Planes of Fame: Lightning Strikes Chino! May 4th and 5th

The Planes of Fame 2013 Air Show in Chino, California is taking place May 4-5 with a special preview day on May 3. This year’s show is entitled “Lightning Strikes Chino!” and will celebrate the Lockheed P-38 Lightning and the pilots that flew them.

The P-38 Lightning is one of the most easily identifiable planes of World War Two, with its distinctive twin booms and a single central nacelle containing the cockpit and armament. It was also an extremely versatile aircraft, serving in every theatre of the war in a number roles including dive bombing, level bombing, ground-attack, night fighting, photo-reconnaissance missions and as a long-range escort fighter. Its guns, mounted in the nose eliminated convergence issues that accompanied the then more-standard wing mounted guns, giving a longer range of fire and a buzz-saw effect when the stream of projectiles found their target. Over 10,000 of these planes were produced between 1941 and 1945 and it was the only US fighter produced continuously for the entire war. Today there are believed to be under a dozen airworthy examples left and Planes of Fame is hoping to have three to five Lightings in flight for the show.

While the show is on for May 4th and 5th, the Museum is also hosting a special preview day on the 3rd, which will allow visitors to the museum to take a tram up to the ramp to view the arriving aircraft and practice sessions. The first practice session will be from 1:00-2:30PM and the second practice session will be from 3:00-4:00PM.

Opening at 8AM on May 4th, the air show is scheduled to feature aerial performances by Clay Lacy in his Learjet, Sean D. Tucker in his Challenger II biplane, Rob Harrison in his Zlin 50LX “The Tumbling Bear”, Brian Sanders in his Hawker Sea Fury FB.11 “Argonaut” and the Silver Wings Wingwalking Team. There will also be Korean War and Pacific Theatre air battle reenactments as well as flybys that will include several North American P-51 Mustangs, a Yakovlev Yak-3, Douglas SBD Dauntless, Grumman FM-2 Wildcat, F8F Bearcat, F6F Hellcat, TBM-3E Avenger, F7F-3N Tigercat, J2F-6 Duck, Vought F4U Corsair, Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, Douglas AD-6 Skyraider, Republic P-47G Thunderbolt, North American B-25 Mitchell, SNJ-5/T6, Stearman PT-17 Kaydet and the Planes of Fame Museum’s Northrup N-9M flying wing prototype. There will be a veterans discussion panel, military vehicles, aircraft static displays, warbird rides, food, entertainment and even rides for the kids in what looks to be one of the best West Coast events of the season.

Gates open at 8AM, with free parking and free admission for those under 5, Kids (5-11) $5, Adult Admission $20, Preferred Parking $10. Grandstand Seating is an additional $20.

Tickets and further information is available HERE.