Soplata News

[kmiles]

The details of the photo from JimH say that the photo was taken on 4/19/07 at 5:32 PM so it is a very recent photo.

[wendovertom]

in the mud or not, I love the cutlass - it would make an awesome display plane - restore her so that it could be towed out tothe flight line for our air show! Here's to dreaming.

Tom P.

[mustangdriver]

Same here man. I love the F7U!

[Canso42]

Hey WACODRVR,
What kind of WACO do you drive?

Canso42

[peter]

Any chance you can send the pics to me?

[Steve T]

Peter--

They're not digital (heck, none of my pix are, even from this year!); but I did get one of them scanned to CD along with the two I shot at Walt's in '84. Your email address still the same?

S.

[peter]

Yes steve the email address is still the same

[WACODRVR]

As for the Waco question, we have a UPF-7 and are restoring the the only existing ULA. I own an L-4J that that Ernest Kowalik (Alone and Umarmed) flew in Italy with the 88th Inf Batt in 1944/45, and we own the original 1932 Benny Howard DGA-4 air racers Mike and Ike.
As for my Cutlass comment, we too think it is awsome and should be saved for static. The financial and logistical reality of moving the thing would be staggering though. And that assumes Walter would ever part with it, which I doubt. As for pix, I swore on my life not to release any photos of what we saw... After combing through the collection, we left Walters with a sense of overwelming sadness. Back in the day, the collection would have been priceless, and it may still be to some, but a majority of the relics are so far gone it would hardly make sense to try and save them.
The biggest misconception about the man and his collection is that Walter truly does care about his airplanes. I stood at the spot where the recently sold Corsair once sat and watched tears stream down his face. The airplane was not sold because he wanted it sold, it was because it had to be sold. I was left with the impression that it will be many many moons before anything else leaves his farm. What he does deserve is a lot of respect for trying to save some amazing aircraft.

[Warbird Kid]

Has there ever been any thought of somehow putting a roof over the collection where it stands? Even if it was one of those temp tents, that would be better than nothing at all right?

[Steve T]

WK--

A tent is an interesting idea, but as WACODRVR says, it's probably rather too late for that...the remaining airframes/parts at Newbury being the rougher/less complete ones (with a couple exceptions). As well, the area to be covered is still quite large.

Walter did in the past attempt to address that issue on an airframe-by-airframe basis, by erecting small shelters above some, for example the FG-1D and the F2G. He also used to bombard everything with light oil. Interestingly Bob Odegaard commented on how relatively corrosion-free the ex-Soplata F2G was compared to the other (now flying) F2G, pre-restoration...

WACODRVR--

Walt certainly does care about the airplanes, yes. As has been said many times on WIX, we all owe him bigtime for caring about this stuff before almost anyone else did.

You've got not one but both of those prewar Howard racers? Wow. Saw a very sharp replica of "Ike" at Willow Run a few years back. Neat machine. Did not realize either of the originals had survived (let alone both with the same owners!).

Peter--

Will send off Clunk hulk pix shortly...

S.