First weekend of May, Planes of Fame held their Wheels, Tracks, and Wings event. I was only able to attend part of one day. I got to take some shots of the static display along with the flyover of the B-25. Here is part of the presentation about the B-25:

The B-25 J-Mobile came before some other types of B-25s and believe it or not the B-25 was our first gunship.
They would install a 75 millimeter cabinet in those, about four or five 50 caliber machine guns.
It could carry up to 30 machine guns plus the 75 millimeter and it would be one of the best dive bombers even better than most of our fighters.
In fact, V-25 took out a destroyer with a 75mm gun, one time.
And also, in early.
during the 1941, took out a supper gun.
The aircraft was developed in 1939 at the request of the Air Corps.
They needed a medium bomber that could go about 300 miles an hour, carry about 2400 to 3000 pounds of weapons or armor, and go about 2,300 miles.
The aircraft is capable of carrying about 6 50-pound bombs, and it’s eventually before up to 18 50-caliber machines.
It was quite the aircraft.
The aircraft is probably best known for a little trip during the 1942 in April and with a ride with an aircraft carrier called the Hornet.
They put 16 of these aircraft on an aircraft carrier and headed off toward Tokyo.
The aircraft, the B-25, was finally retired from the U.S. Air Service in 1959.
Most of the B-25s after the war became training aircraft.

F/A-18 from the Navy West Coast demonstration team. Last shot is the tail hook heritage flight with the F8F from Planes of Fame. All shots taken during the Socal airshow at March ARB. This is from Day 1 where the Thunderbirds, F-35, A-10, WW2 planes, Palm Springs Air Museum, Planes of Fame, West Coast Demo team, Patriots Jet Team and dawn patrol all performed.

West Coast Rhino Demo Team at the 2022 Pacific Airshow showing some vapor trails as it performs during day 1 of the airshow.

MH-60 Helicopter parade during Day 1 of the Naval Base Ventura County Pt Mugu 2023 Airshow, which included the Thunderbirds, Blue Angels, CAF SoCal, Vicky Benzing Aerosports, and more. This was an also special because it was an all female pilot parade of the helicopters.

History on the Corsair

Going back to 1938 when the US Navy put out an RFP, it needed to have 4 requirements:
1. It had to fly a thousand miles, range of a thousand miles
2. It had to carry four guns
3. It had to have a stalling speed no higher than 70 mph
4. was maximum speed

The winner was the company Vought located on the east coast
They came up with this design, but in order to achieve the speed, they decided to go with a brand new prototype engine from Pratt & Whitney, which was the XR2800 engine that the prototype was capable of 1800 horsepower
The production model came out with 2000 horsepower
That’s what went into this airplane
And the design of the plane itself, you’ll notice that it doesn’t have rivets
It is a very smooth skinned airplane and that’s because Vought went with a new thinner aluminum and they use spot welding
So that achieved a much more even airflow a little bit higher speed as well
With the 2800 engine they went with a large Hamilton standard propeller 13 feet 4 inches
So how do you get a Navy airplane that is designed to land on aircraft carriers with that high of a propeller
So that’s where the inverted gull wing design came in
Lift the nose of the use launch, get the propeller up
But the challenge then is how do you develop landing gear that’ll accommodate carrier landings
So with the speed, with the propeller wash of this massive propeller, the prop wash created a problem going over the wing
So the left wing would stall before the right wing it became a real challenge
As well you’ll notice that the cockpit is far back, the gasoline tank is there in front so that was a challenge for carrier pilots and landing
The stall speed coming in on an aircraft carrier needs to be a little bit low so we’ve designed this plane to be quite fast
It was one It was the first airplane as a matter of fact in I believe 1940 to break 400 miles an hour
But in order to develop an airplane that was passed, they sacrificed low landing speed
So these things had to be figured out and consequently through Navy trials, the Navy decided not to use the Corsair
Changes made by England
Number one, for carrier landings rather than a straight-on approach, they came up with a circular approach for the pilot always keeping the carrier in sight
Number two, they raised the seat another seven inches providing the pilot a little bit better visibility and they They also came up with this bubble canopy
So it wasn’t until the fall of 1944 that the Navy finally accepted the Corsair
But in the meantime, the Marines, of course, did quite well with it in the South Pacific and in the Central Pacific as wel
The plane was acquired by the planes of fame in 1970 and it was restored to flight in 1975
And it is one of the oldest corsairs that is still flying
The nickname for this airplane was the “Instant Eliminator.”
Had a kill ratio of 11 to 1 by the end of the war.

2 T-33s for the price of one flying at the Pacific Airshow. This is Acemaker and Greg Coyle performing at the show.