Soplata Collection Sold?

Airlift48 · **Joined:** Sat Oct 29, 2005 7:01 pm **Posts:** 738

KC-97?

Are there any photos of it? How much of it is there?

We could always use a parts run.

Jon_man0499 · **Joined:** Sat Sep 30, 2017 8:13 pm **Posts:** 10

Say a quick question, I had heard that at one point there was a wrecked F2H Banshee and a Martin B-57A in the collection, I was wondering if this is true (and if true are they still part of the collection)?

Woodsy Airfield · **Posted:** Tue Sep 11, 2018 6:42 am

Airlift 48 & Jon-man...Reference inquiries about KC-97 photos and F2H, B-57 remains. Past posts of the Soplata collection reveals photos in Subject headings of: Walter Soplata's Airplane Junkyard - 1987, by Rodney Williams - Photo 87025 shows the KC-97 fuselage in back of B-36 and photo 87036 shows - as I can recall - B-57 fuselage in front. Also Subject: Walter Soplata Aircraft List The Next Generation, a photo of the P-47 fuselage with - once again as I recall - the B-57 wing lies in front. As to an F2H banshee - NACA Lewis used a Banshee back in circa 1950's for test purposes. The remains that Walter had shown me was the center section with no aft fuselage and just wing stubs laying upside down and appeared to be burned - no other parts available. The canopy was supposedly at the Cleveland Hopkins fire station of which I inquired about years later, but no longer there. To list the F2H as surviving is a longshot at best. I also understand that the B-57 wing was eventually scrapped, but fuselage still remains on site.... geek

bsoplata · **Joined:** Thu Nov 11, 2010 6:31 am **Posts:** 22

Inquiries can be sent to mmsoplata@hotmail.com.
I can be contacted either on Facebook or Facebook Messenger for information.

Noha307 · **Posted:** Mon Oct 14, 2019 4:30 pm

Woodsy Airfield wrote:

Past posts of the Soplata collection reveals photos in Subject headings of: Walter Soplata's Airplane Junkyard - 1987, by Rodney Williams - Photo 87025 shows the KC-97 fuselage in back of B-36 and photo 87036 shows - as I can recall - B-57 fuselage in front. Also Subject: Walter Soplata Aircraft List The Next Generation, a photo of the P-47 fuselage with - once again as I recall - the B-57 wing lies in front.

Since you mentioned previous posts on WIX about the collection I decided to do a quick search and see if I could find them to link here for reference. Here's the results, organized by date of first post in the thread:

Walter Soplata's Collection - 5 January 2005 - 5 pages
Project Walt completed - 17 May 2005 - 2 pages
Walter Soplata's Collection - 11 June 2006 - 5 pages
Walter Soplata pictures? - 13 January 2007 - 2 pages
Walter Soplata's B-36 - 18 January 2007 - 1 page
Soplata News - 8 July 2007 - 7 pages
Soplata F-82 Twin Mustang to Tom Reilly - 11 June 2008 - 5 pages
Walter Soplata's P-63 Kingcobra fuselage - 26 December 2008 - 1 page
Another Walter Soplata thread (updates??) - 19 August 2009 - 2 pages
Soplata P-63 in a B-36 fuselage - 21 August 2009 - 2 pages
what's going on with walter soplata's estate?? - 18 September 2011 - 2 pages
Soplata collection - 10 December 2011 - 4 pages
Any updates for the Soplata collection - 10 January 2012 - 5 pages
Walter Soplata Aircraft List, The Next Generation - 19 May 2012 - 2 pages
disposition of the soplata collection?? - 25 February 2014 - 2 pages
unpublished, detailed soplata pics circa 2003 - 26 April 2014 - 5 pages
Soplata B-36 - 16 March 2017 - 1 page
Recent purchase of Soplata TBM-3N - 7 September 2018 - 2 pages
Soplata property trespassers - 4 October 2018 - 2 pages
Walter Soplata's Avenger - 9 October 2018 - 1 page
Planes into keychains, Soplata edition - 20 September 2019 - 1 page

Scott Rose · **Posted:** Sat Jul 31, 2021 12:02 pm

I understand the new owner of the XBT2D-1 Skyraider/BuNo 09103 is Richard Hester. Does anybody have any further information? Like where the air frame is currently.

JohnTerrell · **Posted:** Sat Jul 31, 2021 12:20 pm

Hey Scott, the Skyraider was brought to a hangar at the Gilliam-McConnell Airport in Carthage, North Carolina.

quemerford · **Joined:** Tue Jun 17, 2014 4:19 pm **Posts:** 1576

Just heard that the F7U has gone to a good home; fantastic news.

Lon Moer · **Posted:** Wed Aug 25, 2021 12:28 pm

Scott Rose wrote:

I understand the new owner of the XBT2D-1 Skyraider/BuNo 09103 is Richard Hester. Does anybody have any further information? Like where the air frame is currently.

From one of the other threads........

Quote:

Some photo's from FB, posted on mon 6/14, and a thread post;

"Richard Hester of Carthage, North Carolina acquired this rare aircraft. He's spent a lot of time and effort preparing his hangar at the Gilliam-McConnell Airport (BQ1) in Carthage to receive this treasure. "

Noha307 · **Posted:** Thu Aug 26, 2021 9:49 pm

Quote:

I hope that t-shirt doesn't apply until they offload the airplane! :lol:

Zac Yates · **Posted:** Thu Aug 26, 2021 9:59 pm

That's exactly what I thought! :lol:

airnutz · **Posted:** Thu Aug 26, 2021 11:21 pm

Is that Ray Shoesmith on the left there? So that's what he does in the off season...

kalamazookid · **Posted:** Sat Nov 13, 2021 11:31 pm

The MAPS crew was recently out to Soplata's to prepare the Cutlass for transport. Photos here:

https://mapsairmuseum.org/maps-transpor ... -soplatas/

airknocker · **Posted:** Sun Nov 14, 2021 2:42 pm

https://flightlinebookreview.home.blog/ ... y-soplata/

bdk · **Joined:** Sun May 02, 2004 1:16 am **Posts:** 11319

I'll bet Walter Soplata didn't have a 75-Ton crane truck when he moved the Cutlass onto his property!

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