Happenings at the Fantasy of Flight?

[Pat Carry]

Anyone have any scoops as to what is happening at the Fantasy of Flight since they locked the place up?

Last edited by Pat Carry on Wed Sep 10, 2014 1:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[TAdan]

Both Fantasy of Flight and Kermit Weeks are very active on Facebook and post daily updates. Here is Kermit's page, he just posted udpates on his C-47 and Lockheed Vega.

https://www.facebook.com/#!/KermitWeeks

I believe they are planning on opening up a smaller museum type tour for the public this Fall. In the mean-time FoF is still an active private event venue.

Short term, It looks like they'll continue focusing on hosting private events, and expanding the restoration shop to support the overall long term venue / attraction plans.

[florida.warbirds]

They are looking to open one of the hangars as a museum in November. They have been active on FB talking about aircraft maintenance and restorations that are currently underway across the globe.


http://floridawarbirds.wordpress.com/20 ... of-museum/

[TAdan]

An update posted today on their FB page.

.Some folks have recently asked again about our reopening plans, so we'll cover the basic plan again. Share with your friends and spread the word.

The main reason we closed was to stop the resource drain (in 18 years we'd yet to turn a pro...fit) and use those resources to focus on a rethinking and rebuilding of Fantasy of Flight into a bigger and better attraction which we unofficially refer to as "Act 3" (Act 1 being Weeks Air Museum and Act 2 the first incarnation of FoF). Most everything we have and do is focused on Act 3. We're working with top-notch folks in the attraction industry and are hoping to introduce Act 3 to the world in 3-5 years.

In the meantime though, we know how much people miss being able to see these historic aircraft and trust us, we miss sharing them. So we will be putting a few on display in the old Maintenance Hangar and opening up a scaled-down museum attraction, hopefully around Thanksgiving.

This is going to be SMALL compared to FoF, Act 2. Remember that all our resources are going into Act 3, and we don't want to start losing money again. So, the museum will be minimally staffed, there will be no flight of the day, no restaurant, no restoration tours, no Golden Hill. It will just be a little gift shop and as many planes as we can comfortably fit in the hangar.

We want to level with you about how much smaller this will be, but we also want to do SOMETHING for our dedicated fans who have supported us throughout this whole thing. It won't be much, but it will be something for the interim until Act 3 arrives. And who knows, if the museum is a success, we may start to add other elements back in. The litmus test will be whether it helps us get to Act 3 by providing resources, or hinders us by losing them. So in a way, you all will have a real say in where we go next!

We will have more info for you as November approaches. We hope to see you again then!

[tacoope]

Ok, dumb question time. If FoF wasn't a museum before what was it? I always assumed with the kind of collection that was there that this was a museum that I'd like to visit at some point when I had the chance, particularly as it was a flying operation as well. I'm going to be in Florida in coming weeks, but since the note here refers to thanksgiving (which for the US as I recall is towards the end of Nov) I guess I'm out of luck. Also, the lack of access to the restoration side kind of limits things too.

Terry

[Rob W]

Act 2, an already beautiful attraction, wasn't turning a profit and so by building a "bigger and better" attraction they hope that Act 3 will succeed?

Good luck Kermit. You're going to need it!

[VintageAviationNews]

Kermit is up to more than "just" a museum.

He is working on building something unique.

[Warbird Kid]

Fantasy of Flight just put up a post on Facebook.

Some folks have recently asked again about our reopening plans, so we'll cover the basic plan again. Share with your friends and spread the word.

The main reason we closed was to stop the resource drain (in 18 years we'd yet to turn a profit) and use those resources to focus on a rethinking and rebuilding of Fantasy of Flight into a bigger and better attraction which we unofficially refer to as "Act 3" (Act 1 being Weeks Air Museum and Act 2 the first incarnation of FoF). Most everything we have and do is focused on Act 3. We're working with top-notch folks in the attraction industry and are hoping to introduce Act 3 to the world in 3-5 years.

In the meantime though, we know how much people miss being able to see these historic aircraft and trust us, we miss sharing them. So we will be putting a few on display in the old Maintenance Hangar and opening up a scaled-down museum attraction, hopefully around Thanksgiving.

This is going to be SMALL compared to FoF, Act 2. Remember that all our resources are going into Act 3, and we don't want to start losing money again. So, the museum will be minimally staffed, there will be no flight of the day, no restaurant, no restoration tours, no Golden Hill. It will just be a little gift shop and as many planes as we can comfortably fit in the hangar.

We want to level with you about how much smaller this will be, but we also want to do SOMETHING for our dedicated fans who have supported us throughout this whole thing. It won't be much, but it will be something for the interim until Act 3 arrives. And who knows, if the museum is a success, we may start to add other elements back in. The litmus test will be whether it helps us get to Act 3 by providing resources, or hinders us by losing them. So in a way, you all will have a real say in where we go next!

We will have more info for you as November approaches. We hope to see you again then!

[Nathan]

Act 2, an already beautiful attraction, wasn't turning a profit and so by building a "bigger and better" attraction they hope that Act 3 will succeed?

Good luck Kermit. You're going to need it!

I heard amusement park or some kind of connection with Disney world.

[Pogo]

great big THANK YOU for this post!! I've been wondering the same thing lately.

I don't "do" Facebook, and a big part of why not is simply because I can never quite understand how in the H*LL it works!! Call me stoopid, I don't care about that, but it sure would be great if some of y'all FB hands could pass along the info to this "old fashioned" forum for those of us who cannot (or will not) follow FB (I KNOW I ain't the only one).

Thanks again, it really is appreciated!