Ken711 wrote:
So him in Florida and I asked him about Fertile Myrtle, if he plans to restore it to airworthy someday. He answered he sure does. I suppose it still depends on his time and of course money.
He says that with all of his aircraft. In fact, I don't know of any aircraft he has been asked about that he said, "no, it's only static and will not be restored to airworthy condition or fly again", besides maybe his wrecked DC-3 and/or Connie that he uses as giant billboards on the side of the road. It's his standard diplomatic answer. Kermit is an eternal optimist who says every aircraft in his care will eventually be rebuilt to fly again. I like that attitude, but it is in no way realistic. If you look at his track record of how long it takes for each aircraft to be restored, including some that are still multi-decade efforts, it does not bode well. Kermit is 67 years old, soon to be 68 this summer.
Let's do some public math. Let's assume that 20 aircraft are more or less airworthy, or could be with not too extensive annuals/IRANS. There are currently 160 aircraft in his collection. That means there are approximately 140 aircraft that need restoration. Let's assume that Kermit wants to have this goal completed before he turns 87, which is 20 years from now. I think we can likely surmise that he probably won't be flying anything beyond this age. Since he almost never lets anybody fly his aircraft, we can assume that the collection will be grounded then as well. So, he has 140 more aircraft to restore in 20 years. That equates to 7 completed aircraft restorations each year from now until the next 20 years. Kermit has probably restored 7 aircraft to flight in the last 20 years. There is no way this is going to happen, especially since he is the first to admit that he doesn't have enough money to even keep his museum open, much less spend a significant amount on that many restorations in the future.
All of this means that it is highly likely that only a few more aircraft will be restored to flying condition. Though he says the B-29 is one of those goals, I would be willing to bet it will never happen. The cost of restoring his B-29 to flying condition would likely cost at least 10 to 20 Million dollars, possibly more, assuming no major corrosion issues are found (i.e.- new wing spars, etc.) I don't see him shelling out that kind of money for a B-29, when he could restore 5 to 10 single engine fighters for the same cost.
All of this is not a knock against Kermit, whatsoever. I'm simply trying to illustrate that people must manage their expectations. It is highly unrealistic to expect Kermit to restore to airworthy, the B-29, B-17, Sunderland or any of his other "big" projects during his lifetime. At best, we can expect maybe a half dozen more complex (i.e.- other than light) warbirds to be restored, in my opinion.
Kermit is an absolutely fantastic ambassador to aviation and warbirds specifically, but the vast majority of his collection will never fly under his ownership. As long as people know that, us hardcore fans will never be disappointed. Sometimes I think Kermit gives that standard answer of "everything will be restored to airworthy", just to keep people from hounding him about timelines and which aircraft is going to be restored next. In fact, I would probably do the same, if I were in his shoes.
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