Plane Buffs on Cloud Nine : Aircraft: Vintage WWII airplanes’ arrival at John Wayne Airport thrills crowd. They go on display today as part of Martin Aviation’s 70th-anniversary celebration.

A small squadron of vintage World War II airplanes thundered Friday into John Wayne Airport, stirring the hearts--and memories--of more than 200 people who turned out to watch the aircraft arrive.

Highlighting the impressive air display, sponsored by Martin Aviation, were a B-17 Flying Fortress and a B-24 Liberator, which circled the airport about 3 p.m. and then landed one at a time before an appreciative crowd.

The bombers were followed by two Corsair F4Us and a fleet of other vintage fighter planes.

“You get that certain thrill,” said Louis Silbering, 71, as his hair was blown back by the twirling propellers of the bombers.

Silbering said he served as a turret gunner on B-24s in the South Pacific from 1941 to 1945.

“We practically lived in those things,” he said, laughing at the memory.

The sight of the planes also brought back darker thoughts. Silbering recalled an assault on oil fields in Borneo. Just before the planes embarked on the mission, each crew member was given last rites. Half the men did not return, he said.

Friday’s event was held as part of Martin Aviation’s 70th-anniversary celebration. Founded by Eddie Martin, the company’s airfield later became John Wayne Airport. During the weekend, a dozen aircraft will be on display.

Bob Britton, 67, flew up from his home in San Diego as co-pilot of the B-24. “There wasn’t any difference in that airplane than when I flew it 50 years ago,” he said.

A Massachusetts firm restored the bomber in 1989 at a cost of $1 million, Martin Aviation officials said.

Visitors on Friday were allowed to climb through the cabins, bomb bays and turrets of the B-24 and the B-17.

Paul P. Bunchuk, 74, got on board the B-17 soon after it landed. It was the first time the Placentia resident has been on a B-17 since he was shot out of his plane over Berlin in 1944.

“The wing just peeled off and the plane blew up,” he said.

Bunchuk said he was knocked unconscious and thrown out of the plane. He regained consciousness at about 10,000

feet and pulled open his parachute, he said. Although his squadron reported him as dead, he was taken prisoner and spent 365 days in a German POW camp.

Plenty of aircraft buffs were also on hand Friday. Tom Callas, 27, heard the B-17 fly over his software company’s office in Santa Ana.

“This was as fast as I could get here,” Callas, a technical writer, said as he looked over the parked planes. “I’m a history buff. To see that (B-17) flying was something special.”

Richard C. (Stumpy) Hollinger, 84, was a service representative for Lockheed during World War II. He said he went to Europe with the military to train mechanics and pilots of Lockheed’s P-38 fighter plane, one of which is also on display.

“I helped those guys in any way I could,” Hollinger said.

He stood in front of the P-38 on the runway, one of six in the world that still fly. About 10,000 were built during World War II.

Hollinger, who lives in Leisure World in Laguna Hills, was dressed in a matching P-38 jacket, cap and golf shirt. He had a brass belt buckle with a model of the P-38 on it, bought at a flea market in Florida. “I’m P-38 from the core out,” he said.

Barbara London, a friend of Hollinger’s, said she served as a Women’s Air Force Service Pilot during World War II, flying new P-38s made at Lockheed’s Burbank plant to their embarkation point in Newark, N.J. She had learned to fly before the war, she said, and was quickly enlisted to help ferry the planes across the country.

Doug Gauntt, 27, a pilot for Alpha Air, said he heard the bombers circling the airport and rushed out with his co-workers to watch them land.

“We just kind of lucked out,” he said. “We all just love this stuff to death.”

The planes will be on display at the Martin Aviation terminal, 19301 Campus Drive, from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. today and 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday.

Tours of the B-17 and B-24 cost $7 for adults, and $3 for children.