A Visit to Fantasy Of Flight
A few years ago, while on a family trip to Daytona Beach, my dad and I went and visited Kermit Week's Fantasy of Flight in Polk City, Florida. FOF is still one of the most amazing museums I've visited, mainly due to all the stuff the guy has in storage. If you happen to be in the area, I highly recommend you visit. But first, let's look at some of the aircraft on the main floor, shall we?
Supermarine Spitfire Mk. XVI
Allison V-3420. The 3420 was essentially two Allison V-1710 mated together into one engine. Not that great an idea, and very few aircraft actually used it.
North American P-51D and P-51C Mustangs
The worlds only flying Short Sunderland
North American B-25J Mitchell
Bachem Ba349 Natter replica
Grumman F3F Flying Barrel
Fiesler Fi-156 Storch
The Douglas B-23 Dragon is one of my favorite airplanes. They only made 38 of them, and there are only around a half dozen or so left. To date this is the only one I've been able to see in person.
Northrop P-61 top turret and a Lockheed Vega in the background
This is one of only three "flyable" Consolidated B-24 Liberators. I say "flyable" because it hasn't flown in quite a few years
The worlds only "flyable" Martin B-26 Marauder, and one of only about a half-dozen left
Lockheed Constellation
B-26 and Storch
Now, as I said before, the most amazing part of this whole museum is all the stuff this guy has in storage:. And I don't even have pictures of all of it in the hangars we got to see. He's also got a pair of rather large hangars across the street from the main museum that have various other aircraft and parts.
This is in the first hangar. On the wall are various parts, and from left to right a Vultee BT-13 Valiant, a pair of Bristol Bolingbrokes (the Canadian version of the Bristol Blenheim), and a Douglas A-24 Banshee (the Army version of the SBD Dauntless), that was missing it's wings because it had previously been used as a film studio wind machine.
\
The next hangar over, a Curtiss CW-22 Falcon, and a Grumman F9F Cougar, and...
...a Ju-52 and a Yakovlev of some sort.
I wish I had more good pictures of this hangar, because it was truly awesome to see. Inside were countless engines: Allison V-1710's Merlins, P&W Radials, Wright Radials, Daimler-Benzes, BMW's, and all sorts of other strange and exotic powerplants I didn't recognize. I even recall that in one corner there was an Argus Pulse Jet out of a V-1 .
Why a picture of eight shipping containers? Because in those containers are all the pieces of a disassembled Avro Lancaster. He just hasn't gotten around to having it put together yet.
Along with seeing the storage hangars on the "Backlot Tour", you also get to see the restoration hangar.
A J9, the Swedish designation for the Seversky P-35
Grumman F6F Hellcat
The Hellcat again, and one of my favorite pictures I took at the museum.
A Lockheed P-38 Lightning that was recovered from some South American country. The wings and tail booms were cut off with a chainsaw while being recovered because it was too wide to fit down the roads.
After the museum tour, my dad bought us both a ride in this New Standard D-25 Bi-Plane. Awesome.
And finally, as we were talking to the pilot of the D25, we saw the B-25 being pulled out. We asked what they were doing, and he said that the B-25 was special bomb racks that carried watermelons, and the had a target set up on the lake right next to the museum, and they were going out to practice their aim.
Supermarine Spitfire Mk. XVI
Allison V-3420. The 3420 was essentially two Allison V-1710 mated together into one engine. Not that great an idea, and very few aircraft actually used it.
North American P-51D and P-51C Mustangs
The worlds only flying Short Sunderland
North American B-25J Mitchell
Bachem Ba349 Natter replica
Grumman F3F Flying Barrel
Fiesler Fi-156 Storch
The Douglas B-23 Dragon is one of my favorite airplanes. They only made 38 of them, and there are only around a half dozen or so left. To date this is the only one I've been able to see in person.
Northrop P-61 top turret and a Lockheed Vega in the background
This is one of only three "flyable" Consolidated B-24 Liberators. I say "flyable" because it hasn't flown in quite a few years
The worlds only "flyable" Martin B-26 Marauder, and one of only about a half-dozen left
Lockheed Constellation
B-26 and Storch
Now, as I said before, the most amazing part of this whole museum is all the stuff this guy has in storage:. And I don't even have pictures of all of it in the hangars we got to see. He's also got a pair of rather large hangars across the street from the main museum that have various other aircraft and parts.
This is in the first hangar. On the wall are various parts, and from left to right a Vultee BT-13 Valiant, a pair of Bristol Bolingbrokes (the Canadian version of the Bristol Blenheim), and a Douglas A-24 Banshee (the Army version of the SBD Dauntless), that was missing it's wings because it had previously been used as a film studio wind machine.
\The next hangar over, a Curtiss CW-22 Falcon, and a Grumman F9F Cougar, and...
...a Ju-52 and a Yakovlev of some sort.
I wish I had more good pictures of this hangar, because it was truly awesome to see. Inside were countless engines: Allison V-1710's Merlins, P&W Radials, Wright Radials, Daimler-Benzes, BMW's, and all sorts of other strange and exotic powerplants I didn't recognize. I even recall that in one corner there was an Argus Pulse Jet out of a V-1 .
Why a picture of eight shipping containers? Because in those containers are all the pieces of a disassembled Avro Lancaster. He just hasn't gotten around to having it put together yet.
Along with seeing the storage hangars on the "Backlot Tour", you also get to see the restoration hangar.
A J9, the Swedish designation for the Seversky P-35
Grumman F6F Hellcat
The Hellcat again, and one of my favorite pictures I took at the museum.
A Lockheed P-38 Lightning that was recovered from some South American country. The wings and tail booms were cut off with a chainsaw while being recovered because it was too wide to fit down the roads.
After the museum tour, my dad bought us both a ride in this New Standard D-25 Bi-Plane. Awesome.
And finally, as we were talking to the pilot of the D25, we saw the B-25 being pulled out. We asked what they were doing, and he said that the B-25 was special bomb racks that carried watermelons, and the had a target set up on the lake right next to the museum, and they were going out to practice their aim.
posted by AP at 12:14 AM
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