Warbirds’ Reunion

Some airplanes never die. . . .

The wars they fought in finally end, the skies they dominated are taken over by gleaming newcomers, the elder generation passes into history.

But always there are survivors. And some of them live to fly again, thanks to the tender ministrations of professionals and volunteers in the “Planes of Fame” museum at Chino Airport.

Steve Hinton is the museum’s chief of flight operations; he is one of 10 people employed full-time to care for and help restore the 70 vintage aircraft. Only 16 of the planes are flyable now, but the number is expected to increase as time goes by.

Founded in 1957 by Edward Maloney, the collection now spans the history of manned flight from the Chanute hang glider of 1896 to jet fighters of the 1960s.

Among them: the only authentic Japanese Zero fighter still capable of flight.

Each weekend, as many as 35 people descend on the museum to work on the old fighters, bombers and trainers, laboring toward the day when the planes will be able take the air once more.

“It’s a job,” Hinton said, “and it’s an obsession. Just being around them is pleasure; getting paid to work on them--and fly them--how many people have a job they can enjoy as much as I do?”

It is an affair of the heart.

And of history.

And of the sound of engines, high and far, in a cloudless sky.