Yanks Air Museum, Chino, CA; 04 Apr 08

Situated in the North East suburbs of Los Angeles, Chino Airport is a very historic airfield, and home to 2 collections of historic aircraft. The most well know of these is Planes of Fame, but there is also another excellent museum, the Yanks Air Museum.

The collection focuses on American aircraft, and includes aircraft from the earliest days of flying through to jet fighters, with the slogan "Jennys to Jets". The first hanger contains aircraft from WW2 and earlier.

The aircraft are restored to a very high standard, indeed to an airworthy state, but seldom flown.

The next hanger contains post-WW2 aircraft, some restored to similar standards, others awaiting further restoration.

Of particular interest was this F-106B, used as a chase aircraft in the B-1B development program. It was retired to AMARC at Davis Monthan AFB, and still wears its white Spraylat protective coating from its time in the desert.

Outside the museum's restoration hangar is their storage area. We were lucky enough to be show around the storage area by museum volunteer Lloyd Hoover, a very interesting man, who turned out to have visited England in the 1960s to attend the Empire Test Pilots School at Boscombe Down. He later did test flying for the US Navy, including the initial carrier trials for the A-6 Intruder.

Yanks Air Museum is a superb collection, and well worth a visit. Thanks to all the friendly staff there, especially Lloyd for the tour and fascinating chat.

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