I just got Jan issue of "Aircraft" and in it i saw a little article saying Walter Soplata died in November.
Some of you might have heard of him, but for the ones who havent, he was a Eastern Ohioian who had his own farm, but it wasnt a normal farm. It was an aircraft Farm. Over the years following WWII he began buying aircraft and bringing them to his house. Some of the planes he saved are some of the rarest arround. He saved two of five Twin mustangs left in existance, two Vought F2G's Corsairs, the only all stainless steel BT-12, and quite a few prototypes including the fuselage of the B-36 prototype and the A-1 skyraider prototype. The twin mustangs and corsairs were sold and one of each is now flying. He also was the one who saved the B25 "Wild Cargo".
In the magazine, it said a full story would appear in a later issue. I was hoping to go to his farm this past summer, but i wasnt able to make it unfortunitly. if you search online, you can find satelite images of his property and see all the aircraft he has. at one point he had 87 different aircraft on his property at once.
RIP Walter
