Name Edward Maloney | ||
Books Sever the Sky: Evolution of Seversky Aircraft | ||
Maximum Effort: Warbird Roundup Fighters Pay Tribute
Edward T. Maloney (May 21, 1928 – August 19, 2016) was an American aviation historian based in Southern California.
He was responsible for building much of the collection of historic airframes displayed at the Planes of Fame Museum at Chino Airport, Chino, California.
Maloney had the foresight to recognize that today's scrap is tomorrow's history, and began collecting odd airframes for a future museum. His first item was reportedly the Ohka Kamikaze rocket in the current collection, acquired in 1946.
Maloney opened his first aviation museum at Claremont, California on January 12, 1957, and then moved to LA/Ontario International Airport, Ontario, California in the 1960s. His collection included several military aircraft including a rare P-26 Peashooter, a P-51A, a Hanriot HD.1, a Heinkel He 162, the Northrop N9M flying wing testbed, the nose section of a B-36 Peacemaker bomber, and the last active USAF B-17 Flying Fortress bomber, Piccadilly Lilly II (44-83684), in United States Air Force operation, a former drone-director. This B-17 starred in the Twelve O' Clock High television series, 1964-1966. Inter-active displays included a vintage World War II gunnery training machine.
When Maloney was forced to relocate from the Ontario Airport hangar in 1969, his collection moved to its present location at Chino Airport, California. Maloney remained active in the preservation of aviation history until he died from colon cancer on August 19, 2016, aged 88.