More than 28,000 Southern California locals came for world class air and car show on the flight line at the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos. Wings Wheels & Rotors Expo is a great fun family event sponsored by the Los Alamitos Area Chamber of Commerce and the California National Guards Joint Forces Training Base.
Cars, airplanes, music, helicopter rides, special activities and this year included Executive Sweet, a World War II B25 Mitchell medium bomber, when the word got out individuals lined up to take a seat for a flight into history.
“We were surprised in the turnout this is a huge event and we will be back next year,” said Caroline Ferguson of Executive Sweet.
The B25 was manufactured for the Army Air Corps by North American Aviation. Executive Sweet, tail number 44-30801, was built in Kansas City, KS as a B-25J in 1944 and was used mostly for training Army bomber crews.
During the plane’s long flying history, Executive Sweet was used in the movie, “Catch 22.” She has twin Wright Double Cyclone engines rated at 1,700 hp each. Maximum speed is 275 mph and cruises at 230 mph. This aircraft has a wing span of 68 feet and weighs 21,000 pounds empty and up to 35,000 pounds at full gross weight.
This type aircraft was the same that was used during the famous Doolittle Raid in April 1942 when 15 “Mitchells” flew off the aircraft carrier USS Hornet (CV-8) to bomb Japan.
Executive Sweet also participated in the Doolittle Raid 50th Anniversary in 1992.
“It is a pleasure for the Joint Forces Training Base to work together with the Los Alamitos Chamber in putting on Wings Wheels & Rotors. No where else in the Los Angeles/Orange County area, can the military and civilian organizations come together to host such a wonderful, family-orientated event,” said Lt. Col. Timothy L. O’Reilly of the JFTB Command Group.
Los Alamitos Army Airfield is the last remaining military airfield in the greater LA/Orange County areas with the longest runways in Orange County.
