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Yanks Air Museum
	Preserved North American P-51A Mustang on display
	Location in California
Established	1972
Location	Chino Airport, Chino, California
Coordinates	33°58′45.36″N 117°38′47.81″W / 33.9792667°N 117.6466139°W
Type	Aviation museum
Founder	Charles Nichols
Website	yanksair.com

The Yanks Air Museum is an aviation museum dedicated to exhibiting, preserving and restoring American aircraft and artifacts in order to show the evolution of American aviation, located at Chino Airport in Chino, California.

History

A pair of F-14s at the museum were seized by the U.S. Navy in 2007 over concerns that the aircraft were not sufficiently demilitarized before being acquired.^[2]

2024 plane crash

On 15 June 2024, a twin-engine Lockheed 12 Electra owned by the museum crashed on take-off during a Father's Day event. Two people, including the operator of the museum Frank Wright, were killed. According to the FAA, the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the incident.^[3]^[4]

Facilities

Chino facility and exhibits

Yanks Air Museum houses one of the largest and most historically significant collections of American aircraft including the World War II fighters, dive and torpedo bombers. The aircraft collection begins with the 1903 Wright Flyer (only replica in collection) and continues through the 1980s era represented by the F-15 Eagle, F-16 Fighting Falcon and Blue Angels F/A-18 Hornet. The collection exceeds 190 aircraft, with some being the last survivors of their type. Yanks restores all aircraft to airworthy condition, and in the restoration of these rare aircraft only original factory specifications and materials are used.

The Chino facility encompasses 176,000-square-foot (16,400 m²) under roof and covers 10 acres (40,000 m²). In addition to the display hangars, public access is permitted, on a supervised basis, to the main restoration hangar and boneyard where historic aircraft are in various stages of restoration. Some of the aircraft will not be flown due to their rarity, but are restored to fully airworthy condition.

Greenfield project

Work is now underway to create a second Yanks Air Museum facility in Greenfield, California. The facility will include 440 acres (1.8 km²), the campus will be centered on the new 250,000-square-foot (23,000 m²) museum facility. An active airport will support both museum flight operations and the private aviation needs of museum visitors and local aviators. Other features include an advanced-technology education center, a hotel and spa, winery, restaurants, service facilities, shops and a recreational vehicle park.^[5]

The project was announced in March 1992 and an environmental impact statement was presented to the county planning commission in 1997.^[6]^[7] However, it was delayed until 2002 when the museum reached an agreement with the county.^[8] The county then granted the museum a second extension on construction in 2008.^[9] After further delays, the museum announced it was restarting work on the project in 2019.^[10]

Collection

A total of 190 aircraft are displayed, covering the period from 1903 through 1984 including the Inter-War period that includes the Ryan Brougham, American Eagle A-101 and Swallow TP.

Rare types on display from World War II include the P-51A Mustang, Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, Lockheed P-38 Lightning, P-47M Thunderbolt, North American B-25 Mitchell, Douglas SBD Dauntless, Curtiss SB2C Helldiver and Grumman F6F Hellcat.^[11] Many of them were built in Southern California.^[12]

Aircraft collection

References

Notes

^ Ogden 1988, p. 72.
^ "Feds Seize Fighters Jets from Chino Museums". Chino Hills Champion. 10 March 2007. p. A1. Retrieved 26 June 2024.
^ Suter, Leanne (16 June 2024). "2 dead after small World War II-era plane crashes near Chino Airport". ABC7. Retrieved 16 June 2024.
^ Reyes, Ronny (16 June 2024). "Two pilots killed when World War II-era plane crashes at Father's Day event". New York Post. Retrieved 16 June 2024.
^ "Greenfield Expansion". Yanks Air Museum. Archived from the original on 2012-06-09. Retrieved 2023-01-19.
^ Taylor, Suzi (8 November 1995). "Yanks Air Museum Inches Its Way from Hangar to Runway". Gonzales Tribune. p. 4A. Retrieved 26 June 2024.
^ Walker, Paula Mae (30 July 1997). "Yanks Air Museum Out of Mothballs". Gonzales Tribune. pp. 1A, 14A. Retrieved 26 June 2024.
^ Cravens, Glen (20 April 2002). "Yanks Museum Back on Burner". The Californian. p. 1C. Retrieved 26 June 2024.
^ Withers, Dawn (29 October 2008). "Aviation Museum Clears Hurdle". Salinas Californian. pp. 1A, 3A. Retrieved 26 June 2024.
^ "Work begins on next phase of Yanks Air Museum". Greenfield News. 4 September 2019. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
^ Ogden 2007, p. 168.
^ Parker 2013.
^ Miller, R. Hans (21 November 2021). "Port of Ephrata sells PBY aircraft from 'Always'". Columbia Basin Herald. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
^ Destroyed in a plane crash on 15 June 2024

Bibliography

Ogden, Robert (1988). The Aircraft Museums and Collections of North America. The Aviation Hobby Shop. pp. 72–73. ISBN 9780907178224. OCLC 19406036.
Ogden, Robert (2007). Aviation Museums & Collections of North America. London: Air-Britain. ISBN 9780907178224. OCLC 187290670.
Parker, Dana T. (2013). Building Victory: Aircraft Manufacturing in the Los Angeles Area in World War II. Cypress, California: Dana T. Parker Books. ISBN 978-0-9897906-0-4.