Fantasy of Flight, Polk City, Fl - Page 3

**MichaelS** · #21 07-29-2018, 07:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wyvern

And yes, the Sunderland FEELS big. Weeks’ aircraft is one that was converted by Shorts’ into a Solent.

Wyvern

When I was there 10 years ago the SUnderland was inside the big hanger with stairs up to the inside. The guys there were so nice they actually carried me and my wheelchair up inside. The thing was just cavernous inside!!

**MichaelS** · #22 07-29-2018, 07:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wyvern

Take a look at my thread from a couples years back, when Gixergs and I spent a wonderful day at Fantasy of Flight.

Wyvern

Any chance you could put a link to that thread here please. I have not yet mastered the "sorta search" function on this forum.

**MichaelS** · #23 07-29-2018, 07:50 AM

Just found these. These are my pics from my visit there in June 2008. As you can see the number of aircraft and the display area was much bigger back then. In any case what Kermit Weeks is doing for classic aviation is astounding.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/bpGCoqYVKNPHq2K6A

**Butelczynski** · #24 07-29-2018, 09:59 AM

Thank you guys for those pictures.Nice to see Fokker DVIII,Seversky and especially nice close ups of Sunderland. Fantastic quality.

**MacSongLi** · #25 07-29-2018, 10:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichaelS

The docents there told us that there is too much corrosion in the wing spars to ever restore it. They said when the guy flew it in there for its last flight there was "noticeably" more wing dihedral when he landed.

Yikes! Lucky he got it there safely. Still a nice aircraft.

Gary

**WVA** · #26 07-29-2018, 04:16 PM

A photograph I took at Oshkosh, yr. 2000 I think, of Mr. Week's Sunderland in a fly-by. The plane was not parked at the airfield of course, but I don't know if it was at the lake nearby or not. I visited the museum a year or so later, and went inside this monster. Other than the "not too pristine" cockpit, it look like an abandoned house inside! Jim B

**MichaelS** · #27 07-30-2018, 06:07 AM

One thing I got a kick out of on this trip is that we knew more things about some of these airplanes than the docents did. My buddy Ed Mayday will back me up on this. The one guy swore up and down that the engine in the Nieuport 17 was the original. It was very clearly a radial rather than a rotary!

One of them went on and on about the war record of the B-24 on display. When I asked him about the still visible British serials and roundel under the left wing he had no explanation.

**MichaelS** · #28 07-31-2018, 05:17 AM

Just wanted to bump this up because my friend Ed Mayday added his pictures to mine in the album. No idea what happened to all the pictures he took of his feet!!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/UccD41m7gLtNMUER7