K Weeks elusive P-47D

[Michel Lemieux]

My 2 cents.

P.S.: Nice to see Mr Reilly: https://www.facebook.com/KermitWeeks


In the works. May not all fly soon...or even in my life time....but still.....
I think it is money well spent!

- Trimotor
- Standard J-1
- Seversky
- Vega
- P51A
- Boeing fighter replicas
- 2 Tempest's
- 109 G-6 in Canada
- A26
- Twin engine Sikorsky
- Fokker D-VII
- Bf-108
- Any others?

[Thomas_Mac]

My 2 cents.

In the works. May not all fly soon...or even in my life time....but still.....
I think it is money well spent!

- Trimotor
- Standard J-1
- Seversky
- Vega
- P51A
- Boeing fighter replicas
- 2 Tempest's
- 109 G-6 in Canada
- A26
- Twin engine Sikorsky
- Fokker D-VII
- Bf-108
- Any others?

Also his CAC Wirraway and BT-15, both seem pretty much good to go. He also has a Kingfisher and Ki-61 project on the go in the southern hemisphere if I recall? You have to wonder how much of this is at a stand still while he tries to make Fantasy of Flight a self sustaining venture. I wish him all the best and am grateful he shares as much content as he does as I am sure the constant criticism and arm chair management must get tiresome. All part of the promotion/social media game if you want to grow a business at the end of the day I guess.

[bdk]

You have to wonder how much of this is at a stand still while he tries to make Fantasy of Flight a self sustaining venture.

I think it is good for him to figure this out now. The FHC/Paul Allen collection does not yet seem to have done that. You can only sell off so much to fund operating expenses before you no longer have a viable organization. Luckily the collection is pretty deep so this model might work for some time.

Bob Pond/Palm Springs Air Museum and the Lyon Museum seem to be running pretty smoothly after the passing of their founders. I think the key is to have a good management structure in place. You need to allow for personalities to come and go without major disruption to the way the organization operates. Weeks' museum seems to be personality driven and I don't see the founder wanting to give up control. His vision seems to still be evolving.

[Firebird]

He's been cheated, bilked, and screwed out of money by all kind of restoration shops, brokers, import-export schemes, etc. over the years. If everyone had been as ethical as Kermit, all of the airplanes would be restored and flyable at this point. Many of his aircraft he had to pay double or more to get them finished. I was at an airport in Florida once that had two of his aircraft under restoration. They had been sitting for years. He had paid 100% in advance and the mechanics had taken his money and not finished the airplanes.

Crikey.
I wasn't impressed after the conversation I had with him at Tamiami and after reading that, it explains a lot.

Have to say I'm with Mike, although I applaud the fact that he's saved a lot of stuff, but like most hoarders with a severe case of collectoritis his ambition is far bigger than his realisation.

[k5083]

I wish Kermit the best in whatever he does.

I find it ironic that he's chasing the only plane money can't buy - the higher astral plane.

It would be fine with me if he scaled back his public activities and just enjoyed his planes, flew a cool one to a few shows per year, restored whatever he could afford - a la the Lewis or Friedkin model. Eventually his collection would get dispersed to the rest of the warbird community, mostly in the state it's in now, but who here thinks that won't happen anyway?

Nobody can take away what he's done for aerobatics, EAA, vintage aviation. I'd be more than satisfied with what I'd achieved, if I were him.

August

[bgp429]

As a casual observer Kermit gets some rather harsh criticism.

Kermit can walk out any time and look at all those real awesome planes. He paid for them and he can do as he wishes. The thing I like about him is how he shares his collections with others via video. He comes across like nice person and really loves his collection.

He may never restore another plane and I don't care. Most of what he has seems secure [without another hurricane] and won't be scrapped. The planes will be around for future generations. How much of what Kermit owns would have been scrapped without his money and foresight?