Any updates for the Soplata collection

[T J Johansen]

I think the one B-25 went to Yagen and is named 'Wild Cargo", A26 B still there, three different skyraiders are still there, two TBM Avengers still there,

Is the 26 complete?

T J

[wendovertom]

Doesn't the Soplata collection also have a F7 Cutlass?

Tom P.

[cooper9411]

One of his BT-13's is in my shop. Sure wish I could have met him...

One hell of a good man. When Walt first met you, he would act put off by you approaching him. This just from my own experience. Walt asked me "what I knew about airplanes" and when I answered him, it was like a flood gate had opened and Walt just started talking about all the aircraft he owns or had owned. he also told me why he decided to part with a couple of the aircraft and how the township had wanted him to obtain permits for his public spectacle that "is on display". I'll tell you Walt sure could talk, and the thing is when people talk non stop it tends to get a little irritating, but with Walt I was just transfixed on his stories and how he would go after these aircraft with his kids and they would disassemble them and "truck" them home. The guy sure had the foresight to save these absolute pieces of history.

[tom d. friedman]

The F-82 is gone, two B-25's are gone, two Corsairs are gone. I'll try to post a list of what I saw when I was there. The P-47, P-39, P-63 fuselages are all still there. Rumor has it that Walt also has a couple of disassembled aircraft that he stored in his lower level of the house. There were all kinds of parts and pieces scattered throughout the property. I recall counting at least 8 radial engines just laying aound and one was still attached to a stand. I've heard that the family is being very hesitant here recently, supposedly there have been many people and so called "organizations" that have been calling or dropping in non stop. If it was me, I'd find this very annoying and disrespectful. I'm sure one day the collection will go to a good caring home.

i've been under the house. there is an f-100 flight simulator their, as well as the forward cockpit section of a few c-46 commando transports that were owned by ortner air service out of wakeman ohio which is where i live. inicidentally the wakeman airport was just sold to a nephew of the ortner brothers. talk about deja vu!!! i only saw what the daylight projected through the doors. it was dank, dark, & kind of spooky!!!!

[cooper9411]

Now there is barely enough room to see the doors!

[marine air]

I would like to see them hold a Starman Bros. type auction. Everything would be indexed, identified, photographed and every enthusiast would have an equal opportunity to bid on items of interest.
IMO, otherwise stuff will just disappear and the between possible theft and family members, things will just disappear or sit out in the elements for another lifetime or two.
An auction would give the heirs the highest amount of money now while they can use it as they see fit.

[cooper9411]

Unfortunately we have no say in any of it. Hopefully the family will decide something before it is to late

[Steve T]

Oo another Soplata thread...got to post...

Pat--

Here's what's left Walt's, to my knowledge, since the late 70s:

P-51D N69X hulk, to Brian O'Farrell in Florida
P-80A 29689, to NMNA, Pensacola, now on static display
B-25J "Our Miss Lady"/"Wild Cargo", to Steve Detch, subsequently Jerry Yagen, Virginia
EF-82E 46-256/NACA 133, to Wally Fisk/Amjet, subsequently C&P Aviation, Minnesota
F2G-2 88463/NX5577N, to Crawford Museum, subsequently Tom Ungurean, Ohio
FG-1D 88026, to Ken McBride, California
O-52A Owl, to private owner in Indiana
XP-82 44-83887 remains, to Tom Reilly, Georgia for restoration/re-creation to fly
BT-13 Valiant, to Dan Jones, Alberta, Canada
F-84F, to MAPS museum, Akron, Ohio

Tom P--

Yes, there sure is a Vought Cutlass at Walt's, rescued by him in the sixties; he used that airframe as an example of the demilling process (about which he was very irritable indeed), pointing out all manner of damage to it that had had to be done before Walt could obtain the airplane. One of about five extant F7Us, it's F7U-3 129683 iirc, and would be a splendid addition to, say, the Vought-themed museum in Connecticut...I saw recently a 2011 photo of it and it has moved not one inch since I first saw it thirty years ago this summer.

TJ--

The Invader is an executive conversion, N919P, which ditched in Lake Michigan in (iirc) 1969. Recovered and stripped for spares, it was written off and the bulk of the airframe was sold to Walt. I don't think the engines are there but most of the rest of the airframe is...or at least was in the 80s. It was not heavily damaged in the ditching (and all on board got out OK).

Dan--

I didn't realize you'd never got to meet Walt. I had the unique pleasure of conversing with him at length thrice...twice at his place and once when he came to Hamilton to survey the Victor nose (left for CWH by the RAF after the Victor crashlanded on arrival for the '86 airshow) with a view to buying it (which he did). An unforgettable individual.

Tom F--

So there are more C-46 bits downstairs. Didn't know that. Did see a C-46 aft fuselage section out near the B-36; only realized it was a C-46 piece afterward. I did see inside the house in '82, but only the top two floors.

Re the Mitchells, Walt had two, but there are three IDs that keep surfacing. He may have had bits of a third Mitchell but there were just the two intact ones..."Wild Cargo", now flying in Virginia, and 44-86708, a stock USAF TB-25N that is still at Newbury. Neither of the well-known flying C&P Mitchells is ex-Walt. C&P do have the former Soplata EF-82E, though, which may be where the confusion originates...

S.

[Steve T]

The query about aircraft no longer at Newbury brings up something else...something I've always been curious about...the very first aircraft both to arrive at Walt's, and to leave. It was not a Warbird. It was a late-1920s American Eagle light biplane, acquired in 1947. Walt used to run the engine, and once he was doing so and the Eagle attempted a getaway! He sold it soon after. In a 1970s interview he stated that the Eagle was still flying, owned by an airline pilot in California.

I've found a surviving Eagle online that could possibly be a match: 1928 American Eagle A-1, c/n 283, registered NC7172; restored and flown in California by retired Western Airlines captain Ted Homan (who was also involved with the rebuild of NASM's Douglas M-2) in the 60s, and now owned and flown by the Wings of History Museum in Morgan Hill, California. Can anyone confirm whether Eagle NC7172 is (or isn't) Walter Soplata's first airplane??

Incidentally, on Walt and biplanes...he loved them, and unlike Warbirds he was unopposed to their being flown. It seems he also had remarkable timing. When he came up to Hamilton to survey the Victor nose, he brought with him a huge old camcorder that almost resembled a machine gun. He hadn't been there twenty minutes when a radial engine rumbled by. No surprise at CWH, but this wasn't one of the Harvards or similar: it was Moe Servos, visiting from Guelph as he did about twice a year, in his drop-dead-gorgeous bright red Beech D17 Staggerwing. And on this occasion, in beautiful sunlight, he opted to fly multiple low passes down not the runway but the flightline, right behind the hangars. Walt went wild, hauled out the camcorder and taped the beautiful Stag beating-up Mt.Hope for posterity...the whole thing was such a delight to see! Probably that tape is still somewhere at Newbury. It'd be a treat to view it.

S.

[tom d. friedman]

Oo another Soplata thread...got to post...

Pat--

Here's what's left Walt's, to my knowledge, since the late 70s:

P-51D N69X hulk, to Brian O'Farrell in Florida
P-80A 29689, to NMNA, Pensacola, now on static display
B-25J "Our Miss Lady"/"Wild Cargo", to Steve Detch, subsequently Jerry Yagen, Virginia
EF-82E 46-256/NACA 133, to Wally Fisk/Amjet, subsequently C&P Aviation, Minnesota
F2G-2 88463/NX5577N, to Crawford Museum, subsequently Tom Ungurean, Ohio
FG-1D 88026, to Ken McBride, California
O-52A Owl, to private owner in Indiana
XP-82 44-83887 remains, to Tom Reilly, Georgia for restoration/re-creation to fly
BT-13 Valiant, to Dan Jones, Alberta, Canada
F-84F, to MAPS museum, Akron, Ohio

Tom P--

Yes, there sure is a Vought Cutlass at Walt's, rescued by him in the sixties; he used that airframe as an example of the demilling process (about which he was very irritable indeed), pointing out all manner of damage to it that had had to be done before Walt could obtain the airplane. One of about five extant F7Us, it's F7U-3 129683 iirc, and would be a splendid addition to, say, the Vought-themed museum in Connecticut...I saw recently a 2011 photo of it and it has moved not one inch since I first saw it thirty years ago this summer.

TJ--

The Invader is an executive conversion, N919P, which ditched in Lake Michigan in (iirc) 1969. Recovered and stripped for spares, it was written off and the bulk of the airframe was sold to Walt. I don't think the engines are there but most of the rest of the airframe is...or at least was in the 80s. It was not heavily damaged in the ditching (and all on board got out OK).

Dan--

I didn't realize you'd never got to meet Walt. I had the unique pleasure of conversing with him at length thrice...twice at his place and once when he came to Hamilton to survey the Victor nose (left for CWH by the RAF after the Victor crashlanded on arrival for the '86 airshow) with a view to buying it (which he did). An unforgettable individual.

Tom F--

So there are more C-46 bits downstairs. Didn't know that. Did see a C-46 aft fuselage section out near the B-36; only realized it was a C-46 piece afterward. I did see inside the house in '82, but only the top two floors.

Re the Mitchells, Walt had two, but there are three IDs that keep surfacing. He may have had bits of a third Mitchell but there were just the two intact ones..."Wild Cargo", now flying in Virginia, and 44-86708, a stock USAF TB-25N that is still at Newbury. Neither of the well-known flying C&P Mitchells is ex-Walt. C&P do have the former Soplata EF-82E, though, which may be where the confusion originates...





i don't recall seeing any commando pieces outdoors. you maybe referring to the c - 119 flying box car fuselage ajacent to the skyraider prototype.

S.

[Steve T]

Tom--

Nope, not the C-82 pod...when I visited, that was supporting a big piece of sheet iron that had the P-47 fuselage and tail underneath, and as you say, it was behind the more-or-less complete preproduction Skyraider. The C-46 chunk was directly astern of the centre section of the B-36, and I believed it to be the B-36 aft end...looking at photos later however I saw it had the narrowed lower section, matching a C-46 but not the tubular-shaped Peacemaker. There was part of a C-97 present too but I don't think this aft piece was C-97 either.

I wonder, are the CF-100 and Victor bits still at Walt's?

FWIW, here's the link to a few images from my two visits to Walt's, in 1982 and 1984. I have more pix but (except for the B-36 and P-63) I've posted only views of aircraft that are no longer at Newbury.

http://s290.photobucket.com/albums/ll26 ... nd%201984/

EDIT: have revised my view here, and have now added a sub-album with more of those long-ago photos. Partly this is in tribute to Walter; partly it may help allay the curiosity of folks who might otherwise try to arrange to visit, when what the family wants now is simply to be left in peace...Here's the link to the sub-album.

http://s290.photobucket.com/albums/ll26 ... ollection/

S.

Last edited by Steve T on Tue Jan 17, 2012 2:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[tom d. friedman]

he had a mitsubishi engine from a betty bomber, on a pallet, tarped over, painted silver. i know the type was used on more than japanese bettys!!! he related he made a hefty trade for it.

[cooper9411]

he had a mitsubishi engine from a betty bomber, on a pallet, tarped over, painted silver. i know the type was used on more than japanese bettys!!! he related he made a hefty trade for it.

That is probably still there. There are plenty of engines scattered throughout the property

[Steve T]

TJ--

Here's the A-26 as it looked in summer 1982...



Tom P--

Here's the Cutlass, same time...



Tom F et al--

Here are two mystery bits...the aft end of something big--which I am no longer thinking is C-46; and (in front of one of the T-28s on site) a substantial engine, or what's left of it...

[Jerry O'Neill]

Via the Col.:
Robert Rohr
Hey can someone tell Steve T that the big mystery part sitting in Walters collection is an aft section to a C-124.
Jerry