Warbird Information Exchange

To Charles Somers , Sacramento , CA.

Wow, that Mr. Somers must have a boatload of money. My estimation of the value of those two aircraft together put it in the 6 to 10 Million dollar range. Add to this the Mossie that he bought recently from Mr. Lewis and that's another 6 to 8 Million. So in total, Mr. Somers has probably shelled out close to 12 to 18 Million for all 3 of those aircraft alone.

I'm very excited that there is now another big "power player" in the warbird arena. Could Mr. Somers be the next Mr. Allen replacement? I hope so!

Kudos to Mr. Somers and his organization, I hope he continues to buy and support many more warbirds to fly so we can all enjoy them.

Is there any indication these warbirds have been bought and will continue to fly? By my reckoning, the new owner has a P-51 that never leaves the airport circuit its based at. What's to say all of these beautiful machines will not have the same fate? I hope I'm wrong because this new collection has some beautiful aircraft in it, and I'm all for warbirds moving to and from different owners but as long as they're regularly flown and perhaps seen by the public every now and again...

I'm just assuming that they will be flown on a regular basis based on photos I've seen online showing his aircraft at a few different events in Northern California. But yes, I see your point, and hope they are flown at a few airshows/events at least. His collection is just getting started, by the way. Maybe his limitation is available, qualified pilots? I'm sure with that many rare and different aircraft he's probably got to get a few different pilots checked out and up to speed before he starts displaying them to the general public. I just hope he doesn't "Kermit out" on us with this collection.

With all this being said, however, as always, he is a private collector and can do whatever he wishes with his aircraft. If he parks all of them in a hangar and never flys them again, then "so be it", and it's his right. It would be sad if that were the case, and we would have to wait until the aircraft got sold to its next caretaker for the public to enjoy.

Exciting news for sure. Is Somers making an actual publicly accessible museum? Or is it just a private collection?

_________________
Keep Em' Flying,
Christopher Soltis
Dedicated to the preservation and education of The Sikorsky Memorial Airport

CASC Blog Page: http://ctair-space.blogspot.com/
Warbird Wear: https://www.redbubble.com/people/warbirdwear/shop

Chicks Dig Warbirds.......right?

Mr. Somers has definitely shelled out some money on warbirds lately, but didn't he also purchase a P-40C along with the Mossie from Mr. Lewis?

I'm sure we have all noticed Mr. Friedkin has been a little quiet on the warbird stage lately. With his affinity for Mustangs, hopefully Dan sold the 47' and 38' to make room for an 82'

Somers’ collection will be kept flyable, they’re just coming off the annual on the Corsair. They have a few pilots, and are currently not a big air show group, but this could change down the line.

Realistically, unless you live in the UK or went to POF you never got to see Friedkin’s collection anyway. At the very least this opens the door to Sommers’ collection of rarely seen aircraft becoming more of a MAFM/Erickson/CAF that are willing to send aircraft to events.

This is the same reason I’m glad FHCAM is finished, time for those planes to go to owners that have a better chance of showing them off, or at least considering it...

Ah, that's good to know. I hope that the Somers' collection does attend various airshows, at least in California. With his proximity to Reno, it would be very easy for him to fly some of those aircraft to the Races for NAHI/static display....hint,hint!

I thought NAHI and RARA had fallen out and gone their separate ways?

Yes, that was previously true, but they have kissed and made up:

https://airrace.org/national-aviation-h ... itational/