OD/NG wrote:
Just my opinion only, but I don't think we will see any of the large heavy aircraft that Weeks owns fly under his ownership. This includes the B-17, B-24, B-29, Lancaster, Connie and Sunderland. I would also throw in the B-23, B-26 and A-20. These are super expensive restorations that require, literally, many 10's of millions of dollars to restore and/or bring back to airworthy. Based on Kermit's blog, facebook and youtube videos, one can surmise that he doesn't have a lot of money - well, at least disposable money - to use on restorations. Yes, he's a "multi-millionaire" on paper and has many, many assets, but I don't believe he has that much money to use on aircraft restorations.
This is evidenced by the way he does his restorations. Most of them are done "in-house". The few that aren't are normally multi-decade projects. As an example, how long has that A-26 been sitting at Aero Trader - 25 to 30 years? How long has the P-51A been at Art Teeter's shop - several decades, at least? How long has the Boeing 100/F4B production line taken - several decades? Why? Because of a lack of funding, in my opinion. Remember, Kermit also shut down Fantasy of Flight for a period of time because it was not "breaking even" and "couldn't support itself", as according to Kermit's social media accounts. It is now partially open, but on a limited schedule and mostly for "special events".
So, contrary to popular opinion, Kermit doesn't have an "unlimited" bank account to support everything he wants to do. This is not a knock on him, as I believe he does the best that he can with his limited resources. Unfortunately, it's just reality. I'm glad that there are people such as him that keep the rare aircraft around and restore and fly them occasionally.
Before you make broad assumptions about Mr. Weeks, you first need to realize who he is and where he came from. Kermit's grandfather, Lewis Weeks, was the Chief Geologist for Standard Oil of New Jersey. When he retired from Standard Oil, he set up a consulting firm, consulting other oil companies where to drill. He struck a deal with an Australian oil company for 2.5% royalties on everything the company finds, payable to his six heirs continuously with no end date. Kermit himself has been receiving royalty checks of his grandfathers deal since he was 17. In a 1974 Forbes article, Kermit's annual royalty payments were said to be over 100k at that time. It was also estimated in 1974 Forbes article that the Lewis Weeks deal could potentially earn the family over a quarter of a billion 1974 dollars. ($1.3B in 2018 dollars). While the Weeks family is quiet on the royalty payments that still continue to this day, Kermit did say in an interview that the dividend income from his investments has exceeded the oil royalty payments, which should be expected after a lifetime of stockpiling money. These are all facts verifiable using simple google search and a little bit of research.