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Been there a couple times. Spent the other day revisiting it to see what they have changed. Seems there will be a major expansion the nd of this year.


Always interesting to see the planes.




Besides the planes it amazes me that Kermit Weeks not only owns them but flies them. It is always interesting that he shares remembrances of flying them.






Here is his other GB racer.

Where is that one located? The last air museum I was at was the Smithsonian in DC but much of the building was closed off due to major construction and remodelling.

Polk City Florida.

More of his comments.






I didn’t know about the wood and fabric on the Corsair.





















I don’t know if I buy that it is the most original Spitfire that exists. I think s9me of that may be pride exaggeration.

He sure does have some stuff.

Another nice little piece of info.

Beautiful photos, Oldgrognard. Thank You.

I had to Google Kermit Weeks, sorry.

Wow he owns over 140 aircraft.

https://www.fantasyofflight.com/collection/aircraft/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kermit_Weeks

It's been over 20 years since I've been there. Great collection. I had the exceedingly rare opportunity to climb into his Sunderland once!

You have two more of the best air museums in the country near you at Pensacola and Warner Robins.

Do they still have the combat flight sim set up?
I haven't been there in 20 years either.

I must visit Fantasy of Flight soon.

I watch Kermit's channel often, and I am super impressed by his collection!
Thanks OG.

One of the places I really want to visit. An acquaintance of mine has a Boeing P-12 being built for him in Nevada by Roy Rehm, who is also building one for Kermit Weeks. In this video Kermit visits him. You can see the one going to Norway at 17:55 here:

My understanding is that Rehm is getting out of the aircraft building business, finishing up what he has on hand for these Boeings and selling the tooling to Kermit. His wife recently passed and he's up there in age as well.

No. Maybe in the expanded facilities next year.

Semmern, thanks for that. I wasn’t aware of it. Found this when I did some research.


Roy Rehm has 8 Boeing 100/P-12/F4B projects - this includes Kermit Weeks' Boeing 100, the Howard Hughes Boeing 100A, three F4B's (of different variants) and three P-12's (of different variants). Kermit's Boeing 100 will be the first to be completed/flying. The second one that will head out the door is an F4B-1 that is owned by Bill Allen (Allen Airways Flying Museum), and the third aircraft to be completed is an F4B for Jerry Yagen (Military Aviation Museum). The owner of the fourth example in line, a P-12B, is located in Spokane, Washington. The fifth in line is the P-12 advertised on Platinum Fighter Sales, owned by Øyvind Ellingsen. I believe the Howard Hughes Boeing 100A, currently being done for Roy Rehm himself (pending future possibility of sale), could be considered the sixth, with the last two examples being an F4B-2 and P-12C also owned by Kermit Weeks.

Even though all of these aircraft are almost entirely newly-built, they are just absolutely perfect and period-correct in every detail, down to the rivets, screws and fasteners, and each variant with all of their individual production differences - they aren't replicas, they're newly-manufactured clones.

In that case dig back in the Kermit video archives on his YT channel, he has visits to Rehms place going way back. It's fascinating to see the progress over the years as well as innumerable tidbits on the aircraft themselves.

What are those little planes in the first and third photo?

Granville Gee Bee. A racing plane from the 1930s.

these?

They say Gee Bee right there by the tail, so yep, those are the ones

When two Gee Bees really love each other…