Warbird Information Exchange

I enjoyed my first visit to Fantasy of Flight. The facility is impressive and I saw just about everything I wanted to get shots of. The P-51C and the TP-40N were unfortunatly no-shows, I couldn't get an answer as to their whereabouts.

The backlot tour is once a day at 11:45. It takes you thru at least 4 storage hangars and the small workshop. The first contains Kermits entire engine collection. Of interest in the other hangars were a Whirraway, nose of a Blenheim, disasembled Tigercat, an SBD and the center section of a Meteor.

The restoration shop tour is once a day at 2:00 pm. In the shop are the P-35, the L-1 and the N3N Floatplane being actively worked on. I also got a distant look at the Hellcat and the remains of the P-38.

At 3:15 pm Kermit Weeks himself turned out to give a flying display in the the Grumman Duck. He talked about the plane and the museum as well as answering questions. He answered a question about flying status of some airframes. "I only can fly so many airplanes, so what we do is fly them for a while, have some fun with them and then pickle them, put oil in the carburators and such for a time. We flew the B-24 and the Sunderland in here, the B-25 we haven't flown in a bit. I have an A-26 that should be on line next year, and at that time we'll probably pickle the B-25 as well. When the time comes that someone wants to do a movie, or we want to get one airworthy for an event we can."

He also mentioned that his plan for the current site was always as storage/restoration. He plans to construct more hangars and a seaplane base on the opposite side of the field. In those hangars the aircraft will be displayed in diorama's, Great War, WW2 etc...

Personally I prefer the way it is now. A well stacked hangar where he can open the doors and roll out a plane to fly!

For all 112 pics please see my album on Photobucket. I have most of your requests and some detail shots:
http://s13.photobucket.com/albums/a294/ ... ht%202006/

Below I have some highlights. Any questions post here or shoot me an email.
Enjoy,
Peter

CH2T,

Did Kermit say anything about the Marauder? Is it airworthy at this time? I have always wanted to see/hear a B-26 in flight.

Are the new hangars open?

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The conquest of space is worth the risk of life. - Gus Grissom

Some great shots! thanks for posting them, I can't wait to view the webshots page, but that is better to be done at work, Dial-up stink!

Tim

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www.tailhookstudio.com

Thanks for the pictures. I think you got every request.

Thanks for posting. I really enjoyed the B-26 shots, especially the one front front downward. Really nice.

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When all is said and done more is said than done.

The new hangar is open but it is a maintenance hangar. They have bought an trolly cart to take people across the runway to the new hangar.
The B-26 is not airworthy and needs a major restoration to be flown again.

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Live to fly, Fly to live.....

What is the open cockpit 2 holer project with the round motor?

Thanks for sharing the photos and reporting to us. This is one of the many things you learn from WIX that make it great.

Mike

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Mike R. Henniger
Aviation Enthusiast & Photographer
http://www.AerialVisuals.ca
http://www.facebook.com/AerialVisuals

Do you want to find locations of displayed, stored or active aircraft? Then start with the The Locator.
Do you want to find or contribute to the documented history of an aircraft? If so then start with the Airframes Database.

Nice!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Ain't no sunshine when she's gone!

That is a N3N Floatplane like this one:
http://www.aero-web.org/database/museum ... htm?id=440

Chuck answered the question about the Marauder and the Mx hangar. They weren't offering to take anyone down to it, but it was a Sunday and its possible it was locked up.

I'm glad you all enjoyed the pics and I could be of help!
Pete

I tried to check the fantasyofflight.com website, but it is not responding.....Who's Tp-40 was this at Lakeland?

It looks to be unchanged from when I was there last year and I would say no. Without doubt it could be made airwrothy again unless there are hidden problems but from my perspective (admittedly inexperienced) it did not look in airworthy condition.

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Scott Rose
Editor-In-Chief/Webmaster
Warbirds Resource Group - Warbird Information Exchange - Warbird Registry

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Wow great pics, thanks for posting.

That's Kermit's TP-40N... as far as I know it's the only one still around... certainly the only original TP-40 flying, although there are a couple out there configured for two seats.

Cheers,
Richard