When I was a kid you could freely cross the border into the US, and we used to go down for day trips with my Dad...no particular destination in mind and we used to see all kinds of cool things...just like this graveyard of rare aircraft. Met some real characters along the way. This brings back fond memories...here's to the loved and lost. May they rest in peace.
What’s it like traveling back & forth now? Did it change after 9/11? I sold a ‘69 Cougar fender to a guy from NB. He was happy for me to ship it as far as Bangor, ME, but I wondered what all he had to go through to get it back home. Btw, I was able to ship it to him extremely cheaply via Greyhound Bus. Back then shipping was $1/lb and the box could be up to 4’x4’x8’ and I think up to 200lb. Helluva deal as long as someone can pick up the package at a station.
Mr. Soplata was a true custodian of aviation history. I was honored to be able to view his collection many times and it was awe inspiring. It's nice to see so many people able to enjoy his collection, either flying or in museums.
I visited his property about the same time as you. The Akron Beacon Journal had a great write up about Walter many years ago. Apparently he had bought a bus that he had converted into a truck to haul his plane purchases home. He bought a number of planes in New York State and the NY State Troopers all knew him. He worked on a very limited budget and was known to put the bus in neutral and coast down hills on the way home. He didn’t really want the planes to fly again for fear of them crashing. He also didn’t want the public to have to pay to see the planes in a museum. He felt the public had already paid to have the planes built in the first place. He was a kind of conflicted character. But in the long run, he saved some very rare airplanes.
What a far sighted and honorable man, that saved such a treasure of American aviation history. He should be presented with an award for his far sighted contribution. What a great man🌈
That must have been so cool to have grown up there with all those planes and not just one but 2 P-82's with the one stuffed inside the B-36 being the XP-82 which returned to the air a few years ago, very sad that the Super Corsair and pilot were lost in a tragic accident!
I stopped by the place a few years ago, after he was gone. Didn't try to go in, but you could get an impression of what an important collection it was. Good to know that at least some of the planes are being restored.
Places like Walter's are still out there just a little less known about. The NEW ZEALAND based John Smith collection gained notoriety a number of years back after his passing. All ex-NZ airforce DH Mosquito, P-51D, Harvard, DH Tigermoth and one very famous P-40 Thank you for sharing your adventures, photos, information and memories. My late father passed away a number of years back. He was a big fan of photography and carried his Super 8 camera around Australia and the U.S/CANADIAN airshow scene at least a half dozen times
I grew up 3 or so miles from this place on the west side of Burton. Remember my dad talking about this guy once or twice. I never new all that stuff was there
Fantastic video. Thanks for posting. Love this old aviation relics. Do post your fathers F1 footage to save it for us historians. Sorry for your loss and I am glad he took the time to instill in you the preservation of planes, trains and automobiles. Cheers from Texas.
That was great - thanks. I have read about Walter and an article written by his son on how his father started his collection, but I’ve never seen many images
I met Walter (So-plat-ah , NOT Spo-lah-ta as you pronounce it) in the 1970s. I had worked at the Shuttleworth Trust in England so we talked mainly about preservation. Walter's anticorrosion technique was to spray used motor oil on on all the metal parts so everything then was kind of gooey. When I identified a P-47 fuselage that you didn't mention and most people never noticed, Walter's reward was to show me his second --- hidden -- Allison-powered P-82. A great day spent with an unusual man, Walter Soplata.
If it wasn't for eccentric individuals like Walter a lot of warbirds today that have been restored and flying would not have happened! The world owes a lot to the visionary Walter's of the world 🌎 ♥️
A fellow Bramptonian, I don't know when you left but this place has changed. Between 1988 and 90 I worked part time for Carl Millard as a grease monkey working on C-117's, DC-4s and Super Beech 18's. Fun times.
Thank you for sharing those slides! My dad purchased the Curtiss O-52 Owl Walter had back around 89 or 90. It’s changed a couple hands and now I hear it’s close to flying (or it may have already flown)
Love these photos! Went there a few years ago, after he was gone, didn't go in, just looked from the road. My brother and I went to the Canadian GP sometime in the mid-1960's. Many memories, Dan Gurney watching mechanics work on his car dead on the main uphill straight (pre-chicane, it was fast!), 2 Ferrari mechanics changing an engine using a bar across their shoulders and a chain. Looking forward to more!
The photos he took at the GP blew me away. I've scanned them all, put them through light room. Hoping to do an old style fade-dissolve multi-projector style video of the images. Now, if only I could afford to license the music from Frankenheimer's "Grand Prix"! Thanks for watching!
I live in Newbury, Ohio and my father took me to the property and I was in one of the planes probably around 1962 or 1963. It was awesome. I was just telling friends about this a few weeks ago. Thanks for this article.
Hi, I stumbled on your channel today. I am sorry your dad passed away but it sounds like you had a great relationship. I grew up near Wright Patt and retired from the Police Department adjacent to it. There is an amazing collection of FLYING condition WW II aircraft in Virginia Beach, VA and when we went 3 years ago, you could go up in a Stearman Navy trainer. Thanks for sharing this video, it brought back memories I had with my dad and the memories I'm trying to create with my own son.
My dad,fred and uncle bob, went to that place in 80s or early 90s. They were impressed but not happy the planes were rotting away. Uncle bob passed away shortly after. Neither of them were pilots but enjoyed looking at war memorabilia. Both were WW II vets. The super corsair was a double engined back to back radials. Also there is a P2 neptune on static display at the old N.A.S. Brunswick Me. Oh a P 3 too.
After Walter and Peggy passed away, what aircraft had not already left Newbury moved on. But all the "plums" found appreciative new homes. Hats off to Walt and family for saving them when few cared...
Watching in land o' lakes,wi...tnx for these photos,,stories,,especially the twin mustang,,wow,,how many mitchell models did i make over the years??...very good presentation,,,pat&family.
Well absolutely wow: the photo album you saw at the Hamilton show may very well have been mine...I had visited Walter's place in 1982. The CF-100 fuselage section Walter found out about from me, too. There were three of them at a scrapyard in Barrie and Walter showed up to buy one about the same time the other two got the chop (not that they hadn't already been pretty comprehensively hacked up)...Walter's collection is all dispersed now, with several aircraft having been restored, some statically, three or four to fly (with the F2G racer having tragically crashed in 2012). Great memories from seeing your video and pix from the same period I was there...
I visited Walt’s collection in 1980 a few times and have a few dozen photos. It was an amazing place! I highly recommend his son’s book, “B-25 in my Backyard.”
Some amazing photos and fantastic research on the status of those aircraft. Absolutely blown away that this guy had B-36....kind of hard to hide that! Sorry about your Dad passing... lost mine this year, too. He introduced me to the old warbirds at a young age and I've been hooked since. Subscribed and looking forward to more content!
Brought back memories from Nov 1969, I was a student pilot at The Horn Flying School/Chagrin Falls airport (really small airport just a couple of miles away) , went along with a couple of people to view the aircraft. He used an old school bus to bring the planes home, he reassembled B 25 put the wings and engines on by himself. I n garages there where RR Merlin, Packard, Allison's engines in crates and tons of spare equipment. The best part was I got to sit in Race 74 the Corsair it was a monster from a student flying a Piper J3, Colt, 140, 180, Cessna 150,172. Good Times!!!! 🛩
You got to sit in 74? Colour me jealous! I hated flying 152s, as the yoke used to hit my knees when I pulled back, but was too cheap to spring for a 172!
I know the Soplata (Museum ?) very well and have made many trips there back in the mid sixties. The rare Navy Jet, looked brand new way back then ! His kids used the BT-13 to ride around the house, I seen them doing that myself. I remember another time Walter was trying to start a jet engine, he had strapped to an upright house support ! That I also witnessed, and was glad he couldn't get it running . He also had a Stearman, but wouldn't sell it. We got one in 1965 and flew it for twenty years. He had two twin Mustangs, when I went there but don't know what happened to it. He had copped them in two right behind the cockpits, so he could load them in the big school bus he had. I flew out of Concord airpark on route 608, in Painesville Ohio. I've seen guys buying some of his planes from his kids, and getting them flying. That is what they are meant to do, not rot away on the ground!
Wow! What a spectacular story and presentation! My dad was an aviator, mechanic, pilot and inventor ("Texas Taildragger" was one of his STCs). In the 1950s my dad was offered a P-51 Mustang by a friend that sat complete in a barn for only $5,000! He did look at it but decided he had nowhere to store such a large airplane & didn't know what he'd do with it anyway! So he passed! I suspect many of our aviator fathers from the era just after the war have incredible stories like this. Does anyone know the status or have a link to progress on the Twin Mustang in this video?
Lucky Gallon is under restoration with Chuck Wahl in CA…it’ll be flying in 3-4 years…Ken McBride has a pretty big stash of warbirds and Merlin Engines just north of Hollister, CA. As far as I know nothing is being done with them.
Condolences for the loss of your Dad. Thank you for the very well done presentation of pictures. I have some great pictures of my finds to get out there someday. If you are ever in CT you ought to get your picture next to my R2800 lamp & see some other treasures that unfortunately some call junk
Wow! Very cool! No, none of this is "junk!" I have an R-2800 souvenir, too! My dad helped develop & fly the Howard line of business aircraft in the 60s & 70s. On a test (or maybe a training) flight in a Howard 500 an R-2800 went to pieces! It was contained in the cowling & when he opened it the R-2800 spilled all over the tarmac. He brought home the top portion of a piston with it's wrist pin still sitting in the groove in which it rotated. This piston has hundreds of small divots since it flew around in the cowling while the engine disintegrated like in a giant metal blender! It's amazing it was contained. This is one of my most treasured possessions.
My now deceased mothers finger prints are on that B-25 as she was a hydraulic system inspector for North American Aviation at the Fairfax plant in Kansas City Kansas.
Wow! She must have had stories to tell you! I worked in Hobby Shops in Brampton, Ontario, just up the road from Toronto International Airport, where the Avro Arrow and Lancaster Bombers were built. There were always grandmothers coming in wanting a Lanc model for their grandkids!
Fellow aviation enthusiast from Ontario here: Do you remember a property similar to this, but in Ontario? I was very young when it went away, but I distinctly remember passing by it traveling from my parents' house in Niagara, to my Grandparents. But I don't remember if it was the ones who lived in Muskoka or the ones who lived in Halton.
@@replikatorclub Honestly, I'm just happy someone else remembers it. It might be some work to research, but that would make a good video. Also, forgot to say that this was a great video! The place I'm talking about... It was somewhere on the road between Niagara and Halton Hills, or Niagara and Muskoka... but I didn't see it every time, and travel between Muskoka and Halton was rare for us. So it was probably on an alternate route from Niagara to Halton or Muskoka, or on a route between Halton and Muskoka... in the late 80s/early 90's. I hope that's a helpful starting point for another great video!
I know there has been a lot of criticism of Mr Soplata for not "properly" storing his airplanes over the years, but it's important to remember that all of these planes were rescued from being scrapped. They wouldn't exist today if not for one guy's determination and effort. One of his Twin Mustangs has been restored and is flying again, the only airworthy example in the world. It's great that there are people willing to do things like this. The blue Skyraider that came from a Pennsylvania junkyard....I think I used to see it every day from my school bus, back in the early 60s. It later disappeared and I always wondered what happened to it.
I grew up in restful lake / hickory dale literally a couple houses down the street in the nineties I spent a lot of ti.e back there when I shouldn't have. And just to clarify. His name was pronounced, So-plata. Close though. Thank you for this vid
I believe I can explain the F86E with the odd tail number. If the other markings of the aircraft are true, then it makes sense it has an F84 tail number. When the Ohio Air Guard 164th TFS reformed, out of it formed the 179th Tactical Fighter Group. In 1962 when this happened the 164th were operating F84's, but after the reformation they were given F86 Sabres, and since it was a new group formation with new fighters they probably reused the tail numbers from the long obsolete discarded F84's. This would have been done because the 164th had been released from federal service in 1962, causing the reformation and reusing the tail numbers for the state of Ohio guard would be allowable and easier then assigning them a new tail number and registration, when they could just use the ones the federal government released.
That F2G, YB-36, F-82's, and F7U were really the rare gems...too bad Walter didn't have the opportunity to bring home a B-26 Marauder or two, couple of B-24's, or (gasp) a B-32 Dominator...and maybe some of those Axis aircraft from Freeman Field Indiana...
@@replikatorclub Yes, to me, that's the holy grail of American Heavy Bombers, seeing that they produced so few, didn't save any after the war,and they saw some of the last combat of WW2...the sheer idiocy of not saving at least one...Hobo Queen should have been put in Smithsonian or AF National Museum.. I would have scheisse my shorts if I saw a B-32 or a Dornier Do-335....
My uncle flew a B-17 in the 8th through D-Day, and his brother (my grandfather & hero) was a B-24 waste gunner, also in the 8th, and as my idols I was always reading about and building models of military aircraft, but especially WWII. I grew up on that and 12 O'clock High & Combat on TV, along with the nightly news of kids from the neighborhood getting killed in Vietnam. My Dad taught differential equations at CMU in Pittsburgh beginning in the mid 60's. One summer he got a gig teaching a class at Univ. of Dayton, and since we had nothing in common, my punishment for screwing around in school was to spend the summer with him in an apt. he had rented there. I was a big 13, and times were different, so he was fine leaving me alone all day as long as I stayed out of trouble. By utter and complete coincidence, the apt. had a road and a fence separating it from the Wright Patterson USAF Museum, so I landed in heaven. I was the first in every morning, and I'd stay the entire day. Got friendly w/ the staff and after telling the story of my grandfather's harrowing service (DSC, Purple Heart, and more) one sympathetic soul allowed me to climb into "Strawberry Bitch", and assume his position for a few moments. He was only about 5 years older than I when he flew, and standing in that open window, trying to imagine the freezing cold, the roar of the engines, and the ping of cannon & machine gun fire zipping through the thin skin of that beer can was an image that I'll carry forever. He never talked about any of it until late in his 70's, but I will forever marvel at the courage of those kids who gave up their youth, and lives, for the rest of us. He was why I later enlisted. Just as you really can't appreciate just how huge a P-47 Thunderbolt is until you're standing before it, you also can't even begin to imagine just how small and delicate an air frame the B-24 and that Davis wing really were until you see it in person. The idea of 11 young men flying for hour after hour in those conditions, through flak and fighters, and then doing it over and over and over again is truly beyond my comprehension, but I guess that's what I love most about history, and that is trying to put myself in their shoes. The only momento that he brought home was his shaving kit, his flight jacket & hat, and a piece of flak shrapnel that passed through him and embedded in a bulkhead. I still cherish it all. That and the greatest summer of my life. Dad would give me a buck each day for lunch, but I spent every penny buying models at the gift shop that I took back to the apt. to build that night. By summer's end I had the back half of our VW bus filled for the trip home, and once there I hung them all over the ceiling of my room and covered every shelf. Much, much older now, but a return visit is definitely on my bucket list. I'm close to the Smithsonian, but absolutely nothing compares to the A.F. museum, imnsho, but then again, I'm more than a little biased. 🙂
+@rustyshakelford9777 It was fully restored to airworthy by someone who owned and flew another F2G Corsair. It was destroyed when the same pilot was practicing for a display and failed to recover from a loop, pilot error I believe. I have hope that someday the wreckage will be slowly rebuilt back into the F2G, flying or not.
I walked the property with him in 1978. He told me stories and we had a good conversation. I came upon the property while following the old trolley line. He saw me and came up to me and I told him what I was doing....he was not upset at all.
Not sure if you've ever heard of Connie Edwards. He was the principal pilot on the Battle of Britain movie in 1968. When filming wrapped, the producers didn't have enough money to pay him, so he took several of the spitfires as payment. He had a massive aircraft collection as well, at his home in west Texas. Sadly he passed away last year, but I had the pleasure of knowing him for many years. He was quite the character and his life story was the stuff of legend.
I was lucky enough to go through with Walter in about 1976 as a local waitress and acquaintance of Walter from the motel we stayed at during a factory school in Cleveland made arrangements and took me there. During the 4+ hours we were there besides going inside the YB36, I was privileged to be asked by Walter to help run-up the left engine in the F-82 'twin mustang'! He put me in the pilot seat and explained the controls I would use and the hand signals he would use. Using his guidance, I started the engine under his instruction brought it up to a fairly high RPM. All of this of course with the canopy open and the Rolls-Royce roaring away and wind blowing. I was not to concerned as the landing gear was buried into large concrete pads! After shutting it down and climbing out I found that the camera I had given my friend had run out of film just as I climbed up on the wing! That is one trip I will never forget!
Rolls Royce?..sure it wasn't an Allison?..the intact one he had was an F-82E, which would have been Allison powered..he also had the fuselage and some parts of the XF-82 prototype, which Tom Reilly bought and restored several years ago..that one WAS powered by Rolls Royce engines(Merlins), but it was in pieces at Walter's house..the one you started had to have been the F-82E, as it was the only one intact, and would have had Allison V-1710-143 engines...
@@dyer2cycle Could have been. Do remember it was LOUD. He did show me an Allison still in the crate stored in the 36 fuselage. There was SO much to take in and this was 47 years ago! No notes!
@@DonaldHeide i visited Walter’s home many times. I was last out there a few years ago. I live in Newbury around the corner from his place. From my house I would watch planes circling around his house checking it out. His daughter invited me a few times to the property. She was very nice to me as was her dad when he was alive. I took a number of pictures which was ok but she asked me not to put them online. So I haven’t.
@@dyer2cycle Wow! What a fantastic experience you were allowed to have! Our dads do those kinds of things sometimes! My dad "kicked" the co-pilot out his seat approaching San Jose, Costa Rica and let me "fly" the Howard 500 for a few minutes! He was Dee Howard's (and Ed Swearengine's) Chief Pilot, check airman, and heavily involved in development of the Howard line of aircraft.
My father in law told me about this collection back in the 80's as his cousin lived near the house. We went there and Walter's wife confronted me but when I mentioned the cousin's name she became very friendly and walked me around the property while I took pictures. Glad to hear that some of the planes are being restored and Walter's collection will live on.
Thanks for posting these photos. My Dad was a private pilot in the 1960’s -1970’s. We lived in Bainbridge Township just a few miles from Newbury. Dad flew out of Chagrin Falls Airport… mostly Piper Cubs and Cessna 150s and 172s. Chagrin Falls Airport closed in the 1970s and is now a housing development. In 1968 or 1969 my Dad and I went to Soplata’s aircraft collection in Newbury and I will always remember the amazing sleeping aircraft in the high grass surrounding his house. My Dad passed away in 1976 and I am now a Grandfather and 65 years old. My younger brother lives In Newbury and I will send him a link to your RU-vid video. Thanks again!
I went to that airport in Chagrin Falls. My dad took me to an airshow there at Horn's Flying School in 1958 when I was 10 years old. My wife grew up in that area and has shown me where the airport was at the intersection of Bell Rd. and Ohio Rt. 306. I had only been there that 1 time in 1958 when I was a youngster.
@@bad74maverick1 There was an F2G project offered for sale fairly recently, which intrigued me as, like you say, only two others exist and both are restored. Very little was left of Race 74, sadly.
At 8:20 I see an F84? Identified as being from the 179th Tactical Fighter Group in Mansfield, Ohio. Is this the aircraft that was part of the 164th Tactical Flying Squadron in 1964 and is currently restored and on display at the MAPS air museum in Akron, Ohio? I was with the 179th TFG which eventually transitioned to C-130 and became the 179th AW. When I joined the 179th it was just transitioning from the F-100 to its Airlift role with the C-130.
My dad took me there as a kid in the 70s/80s. He was friends with Walter. We have many photos of the aircraft there. Later, my dad asked asked Walter for help to obtain missing pieces that the 121st TFW in Columbus (now the 121st ARW) needed for its vintage fighter displays. Walter provided the parts and they were able to complete their displays.
I was learning to fly in 1971 in California when my instructor, another student at the college we attended, when his father said he wanted the Aeronca 7AC back, since Paul had access to several other aircraft. He said I could get some dual cross-country instruction if I'd pay for fuel. So we flew from Pope Valley, CA to Beck's Grove NY in the Aeronca. No lights, no radio, day VFR for three and a half days. We overnighted at Newbury, OH, staying with some friends in the area. Got up early in the morning and went over to the Soplata place, got permission from Mrs. Soplata to wander around in the orchard for as long as we wanted. F-82, B-25, F-86, ... Great experience for an airplane-mad kid,
Sounds right. The Soplatas were very hospitable if they knew a visitor was a true enthusiast without an "angle"...I think Walt decided he liked me when I went nuts at the sight of the F2G, saying "you still have it!" (when so many would have been taking him to task in print for keeping it, notwithstanding that he had rescued it from pretty much certain scrapping).
As an Air Force brat in the mid 1950s I grew up around both piston and jet aircraft. I saw T-6s, T-33s, B-25s, H-19s, H-13s, H-21a, KC-97s, F-51s, B-50s, B-47s, F-86s, F100s, F101s, F-94s, F-102s, F-106s. As a youngster, I hung out around the Randolph flight line all the time. I put a lot of miles on my bike going from home to the flight lines around the base. It was a really cool time go be a plane crazy kid. When I grew up I joined the Navy and flew as crewman aboard, EC-121Ms, EA-3Bs, C-1As, US-2Bs, EP-3Es, SP-2Hs, SH-2Fs and SH-3Gs.
In Denmark we used Harvards for training military pilots during many years. It also got a glorious time in the film industry, acting as German and Japanese planes in several movies.
Your pictures are incredible! I was fortunate enough to see the collection two dozen times or so from 2018-2020 before the majority of it was sold. It was and always will be an incredible place
I'm originally from Springfield, Ohio. I was about 18 yrs old and still in HS but at some point during the early 1980s, I called Walter a few times which he eventually invited me to come see his collection... I remember it took me all day to get there but it was well worth the long drive. RIP Walter
10:22 My dad flew Corsairs out of NAS Akron after active duty in WWII. I have a picture of him and his squadron flying over the NE Ohio skies. The 00 on the nose and the "RON" of Akron made me think of this. The picture of the squadron in flight is with my dad's display in the hall of heroes at MAPS.
Visited there in 1972. There were several other aircraft there at the time. He had a rare P47N fuselage laying beside the 36. Belueve the wings were inside. He also had a corporate A26 Invader that had crashed up in the lakes. He also had a Stainless steel BT15 I have my dads slides of that trip. The P47 is my favorite but even back then that fully stock F4U was a beauty. Its sad its not had much done to it by the new owner. Lots of people criticize Mr.Soplata for how he stored them, but he did his best and saved many rare aircraft
I never knew about this place but the whole story is an example of why I love the aviation community so much. These old planes are more than machines and pieces of metal. They have their own soul and story to tell and to see so many being restored to flying condition or being put on display for future generations to enjoy warms my heart.
