Warbird Information Exchange

B-25 - Kermie Cam Tour

I do apologize if I bore you guys with some of these posts.

But I liked this one as much as his visit of Joe his B-24.

Just wait until he gets inside later on......Aero Trader did a fantastic job!

Never knew how complex a WW2 B-25 was! Enjoy and have a safe great weekend all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Q4aiwa4BtY

Kermit and his team do an excellent job with these videos. They are a great way to get a look behind the scenes. In my opinion his collection and restoration activity is much busier than internet chatter would have you believe.

I was also impressed how complete his Mitchell was on the inside.

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I agree! If you do the tally on the number of active restorations and recreations being worked on he has.... it is pretty impressive.

He had the B-25 taxying about 7 or 8 years ago, saying he would get it back in the air, but it never happened

He is a master at recycling old videos to make it seem as if a lot is happening. In reality he’s got rid of most of his restoration staff and things are just ticking along very, very slowly. I can’t even think of the last time he actually completed a project. The L-1 and Benoist about 7 years ago?

As a single individual not being a corporate front......

I think he is footing his money where most of us would not.

Look at his house and the car he drives every day.

My 2 Canadian centavos.

Yes, it does seem that once a problem arises with a flyer, they end up staying on the ground.....and that's it.

Kermit's problem is that while he's saved and collected an astounding amount of stuff over the years, it's just far too much stuff. Classic hoarder syndrome. I wonder what he's planned for FoF collection for after he's gone?

That B-25 is lovely though, fabulous work by Aero Trader just a shame it's likely to never fly again.

For those willing to look beyond the Kermie fanboy cult he’s created, it’s actually worse than that. He collects perfectly airworthy aeroplanes, flies them twice to get a logbook entry, and parks them and allows them to deteriorate as he doesn’t have the resources to care for them.

The brand-new TVAL aeroplanes (Snipe and Albatros D.Va) that he acquired a few years back both now need a complete fabric job before they are airworthy again. The Lysander was a perfectly good flying aeroplane when get bought it. When I saw it a few years back I was horrified, the fabric was full of holes, the glazing was yellow and cracked and the exhaust collector ring on the cowlings had rotted through. It needs a complete rebuild, and there was no sign that the engine had been inhibited so that would need overhauling too. The Spitfire, fresh from a ground-up rebuild, was also allowed to deteriorate. About 10 years ago he decided to get it flying again, all the fabric was replaced, the fuel system worked on and tanks removed to fix leaks. I think he got as far as ground runs, but no further, then it has just been sitting deteriorating again in the 6 or 7 years since then. Recent acquisitions such as the lovely Pitcairn and the Curtiss-Wright 19R were flown a couple of times and parked

A genuine question, how many of his fleet are actually airworthy and flown nowadays? I don’t know the answer, but I suspect it’s only half a dozen or so. And as time goes on, the much-trumpeted ‘Act III’ seems to be becoming more and more unlikely.

Who else was buying them?

Indeed.
That's without mentioning the Mossie, Sunderland etc.,etc.
I'll give him some leeway with the B-26 as so few surviviors of the type.......I was lucky to see it when parked up at Chino in 97.
I remember the 'fanfare' surrounding the buying of the Woodford crushed Lanc and its rebuild.......which was in a WWW edition IIRC, which shows you how long that's been in storage.
I still remember the one and only conversation I had with him when I visited his old hanger at Tamiami back in 1989, with the Mossie sitting at the open entrance to the hanger sweating in Florida's high heat and humidity, and asking him wasn't he worried about the Mossie, given the known issue with glue when in service in the Far East. He was very dismissive of the concern.

Maybe he wasn't exactly dismissive.... thats right around the same time he flew it to oshkosh (summer of '90 i think) and left it there.

So I can't fault him - its his money and he sure has saved a lot. But I can't help but agree (from an outsiders perspective of course) that he collects amazing planes and then they become "painted planes". And if I understand correctly - correct me if I am wrong - FoF is barely "open". More like a personal collection of planes that is on a limited display to the public.

But I have no money to argue with and I am grateful he has the foresight to keep them from being scrapped!

Tom P.

Agreed! And they will all get to see daylight or air under their wing eventually in the future. Metal air frames in his collection will for sure outlast my lifespan

It is a shame the B-25 has been on the ground for so long after what was an 18 year restoration, that would be one I'd put priority on to get back in the air.

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Always looking for WW2 Half-Tracks and Parts.

The limited opening of a single hangar for a few weeks a year is purely for tax purposes, so he can get tax breaks for being classified as a museum.

the one hangar that is open, when its open, is pretty cool and worth the price of admission. Its only 20 or so minutes from Disney, provided the traffic on 4 is light.