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[mojojojo]

would luv to get my hands on that blackbird

[vtrelut]

Last June I went to Southern California again. I drove from LAX airport to Indian Wells, near Palm Springs. And what did I do on the way? First a stop at Proud Bird, a restaurant very close to LAX, with undoubtedly some taste:





Fiber glass replicas...







Then I went to Torrance, Zamperini airfield, the home of Northrop aircraft. There I could visit the Western Museum of Flight, which displays unique prototypes, such as the YF-17 and YF-23:























After that the highlight was the visit of the March Field Air Museum near Riverside, where Wheelsup_cavu kindly met me. What a nice museum!

Great aircraft, some unique, an incredible collection right from the Cold War and also WWII & other eras:

First another Northrop prototype, the A-9:



A rare P-59:

[vtrelut]

Near the P-59 Airacomet shown above, one can also see a Blackbird. There is also the P-38 museum, with another fiber glass replica, and plenty of P-38 related memorabilia:








But for us the best was the tour outside, with for instance the Century Fighters:

[vtrelut]

The MiG alley:













The Antonov-2 attached to concrete poles, otherwise it could fly by itself in case of strong wind:



And of course, so many classics:

















A nice F-89 Scorpion:





































A pre-production Tomcat:









More here:
http://s233.photobucket.com/albums/ee281/vtrelut/March%20Field%20Air%20Museum%20-%20P-38%20Museum/#!cpZZ1QQtppZZ36

Again thanks a lot to Wheelsup_cavu!

[hoddyman]

Back in 2003, my dad and I travelled through southern California, and visited these very same air museums. I was very impressed with Planes of Fame, and Yanks, at the Chino airport. I didn't have a camera, so it's great to see your good pictures of the planes I saw there! Did you get a chance to eat at the excellent diner at the Chino airport?

[vtrelut]

...Did you get a chance to eat at the excellent diner at the Chino airport?

No I had no chance to dine over there at Chino airport; but next time I will try, thanks to your advice!

[cgagan]

Excellent series of photos, vtrelut, many thanks for sharing!!!!

[wheelsup_cavu]

I am happy to hear that you had a great time checking out the museums vtrelut. 


Wheels

[vtrelut]

Hello guys,


A few weeks ago I had another opportunity to travel to California from North to South, through Nevada... so I visited a lot of places, once more.

After landing at San Francisco, I immediately went to visit the aviation museum located right in the international airport, the Louis A. Turpen aviation museum:

http://www.flysfo.com/web/page/sfo_museum/aviation_library_museum/



It features nice plane models, and there was an exhibition about the Civil Air Transport airline (CAT), an airline closely related to the Flying Tigers:
http://www.flysfo.com/web/page/sfo_museum/exhibitions/aviation_museum_exhibitions/K2_archive/civil_air_transport/index.html



Later when I boarded on a flight to Las Vegas, I noticed these plane models hanging from the ceiling in a lounge:







Definitely this is an airport of taste, where travelers can enjoy learning about aviation history on site, and one can understand very quickly that aviation and air transport, which date back to the early 20th century in California, mean a lot to its people.

[vtrelut]

But this was just the beginning for me in Northern California... Immediately after renting a car, I drove across the bay to Alameda, and visited USS Hornet, a real must-see treasure:



She is located on pier No 3 at NAS Alameda, right where the first USS Hornet was before she went with the Doolittle raiders to bomb Japan in April 1942:

There could not be a more historical location for the USS Hornet...

It was a cold but nice evening over there:






The Fresnel optical landing system to help pilots while landing:


Lockheed S-3 Viking on the flight deck:







A few helicopters inside:



Planes inside:







USS Hornet recovered the Apollo 11 mission crew, and this is exactly where Neil Armstrong walked to enter the mobile quarantine facility after coming back to Earth from the Moon:







A nice little home for Astronauts:


Apollo test capsule:





Back to air combat:


And goodbye USS Hornet!


More pictures of the USS Hornet:
http://s233.beta.photobucket.com/user/vtrelut/library/USS%20Hornet#/user/vtrelut/library/USS%20Hornet?&_suid=136126563486405261624978064741

And the official USS Hornet museum site:
http://www.uss-hornet.org/

[vtrelut]

After such a start, it became dark and I had to rest. The next day was a very busy Sunday: first I visited the Oakland Aviation Museum, then the Alameda Naval Aviation Museum, and I went on to Castle Air Force Base, at Atwater, 2 hours by car South-East of San Francisco. First the Oakland Aviation Museum, located near Oakland's airport, was very interesting because it features some very rare birds, nowhere else visible in America, such as this Short Solent Mk III, which you may remember from the Indiana Jones movie "Raiders of the lost Ark":



This one would have belonged to Howard Hughes.


The only other surviving Solent is at Auckland, New Zealand... maybe another time.

A TAV-8A Harrier trainer:




Two interesting refueling stations:

KA-6D Intruder:


(sorry for the electric cables...).





KA-3B Skywarrior:




Sabreliner:


Fun stuff:






MiG-15:




Pratt & Whitner TF-30:


F-14A from VF-111, the Sundowners:



The Boeing School T-3, designed in 1933 in Oakland:


This replica of the Wright Flyer which achieved the first transcontinental flight from New York to Pasadena, CA in 1911 is airworthy:




More about this flight later...


More about the Oakland Aviation Museum here:

http://www.oaklandaviationmuseum.org/index.html

And more pictures here:

http://s233.beta.photobucket.com/user/vtrelut/library/USS%20Hornet#/user/vtrelut/library/Oakland%20Aviation%20Museum?&_suid=13612674389180817455452244465

[vtrelut]

The Alameda Naval Aviation Museum is located at former NAS Alameda, close to the USS Hornet.



It houses US Navy memorabilia, documents, photos about aviation history in the San Francisco Bay area, and a lot of ship, plane or airship models, such as this one of USS Macon, which was based South of San Francisco at Moffett Field (more about Moffett field later):





During the Cold War NAS Alameda could accomodate up to four aircraft carriers:


During my visit I was guided by Bill, a veteran who enlisted in the US Navy at age 17 in 1944. He retired in 1965, just a year after I was born, and has been a volunteer ever since...



Bill, among other duties, served as a rear gunner in a TBM Avenger.

Thank you so much Bill!

Thanks to people like Bill, we can enjoy learning about history and admire planes in so many museums across the United States, particularly in California.



Can anyone of you identify the lady pictured on the bottom left? Thank you in advance.




More info here:
http://www.alamedanavalairmuseum.org/

and pictures here:
http://s233.beta.photobucket.com/user/vtrelut/library/USS%20Hornet#/user/vtrelut/library/Alameda%20Naval%20Aviation%20Museum?&_suid=1361269860561007591391196998925