Warbirds @ John Wayne

[speeddemon]

Last week I flew into John Wayne/Orange County Airport. The last time I was in there, Tallmantz still had their museum and operations flying out of there. Long ago....

Anyhow, I noticed that on the north side of the field, there was a black A-26 and a silver B-25. Anybody know which aircraft they are, and who they belong to?

Also, there are some rather large WWII blimp hangers a couple miles east of the field.......any info on them?

[AirDOGGe]

Re: Warbirds @ John Wayne

I wasn't aware of any blimp hangars on the Calif. coast except for Moffett Field in North Cal.

I did a little Google search and came up with this. Could it be the airfield you saw?

http://www.militarymuseum.org/MCASTustin.html

Looks like a facinating page...I'm going to spend some time there reading up about it...


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A search of A-26 Invaders at Orange County Airport came up with one entry, but I don't know if it's the bird you saw:

A-26B - Feeding Frenzy
44-34538
N6839D
N34538
Martin Aviation
Orange County
Status - operational

http://www.aerovintage.com/a26loc.htm

The FAA registry site verifies this:

http://162.58.35.241/acdatabase/NNumSQL.asp?NNumbertxt=34538

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Tallmantz had "Heavenly Body" in that area in the 70's, but I don't think it's there anymore, and I don't believe it was ever silver or aluminum color.

Current info at the FAA registry site says N25GL is in Orange County, and bthe N-number elongs to an NB-25T, and is also owned by Martin Aviation.

http://162.58.35.241/acdatabase/NNumSQL.asp?NNumbertxt=25gl

.

Since both these birds belong to Martin Aviation, and are in Orange County, I think it's a safe bet that these are the warbirds you saw.

These are just search results, and I cannot be 100% sure of accuracy. Maybe someone who knows the area or lives around there can verify this data.

.

[John H]

Re: Warbirds @ John Wayne

Blimp hangars are the former MCAS Tustin....Should be Feeding Frenzy as it was at Chino during the airshow in 2004.

John

[speeddemon]

Re: Warbirds @ John Wayne

Great. Thanks for the help, everyone.

[Leo]

Re: Warbirds @ John Wayne

Did a tour At El Toro probably 15 years ago when it was still active. Those hangars hold a LOT of Jolly greens. If you've never been inside a blimp hanger and get the chance, it's awesome! At Moffet they used to have tethered hot air balloons in them during airshows...

[speeddemon]

Re: Warbirds @ John Wayne

Yeah, I spent a LOT of time in that Hangar at Moffett. The large BUILDING that housed the P-3 simulator was inside that hangar...and only took up a tiny part of it.

The hangars at NAS Tillamook that Jack Erickson's Museum is in are good sized too. My favorite thing about THOSE hangars were the jokers that put a basketball backboard and hoop at the very TOP of the inside of one end!

[AirDOGGe]

Re: Warbirds @ John Wayne

Lol! I'd love to see one of the current NBA stars dunk THAT hoop.

Unfortunately for Moffett, Hangar-1 has been closed to the public for awhile now, due to lead paint contamination and other chemicals found in the nearby wetlands. Last year was the first airshow at Moffett I can recall that didn't let visitors go in there.

Mountain View/ Sunnyvale has been trying to get the Navy to pay for clean-up costs (several areas on the base are currently declared contaminated superfund sites), but have only been partly successful.

They are starting to address the Hangar (the outside has already been coated), but are reluctant to deal with some of the ground contamination near the NASA portion of the base, and there's some controversy concerning contaminated wetlands just off the bay end of the runways.

If the inside of Hangar-1 ever IS cleaned up, and I'm sure it eventually will be, it's then supposed to be turned into an aviation museum. Looking forward to that.

Here's a number of sites discussing the topic:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=moffett+field+superfund+hangar+1&btnG=Search

.

Yeah, I spent a LOT of time in that Hangar at Moffett. The large BUILDING that housed the P-3 simulator was inside that hangar...and only took up a tiny part of it.

It's a monster! Convair's XFY-1 "Pogo" VTOL tail-sitter aircraft actually made it's first flights in there (tethered, of course).