oh yeah, Strega should be there and there might just be a few other surprises as well, so don’t miss the show!
Advance discount General Admission tickets can be purchased online. From April 16 through May 13, Advanced Tickets are available for $17 plus service charge. Current members are admitted free to the airshow.
http://planesoffameairshow2011-aafocom.eventbrite.com/
The Planes of Fame Air Museum is an independently operated, non-profit 501(c)(3) aviation museum that is dedicated to the preservation, perpetuation and exhibition of historical aircraft, and to the men and women, both famous and unknown, who devoted their lives to flight.
