I just had the delight of taking the "back lot tour" at Fantasy of Flight - Kermit Week's restoration facility/museum - in Polk City, Florida USA.

The static displays are, of course, excellent, something for Ozzy, Pippin, Hagar, Ivan  ...  and more.

What interested me this time is the what they call the back lot tour, which is a quick pass through their restoration bays.  The first place you go to is, for a lack of a better word, engines and props section.  Allison inlines galore (including a "double Allison" H?-3860... take two and join them at the crankshaft), P&W radials, of course, but ... Bristol Mercury, Centarus and even the PW 28-cylinder behemoth "corncob" that powered the Super-Corsair (F2G), B50, B36.. etc.  A smattering of RR Merlins and Mercedes engines were around.

Props - priceless scrap wood props, not worth $5- as wood, but priceless as patterns from which to make new ones.

In various states I saw a Mig15, F9F-2, two (2) Bolinbrokes, 1 Strutter (I believe a replica), Bits and pieces of 3 Tu-2 (Chinese built) "Bat", A Gloster Meteor (the fellow was saying it was a "Type 3" but the nacelles seemed like the later 4/8, Yak -11, a Ju52 (Spanish built) .. . and an Avro 504 (original).  OTher projects include a Grumman F7F, and a PBY...

The Sunderland is still there, by the way, as was one of his "recent" restorations, the highly polished P-51C...

Some - not many.

I was on a "research" mission, looking for certain things - I managed to take a photo of the Strutter's  landing gear - I may use it to update my old ... OLD ... single seat French Strutter (did you know that the French built more Strutters than the British?)



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