During last week’s motorcycle trip, I visited the Planes of Fame Museum in Valle, Arizona. The main Planes of Fame Museum is located in Chino, California; the Arizona adjunct is what I would call an overflow facility. It’s off the beaten track, located halfway up the lonely road between Williams, Arizona and the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.
This was the first of what I hope will be many cook’s tours of air museums in adjacent cities and states. When I told the folks at the desk I was a volunteer docent at the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, they gave me the run of the place.
What I really loved about this small museum, which houses just 40 or so aircraft, is that it’s a working aircraft maintenance facility, not just a museum. Many of the aircraft on display are not just in flying condition but are actually flown. Several aircraft were being worked on in the main hangar while I was there, and outside, another group of mechanics was busy putting a Lockheed Constellation, once General Douglas MacArthur’s VIP transport, back into airworthy condition for a one-time flight to the National Air & Space Museum in Washington DC. It was great to be able to amble around a working hangar, not a mere collection of static please-do-not-touch exhibits.
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These are just a few of the photos I took during my visit. Click on the thumbnails to see the full sized images on Flickr. Click here to see my entire Planes of Fame photoset.