On November 5th , a group of AHASC folks met up for a tour of the Planes of Fame Air Museum in Chino, CA. There were 41 AHASC members, spouses and one grandson and an additional 10 friends and relatives who joined in the event. The club members brought 22 Healey’s including 17 big Healey’s, 2 Bugeyes, 2 Jensen- Healeys and Bill Wilkman’s Austin A40 to the museum. Our group also brought 8 other classic and new cars.
The tour started with several intrepid members meeting up for a drive to the museum through some scenic country through Carbon Canyon. 26 joined in the photograph opportunity in front of historical WWII aircraft. The museum put together a great event with displays of numerous restored/ flyable WWI and WWII planes as well as many aircraft from WWII through the Vietnam era awaiting restoration. There was also a flight demo of their recently restored Grumman F8F-2 Bearcat.
The Bearcat was very impressive.
Some other highlights included Tom Cruise’s P-51 Mustang from the recent movie “Top Gun: Maverick”, several other P-51s, a F-4U Corsair, P-38 Lightning, Gloster Meteor, B-25 Mitchell bomber, OV-10 close ground support aircraft, the only flying IJN Zero, as well as numerous other amazing aircraft. The museum put on a hanger talk discussing several interesting topics including the evolution of the Aircraft carrier and a presentation of the soon-to-be released Korean War era movie “Devotion” with a promotional trailer (wide release Nov. 23). Over 350 people attended the Planes of Fame open house on the 5th. One of the draws to the museum was the display of our cars. It was like a car show for them as well. The tour elicited a lot of discussion of our members experiences with many of these aircraft when they were growing up or in the service. This was a great event that brought a lot of common interest together.