A Guide to the Best of Southern California : GOING PLACES : The Warbirds Are Coming!

ONLY SIX OF THE 24 remaining P-38 Lightning pursuit planes--10,000 were built for World War II--are still flying. One of these P-38s can be viewed, as can 60 other vintage aircraft and historic aeronautical items, at the Museum of Flying, adjacent to the Santa Monica Airport, through Friday. There’s a Supermarine Spitfire Mark IX and a North American P-51 Mustang, as well as scale models of missiles, a mock-up of the Mercury space capsule and antique air-show posters. This superb warbird and vintage-aircraft collection has been put on display because next Saturday and Sunday the entire lot will be auctioned off in the largest such sale of pre-1948 aircraft ever held. Entry to this world-class event is $250; if that sounds steep, you may not want to pay the expected $1.5 million for the P-38.

Museum of Flying, 2772 Donald Douglas Loop North, Santa Monica; (213) 392-6392.