Highlights of the 2006 Chino Airshow

For many people this recently restored P-26 Peashooter was the highlight of the 2006 airshow at Chino in the Los Angeles basin.   First flown in 1932, the P-26 was America's first all-metal monoplane fighter, and some were still serving with the Philippines army in 1941, and even managed to shoot down some Japanese aircraft.

The Japanese didn't think much of the 2PA, but some P-35s were used against them during the Philippines campaign, so this formation of the AT-12 and the P-26 is quite appropriate.

When it was delivered in late 1941 the P-38 was by far the fastest fighter in the US inventory and it also had excellent range, however in the European theater it failed to make as much impact as the P-51 Mustang or P-47 Thunderbolt.   It was much more successful in the Pacific, where its long range was put to good use, mostly memorably in the long-range interception of a transport aircraft carrying admiral Yamamoto, architect of the Pearl Harbor attack.   The P-38 was also the aircraft used by army air force pilot Richard Bong to score all 40 of his victories, making him the highest scoring American ace of the entire conflict.

    The Allison engine was another major impediment to successful use of the Mustang in Europe, because it didn't perform as well at high altitude as British or German engines in aircraft like the Bf 109 and the FW 190.   However the aircraft design was basically sound, and the excellent fuel capacity gave it the range not only to escort bombers to Berlin, but also to travel the long distances required in the war in the Pacific.

    The British came up with solutions to both problems plaguing the Mustang, first by fitting it with the same Rolls-Royce Merlin engine that powered the Spitfire, and then by modifying some Mustangs with the Malcolm Hood, a bulged canopy which provided better visibility.   The new B and C models were therefore all fitted with Merlins, which enabled the Mustang to fight it out with the best of Germany's aircraft, while escorting bombers at high altitude.

    The British later improved on the Malcolm Hood by coming up with a teardrop shaped canopy, which was trialled on the Hawker Tempest.    The two Mustangs you see here are both P-51Ds, the definitive model with both the Merlin engine and a bubble canopy.   The high back had to be eliminated, and to improve stability a strake attached to the fuselage was added at the front of the tail.

However it wasn't the only Thunderbolt at the show!   Last year there were five flying, but I didn't see them because I was at the Selfridge airshow.   This year there were two, the razorback and this more definitive model with the same sort of bubble canopy as the P-51D.   Like the P-51D, Thunderbolts fitted with the bubble canopy also have a strake attached to the tail.   However, the Thunderbolt is a much larger aircraft than the Mustang, with a maximum takeoff weight 17,500 lbs, compared to the Mustang's 12,100lbs.

There were plans to have a Russian designed Polikarpov I-16 fighter from the early part of world war two at this year's show, but in the end it wasn't able to make it, so this clipped wing Mk IX spitfire was the show's only foreign air force type from world war two, though as you'll see later, there were plenty of British naval aircraft on display, a welcome reminder that the UK, Australia and New Zealand all fought in the Pacific alongside their American ally.   This spitfire is fitted with the Malcolm Hood mentioned earlier and, unlike early models armed with only .303 machine guns, this one also has cannons like most German fighters of the time.

Moving from air force types to navy types, this year's airshow had a real treat in store for us with another very rare aircraft which has recently been returned to flying status, the Grumman F3F.   It was the last American biplane fighter and the direct progenitor of the F4F Wildcat, the navy's main front-line fighter at the start of the war.   The resemblance between the F3F and the F4F is clear, with the same barrel-shaped body and narrow-track undercarriage, which was hand operated in both aircraft.

Here's the F3F's replacement, an F4F Wildcat in loose formation with another Grumman aircraft, the F8F Bearcat.   There were two Wildcats flying at the show, but I like the paint scheme on this one the best, so here it is!   As well as being considerably faster than the F3F, the Wildcat was also armed with four 0.50 inch machine guns, which more than doubled the firepower, since 0.50 inch guns were vastly more lethal than 0.30 or 0.303 weapons.

This F6F Hellcat in a British Fleet Air Arm color scheme provided the only real scare of the show.   After takeoff it became clear that the pilot wasn't able to fully retract the landing gear, and it appeared that he also had trouble extending the gear for landing.   However, he got down safely and to everyone's surprise went up again later in the day for another display.

The F8F Bearcat was Grumman's last piston-engined fighter, arriving just too late to enter combat in the second world war, though many of them saw service with the French Armee de l'Air in Indo China.   Although the Bearcat used the same engine as the Hellcat, the Bearcat was 50 mph faster and could climb 30% more rapidly.   A modified Bearcat called Rare Bear holds the world record for the fastest piston engined aircraft in the world, with a speed of 528 mph set over a fixed course in 1989.

As well as the Spitfire and the Hellcat in British navy colors, there were also a pair of British designed naval fighters.  Captain Eddie Kurziel flew his beautifully restored Fairey Firefly, a two-seat fighter which served with the royal navy and the Australian navy.   Although it had a 2,250 horsepower Griffon engine the Firefly was relatively slow, with a maximum speed of only 386 mph, however it was extremely maneuverable and heavily armed with four 20mm cannon.

The Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber was America's most powerful weapon in the war against Japan, sinking more ships than all other weapons combined.   It did a great deal to turn the tide of the war early on, sinking one Japanese aircraft carrier in the battle of the Coral Sea and four more at the battle of Midway.   Although an attempt was made to replace the Dauntless with the SB2C Helldiver, the new aircraft was not as well liked by its crews, and nor was it as successful as its predecessor.

Chino's extraordinary collection of rare aircraft types includes this original Mitsubishi Zero fighter, one of only two in the world still flying and the only one with a Japanese engine.   The Zero was 25 mph faster in level flight than its main American opponent, the Wildcat, and was also more maneuverable and more heavily armed, with two 20mm cannon and two 7.7mm machine guns compared to the Wildcat's four 0.50 inch machine guns.   However the Zero was much more lightly constructed and therefore more vulnerable to enemy gunfire.

    The Chino airshow excels in world war two military types, but other displays were also flown to keep the crowds happy, like this world war one pairing of a British Sopwith Camel fighter in hot pursuit of what was probably the most famous German fighter of the period, the Fokker Dr.1 triplane, painted in the scheme used by the famous Flying Circus commanded by Baron von Richthofen.   Actually, though, Richthofen made the great majority of his kills in other aircraft types, and the Germans eventually grounded the Dr.1 after several broke up in mid-air because of structural failure.   With only 320 built, no original Fokker triplanes survive.

    With about 5,500 built the Camel was far more successful than the Fokker, however the Camel was a very nasty plane to fly and killed many of its pilots.   Both the Fokker and the Camel had rotary engines, which meant that the propeller was attached to the engine, which spun around while the crankshaft was attached to the fuselage and remained stationary.   However this type of engine had a strong gyroscopic effect on the aircraft, making it turn sharply to the right with a nose down attitude, but also making it turn only slowly to the left with a nose up attitude - and even when turning right the pilot had to use left rudder to counteract the plane's natural tendencies.   When flying level the Camel was noticeably tail heavy, and if it stalled then it immediately entered a spin which it was exceptionally difficult to get out of.

    Rotary engined aircraft like these had no throttles, so pilots had to "blip" their engines in order to reduce speed enough for a safe landing.   The two aircraft at the show demonstrated this technique while they were circling around, cutting and restarting the engines over and over.

The conclusion of each day's show was a mass flyby of all of the planes which had taken part in the show.   Displays like this are great to watch, but they don't make for very good photos because the planes are too spread out to appear as anything more than dots.