All images below are thumbnails only; Full versions may been seen in the SimHQ article linked above.
Warbirds
In The Sun: A Visit To The
"Warbird Restoration Museum" and "Fantasy of Flight"
by John
"Spoons" Sponauer
Originally
Published October 14, 2002 at
All images below are thumbnails only; Full versions may been seen in the SimHQ
article linked above.
TOM REILLY’S WARBIRD RESTORATION MUSEUM
Kissimmee, Florida
After several straight days of Disney’s perfectly-groomed and artificial parks, coming to Tom’s museum was tourism system shock. Located about 15 minutes southeast of Disney, the museum's only advertising I saw on the major road nearby (Route 192) is a small brown sign and an arrow at the intersection where you turn south and head down a two-lane road towards Kissimmee Airport. You’ll know you’re there when the collection of aircraft comes into view on your left, partially obscured by a fence down a dirt driveway. The museum is in an old hangar and attached buildings on the west side of the airport, with about a dozen aircraft and parts of aircraft parked outside on the tarmac. The combination main office and PX / gift store is a small wooden building adjacent to the museum.
The View from the Road
In fact, the phrase “museum” itself is something of an understatement. This is an actual working restoration business. My tour frequently had to move aside for workers carrying parts by us, machinery was being used around, and the visitor needs to watch where they step because aircraft parts and material are all over. If you’re looking for nothing but a collection of pristine warbirds, go to the Smithsonian….although to be fair, Tom’s got many on display himself, and some are gorgeous. However, the beauty of the place, at least to me, is that this is the real deal. There’s a nose here, a tail here, props over there, and gear laying about in piles that I’m sure are deceptively well-categorized (“We don’t have a computer, but we know where everything is” says our guide).
Some of Tom's Inventory
Our 30-40 minute tour was conducted by one of Tom’s staff members, who led our small group and who punctuated information about the aircraft with personal jokes and stories. He was very knowledgeable and easy to talk to, and I can’t imagine a more appropriate person showing us around. He just fit the mood of the place perfectly.
The hangar dominates the museum, with a packed collection of aircraft hanging from above or jammed in tight next to each other on the ground. The collection inside is impressive…an F-104A, B-17, A-4, a Grumman S-2 and C-1, DeHavilland Vampire, Magister, Stearman, T-6, and more are largely in great shape, although the Fortress, "Outhouse Mouse" (serial number 44-85734, if you follow this stuff) is currently undergoing heavy restoration.
"Outhouse Mouse"
Three of its four engines lay nearby, as does an APU. We learn that this is a rare bird…one of the Fortresses used as a testbed with five engines after the war, the fifth being an XT-34 turboprop when the engine was being tested for later use in the C-133 Cargomaster. It was written off in a freak 1979 tornado in Connecticut, but Tom’s bringing it back to life as a traditional B-17G model for the Boeing Aircraft Company. This type of work is familiar to him….he also restored the only true B-24 Liberator bomber flying today, the Collings Foundation’s “Dragon and His Tail,” and its touring counterpart, the B-17 Flying Fortress "909.” This B-17, however, is still a little way from the state of the Collings’ planes…it’s still in several pieces, but coming along great. Having personally seen photos of the tornado’s wrath (it unfortunately landed right on the New England Air Museum), I think it’s amazing that this Fortress is in as good a condition as it is.
Walking around the hangar, we pass a collection of P-38 parts found in Alaska, an old helicopter purchased by Tom because the seller was including a stash of B-25 parts, and a wooden Spitfire model that looks like it was used as an “extra” for something. The more you look, the most amazing aviation history you see around you.
The Indoor Exhibits Covered A Wide Range of Aviation History
Adjacent to the hangar is a large workshop, and here we find another of Tom’s current projects…a P-40 rebuild for a private individual. Using a combination of new and old components, Tom’s crew is busy working on a wing as we crammed in between two large floor-to-ceiling shelves full of aircraft parts, some mangled and others like new.
Tom's Current P-40 Restoration Job
Following the tour, we were allowed to check out his exhibit of outside aircraft on the tarmac. The most pristine aircraft outside here is Tom’s B-25 Mitchell. Of the approximately 40 B-25s in existence, Tom’s restored about a quarter of them, and he did a beautiful job on this one. Other planes (or parts of planes) are an F-100, F-101, MiG-21, A-26, A-7, and a Korean War-vintage F9F Cougar. Walk up, kick the tires, and run your hands over the fuselages…this is a very visitor-friendly collection of planes. The museum’s brochure lists nearly 40 aircraft in total, about 15 of which are in flyable condition.
The Tarmac
If visitors get especially interested, it’s a short walk through some light brush to what seems like a parts overflow area….one of the first things that caught my eye were a small cluster of A-4 noses and cockpits, along with tails, wheels, wings, and more. There are some nearly intact aircraft here amidst the parts, and a massive wing lays nearby….you can almost feel the stories these things can tell!
A-4's Lying In The Weeds
A little further down the tarmac is a small collection of ground vehicles….jeeps, trucks, and the like, as well as some more piles of aircraft parts.
We did the tour and walked around outside in about an hour and a half, and then moved into the PX building. A Sperry ball-turret from a B-17 is the centerpiece of this crowded little room, and you can take some time to walk around looking at items like ejection seats, a Falcon air-to-air missile, and WWII-era memorabilia. Of course, there are books, prints, tapes, patches, and much more to buy as well.
PX / Gift Shop
You can easily do the entire museum in an hour, but most aviation fans would be able to spend two or three times that without any difficulty. If you get very daring, rides in a T-6 Texan are available as well through a neighboring business, which I don’t believe is directly related to the museum but which shares a parking lot and seems to be affiliated at the very least. Tom also offers weeklong courses in aviation restoration, which run about $1,000 and include a warbird flight at the end.
Museum admission is $9 for adults, and the hours are 9 AM – 5:30 PM Monday through Saturday, and 9 AM – 5 PM on Sunday. For more information, visit the Warbird Restoration Museum at www.warbirdmuseum.com or call them at (407) 933-1942. For information about the warbird flights, check out Warbird Adventures at www.warbirdadventures.com or call (800) 386-1593.
Polk City, Florida
My visit to Fantasy of Flight in Polk City, Florida was unique, largely because it was done as part of the reunion for my grandfather’s B-24 bomb group (the 460th, in the 15th AF during WWII). About 200 vets and their families piled in buses for the half-hour drive southwest from Disney, and got a very special treat.
Fantasy of Flight is owned and run by Kermit Weeks, a 49-year-old lifelong aviation enthusiast, aircraft designer, and pilot, who has built a large following in warbird circles, and who has his eyes on a project even more ambitious than what we saw on this October day. More on this later.... The common story behind Kermit's ability to collect vintage aircraft is that he inherited a great sum from his family, and if so, what he's done with it is a fantastic monument to man's desire to fly.
The first sign of Fantasy of Flight, tucked in behind some trailer homes on a lake, are the large tan hangars and buildings. At first glance, there’s only one aircraft visible as we approached, a Lockheed "Connie" parked at the edge of the tarmac. As we pulled in, though, more came into view just outside of the hangar, including a beautiful B-25, painted after “Apache Princess” of the 5th Air Force, based in the Pacific during WWII.
Apache Princess, in all her Glory
Fantasy of Flight is an extremely polished museum….I found it amazing that I didn’t see one drop of oil under any of the aircraft, and several of the exhibits, such as his P-51, are stunningly beautiful. Our large tour group was broken into clusters of about 50 and each given a full guide-led tour of the facility.
My group started off by a visit to the “back lot,” Kermit’s restoration facilities. The first stop was his engine shop, a small warehouse packed with neatly-arrayed and labeled collection of aircraft engines. No jets here, thanks…everything in this room was of the WWII era or older. A half-dozen Allison engines, for example, sit neatly paletted on some shelves, and our tour guide informs us that Kermit has a small stash of original ones as well, still in their crates with only about 10 hours of factory testing on them. Small benches nearby give many in our group time to sit and listen to our guide, who realizes soon that he’s got a crowd that knows what it’s talking about when they speak of aviation. A stack of props spirals up nearby, and the shelves are filled with neatly labeled inventories of parts from around the world.
Some of the Back Lot Warehouses
The next stop was to several storage hangars for various aircraft parts and components. Floor-to-ceiling racks hold what our guide said was the world’s largest inventory of B-17 parts, and I’d believe it….they line the entire length of the hangar and then some. A Dauntless dive-bomber, MiG-15, and various trainer aircraft sit parked in there tight as well, and other wings and parts lay nearby.
The last stop on the tour of the backlot is a workshop with nearly finished aircraft in it…a beautiful Extra aerobatics aircraft hangs inverted from the ceiling, keeping watch over a Seversky fighter, F6F Hellcat, and P-38 in various states of work. It was here that our group heard the sound that all warbird fans love to hear….radial engines firing up. Our guide informed us that we were in for a special day….the museum puts on a brief warbird flight daily, and because a.) Kermit was at the facility on this particular day, and b.) we were a touring WWII bomber vet group, he was going to put on a personal show for us in the Mitchell. Our group was thrilled.
Classic Aircraft Everywhere You Look
But before the show, it was time for lunch….we had reserved one of two museum dining facilities for our group, the “Officer’s Club.” Modeled in a mock South Pacific setting, the facility can accommodate nearly our whole group for lunch, under the watchful eye of a real B-24D forward fuselage coming out of the back wall. We all got a thrill out of it, and had a good lunch, including water with a Fantasy of Flight brand-name label on it. As a surprise, Kermit popped in and said a few words, sincerely thanking the vets for their service to the nation, talking about the museum a little bit, and excusing himself to get back to his work.
Table With a View!
Following lunch, our tour continued inside the display hangars, where beautifully restored aircraft (and classic cars) are parked, hung, and displayed. Kermit has a couple of examples that really stand out, like the P-51 mentioned earlier, but a B-26, Fiesler Storch, Natter rocket fighter, and Spitfire also jumped out at me. About 50 aircraft are on display in total….the museum calls it the “World’s Greatest Aircraft Collection,” and while I think that’s a bit of an overstatement, I have to admit it is really, really good.
Our group, though, wanted to see “Joe.” No, Joe isn’t a person, but Weeks’ B-24J Liberator, fairly recently grounded. However, up to that point, Joe was one of two flying B-24J bombers in the world, the other being the Collings Foundation’s B-24 “Dragon and His Tail” (the Confederate Air Force flies ‘Diamond Lil,’ but technically that aircraft is a LB-30, the cargo variant of the B-24A).
In a nice gesture, our group was allowed to go right up to Joe (most exhibits in the museum are roped off), and the bomb bay doors were open for us to go inside. My family, led by my grandfather, poked around the bay, listening to some of his recollection of the plane and the missions, and other small groups did the same. There was lots of nostalgia in the air as these aging warriors posed inside and out of the plane and examined the aircraft that carried them to battle nearly 60 years ago. It was extremely nice of Weeks to allow the group to have the unfettered time near the essentially priceless Liberator, and I know it was greatly appreciated.
Following some time in the hangar, we took a tour of Weeks’ exhibit rooms, which track the history of aviation from the early failed attempts up through WWII, with each era in its own room and accompanied by a short film. The tour started off with an interesting exhibit....a recreation of a nighttime paratrooper drop. Starting off in a dimly-lit widened fuselage, we each were to "stand at the door" and step forward into a black area lit only by a few dots of simulated starlight...then take an immediate left, while a rush of wind from mock "engines" blew in our backs.
Following our completion of that, and after one of those comical videos showing man's early failed aircraft designs, we moved into the Western Front of the First World War. A recreation of the WWI trenches was faithfully done up, but unfortunately, the 10-minute film that went with it was not working at the moment, so we missed that, and we also missed the simulated bomber mission briefing film in the museum’s recreation of an 8th Air Force briefing room.
After visitors see the briefing, they are free to walk through the museum’s B-17 Flying Fortress, which is set in an exhibit that recreates a snowy airfield in England. You enter in just aft of the starboard waist gunner’s station, and walk through the length of the fuselage to the front of the plane, listening to mock crew “chatter” on the radio. One portion of it is through the bomb bay catwalk, and again, the a/v was not working at the time, unfortunately, but you are supposed to be able to look down and get a feel for what it looked like with open bay doors at bombing altitude. You exit out the B-17 under the cockpit. The aircraft’s interior has been modified to widen the path you take through it and make the trek less cramped and difficult than the real thing, but even so, it’s a tight squeeze and makes you appreciate what the real crews went through.
8th AF B-17 Base Exhibit
As our group finished the B-17 walkthrough, we got word that the B-25 flight was about to start. We came out into the hangar and Kermit was standing on some equipment in front of the doors, with a small group of regular museum visitors around him. He gave a small talk about the B-25, the history of his museum, answered some questions, and then climbed up into Apache Princess, along with a co-pilot and his wife Teresa. Interestingly, the Apache woman on the side of the aircraft is a replica of the original B-25 “Apache Princess,” but Weeks has replaced her face with Teresa's.
As he taxied out to the grass strip behind the museum, we were all invited to watch the show from the edge of the tarmac. It was great to see the old warbird taking off in a small cloud of dust and grass kicked up on the strip, and Weeks put on a great little show for us. We learned that he sometimes drops watermelons out of the bomber during airshows, but we didn't see any this day. What we did see was a classic warbird and a man who loves them. I asked one of his staff how often the B-25 is used in the daily warbird flight, and the answer was “almost never.” It was a real treat.
Apache Princess takes to the Air
Following the taxi in, Kermit was nice enough to pose for pictures with visitors, and answered more questions from the crowd. I briefly chatted with him, and found him to be very easy to speak to and an interesting guy.
The Author and Kermit Weeks
Time was running out for the bus back to Orlando, so unfortunately the “Fightertown” section of Fantasy of Flight went unexplored by me. This is a recreation of a WWII aircraft carrier, and boasts a Hellcat, Corsair, and several cockpits equipped with a basic flight simulator for visitors to try their own hand at 'flying.' I really would have loved to have seen this section of the museum, but it looked very well done and interesting from when I popped my head in the door. A display with a crashed Zero set the stage perfectly. I popped in to the museum gift shop on the way out and found a great selection of books, trinkets, and related aviation items, as I expected.
Fantasy of Flight looks to be a museum that aviation fans will hear a lot about in the future. Ground was just broken on an expansion, and Weeks told our group about his ambitious plans for the future, which include turning all of his existing space into restoration facilities, building new hangars for each era of aviation, and then culminating with a recreation of a 1930's Pan Am clipper port on the lake next to the museum. Everything is still a few years off, but if you consider how far this museum has come since it opened in 1995, I guess nothing is out of the range of possibilities.
Restoration Workshop
Admission to Fantasy of Flight is a somewhat hefty $24.95 for adults, and is open 9 AM - 5 PM daily. It may be reached at www.fantasyofflight.com or by phone at (863) 984-3500.
Between the Warbird Restoration Museum and Fantasy of Flight, as well as some other aviation-related stops nearby, airplane and history buffs have several great attractions to visit in central Florida, whether stopping by the region on vacation or reconnecting with the local area's great value to warbird enthusiasts. Regardless, be sure to check out these two great museums, and help keep the history alive.
Copyright 2002 SimHQ.com. Republished with permission.
