Identify fly-by participants...

These just flew over my cuckoos nest, i.e. shop. few minutes ago.
I didn’t get a chance to capture them with real camera, but they sure sounded beautiful.
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Obviously, a P-38 in the middle, perhaps a P-47 to its right, and it appears a P-51 left outboard. It's too small to tell for sure.

 

Imagining the formation as the letter C and starting from the top and proceeding counterclockwise around the C, you have two P-51 Mustangs, a P-38 Lightning, a Corsair, and a P-47 Thunderbolt. At least that's how it appears in the photo. Good catch!

 

Thank you gentlemen for you efforts. Judging from their travel direction, I assume they were perhaps headed to Chino.
There are some pretty cool local vintage aircrafts, like 2-3 DC-3/C-47s (= my personal favorite of all planes), 2-3 Stearman(?) bi-planes (have gotten a ride in couple of them over the years), T6, etc frequently roaming the skies above this area, but this instance was a nice surprise.

 

The last one may also be a Bearcat.

 

Yes, maybe a Bearcat.... but it looks too small to be a Jug... they are HUGE.

 

Yea but so are Corsairs. Just doesn't look fat enough to be a 47. See a Corsair out on the ramp at Reno with all the 51's and it looks huge.

And I think there are more Bearcats around than 47's.

 

I think that it is a '47 from the shape of the wing.

 

While I greatly appreciate all replies, these somewhat insignificant yet interesting differences of opinions got my general curiosity thinking if there’s a way to figure out thru some FAA (flight) records or other service what this occasion was (or other similar occasions were) and which planes participated ?

 

I'm pretty sure who you saw were the guys from Planes of Fame out of Chino. Here are some photos I found on the web that will show you the relative size comparison of a P-51 vs. a P-47 in formation flight. That, btw, is likely the same P-47 in your photo.
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Would it be fair to assume P-38 leading the formation in all these photos due to it being perhaps the slowest of the groups ?
That "late-model"(?) jet looks almost awkwardly placed when grouped together with those vintage planes. It must be cruising at idle.

 

More likely just more symmetrical formation. In military power (as opposed to war emergency power), all three have roughly the same top speed and even in WEP the difference was only a few knots. The Mustang may have had a slight advantage with its laminar flow wing.

The modern fighters are usually at relatively high AOA to go slow enough to maintain formation and some even use partial flaps.

 

While not my photo, I saw an identical formation when I attended the Kalamazoo airshow in 1991. I was amazed that the F-14 (an A+ model in '91) was able to keep up with the likes of the slow Wildcat with the wings fully swept back!
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Jim- Seen from the side, the nose was likely pretty high for the F-14. He may even have had one burner cracked to stay comfortable. In F-111As, we often had to use one burner in min AB when aerial refueling as the weight increased. Back off, crack one burner, and use the other throttle to maintain position.

 

Is that a Panther next to the F7F? Even in 91 I didn't know any of those were still airworthy.

I always thought those were the best looking of the early Navy jets.

 

Sure looks like a Panther... think there are only 1 or 2 flying....

Time to watch "Bridges at Toko-Ri" again...

 

I always wondered about tip tanks on a fighter though. Must really slow down roll rate.

 

Looks like she is in Blue Angel colors, too.

 

For fun - one more guess at the last aircraft in the first formation picture: could it be a Hellcat?

 

From the length of the nose, wing shape, and the vertical fin shape, I still think that it is a P-47.

 

It is indeed a Panther, but not in Blue Angels markings. It was owned by a well-known aviation attorney named Arthur Wolk, who later got into some hot water; I don't remember the exact circumstances. I don't believe the F9F is currently airworthy.

 

Timo. I was hoping to be able to provide specific details on the aircraft but have so far been unable to. Can I confirm a few things? On my version of Ferrari-Chat your original photograph was posted on Sunday March 15 at 2337 GMT/UTC. You said that the picture had been taken "a few minutes ago". Are you able to confirm the timings please? Both the time that you made the post, and that the picture would have been taken at about 2330 GMT? I would like to think that what Ferrari-Chat labels the post as is correct but I find things very confusing at this time of year when the clocks have changed in the USA and not in the UK. (My brother lives in Pennsylvania so the time difference is usually 5 hours but when we spoke on the phone last weekend neither of us knew if the difference would be 4 hours or 6!). Also, you list your location as Riverside: is this where your "nest" is or is your shop somewhere else?

 

One of the great William Holden movies. Grace Kelly didn't hurt it any either.

 

Its contemporary, "Men of the Fighting Lady", also had Panthers and wasn't too bad, either.

 

Yes, I just watched it too....