Firebird wrote:
Mark Allen M wrote:
JohnB wrote:
There seems to be a lot of hostility towards the alleged new owner.
Probably a remnant of the "Blame Wal-Mart for killing retail" from a dozen years ago...before Amazon really killed local retail.
You don't hear folks and the media complain about that.
I'm still convinced he is the new owner.....not as a single owner, I don't think he could afford to be, not without significant backing from his Dad who is the real money in the family (and is a pilot as well)
Steuart Walton is only worth about $300m according to Forbes and doesn't even make the Forbes rich list unlike about 5 or 6 other members of the Walton family, including father Jim, who is worth about $60bn and is one of the richest individuals in the world.
So, while Steuart Walton is the name being branded about because of his warbird ownership, I doubt it's him personally buying the collection, especially if the rumour's price was a 9 figure one....probably more likely he's just the front for the deal?
While there are a lot of speculations being made on this thread, and it's part of the fun, your claim makes sense. Looking up Steuart's worth when this story came out, I felt it wouldn't make sense for him to invest around a third of his fortune in this purchase. I would not be a bit surprised to hear a Walton foundation bought the collection, with Steuart at the helm.
Purchasing the entire collection makes great business sense. Obviously, Jody Allen didn't care about it, and it's less hassle for her to sell it to one entity. She might have gotten a lower price per piece for selling the collection this way, but time is money. Maybe, in some way, she realized the new owner could carry on her brother's legacy this way?
Fly or not to fly? There's great arguments from both sides on this topic, but for me, the best way for future generations to become involved with Warbirds is for them to fully experience (see, hear, smell) what these great machines are about. Until they got the Fw190 airworthy, very few people left on this earth at the time knew what a BMW801 sounded like, let alone see a greatly restored/rebuilt one fly. I believe the staff at FHCAM did a great job managing the flight-time of the planes they flew. Hopefully the new owner(s) follow their footsteps, except for the secret squirrel business during the aircraft's restoration.