On December 14, the Planes of Fame Air Museum saw the return of its Stinson L-5 Sentinel from its storage facility in Valle, Arizona, to its main location at Chino Airport, California. This marks the first time in over ten years that the museum’s L-5 has been at the Chino location since being sent to the museum’s location at Arizona’s Valle Airport, located south of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.
The museum’s Sentinel was constructed at the Sinson Aircraft factory in Wayne, Michigan, in 1945 and was accepted into the U.S. Air Force as L-5G s/n 45-34590. The L-5G differed from earlier models of the Stinson L-5 in hat the aircraft was fitted with a 24-volt electrical system and SCR-622 radio package, as well as an upgraded variant of the Lycoming O-435 inline engine that produced 190-hp (142-kW) and had redesigned cylinders and carburetor. L-5G 45-34590 was also used as an aerial ambulance, featuring a folding rear seat and folding panels on the right side of the fuselage to accommodate a stretcher for a wounded soldier. While 45-34590 never saw combat, similar L-5s modified as aerial ambulances were used on the frontlines of WWII to fly one wounded soldier at a time to field hospitals in the rear for medical treatment. Such aircraft saved lives by flying over rugged terrain at a faster rate than transporting a wounded soldier overland.
In 1962, Stinson L-5G Sentinel 45-45390 was purchased by Edward T. Maloney, founder of the Planes of Fame Air Museum, who was then preparing to move his growing collection of historic aircraft from a former lumberyard in Claremont, California, to nearby Ontario Airport, which was completed in 1963. The museum’s L-5 would later make the move from Ontario to Chino Airport by 1973 and remained an active part of the museum’s fleet of operational aircraft as N6055C. In honor of its role as an aerial ambulance, the aircraft received the name “Intensive Care”, and a pinup of a 1940s nurse on the left engine cowling.
In 1995, the Planes of Fame opened a new location at Valle Airport, a private airport maintained by John Siebold, founder of Scenic Airlines, which operated sightseeing flights over the Grand Canyon. The establishment of the Planes of Fame’s Arizona location (a.k.a. Planes of Fame Grand Canyon) was also done to alleviate storage space at the museum in Chino, and soon, several aircraft and exhibits were brought to Valle Airport, from the museum’s Messerschmitt Bf 109G-10/U4, to its Douglas A-26C Invader and Stinson L-13A, and later Stinson L-5G Sentinel 45-34590. The museum operated from the spring to autumn season but would close every winter due to the high elevation snow that is common in the Grand Canyon area. Sometimes, though, some aircraft would rotate from Valle to Chino and vice versa to appear in airshows and flying demonstrations held at both locations, and the Planes of Fame’s L-5 was still seen at Chino well into the 2000s, but according to museum pilot Garren Swagger, the aircraft would stay a Valle from 2014 until efforts were made in 2025 to bring it back home to Chino.
In 2020, the Planes of Fame was forced to close the museum at Valle to the public during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the location would remain shuttered to the public afterwards, with the museum making the official announcement on February 9, 2023, though the museum retains ownership of the hangar, which it has been using as a restoration facility to prepare the aircraft within to return to Chino.
