Private Boneyard
 

This was pointed out to me and I thought if it hadn't been shown here before, then it might be of interest to one and all.

Hidden amid the foliage and scrap metal, abandoned fleet of WWII fighter planes lie rotting in the backwoods of Ohio | Mail Online



SHJ

The guy had one hell of a big back garden!

I'd be interested to how he transported all the bits from the scrapyard and how no-one except his immediate family knew that it was there ?


SHJ

The Soplata collection is well known and appeared in the magazines occasionally, amazing what he managed to acquire and transport there, including a B-36!

A number of aircraft have moved on including the wonderful pair of F2G Corsairs restored by the late Bob Odegaard - in one of which he was to sadly lose his life.

A Chance-Vought Cutlass too! Can't be too many of those around (apart from Smithsonian).
But is a B25 really a Canadian transport plane?

As tridigraph says this collection has been known by enthusiasts, family and friends since the 1970's. Mr. Soplata liked his privacy from enthusiasts, vandals and the tax man. Hardly a secret.

He recieved much interest and offers for his collection over the years, and only let a few go, including the F-82 and the F2G racing Corsair. He only let the Corsair go with the promise it would not be flown as he thought it too rare to be crashed. Sadly the museum later sold it and his worst fears were realized with the tragic crash years later. He would have been devestated had he lived to see that event.

He got all the aircraft to his farm by himself with occasional help from friends and his sons, using old station wagons, trucks and trailers. He had to make mulitple trips for large aircraft like the B-36. A very much shoestring operation. No fancy 18 wheelers/lorries here.

A true visionary and enthusiast who saved some great airframes. Well done Mr. Soplata.

But is a B25 really a Canadian transport plane?

The RCAF used B25s as executive transports so yes.

After an excellent landing etc...

I'm not sure a true visionary would've just brought them home to rot away in the woods. Something should be done to salvage what's still salvageable...


On edit: I just found and read the article in Air and Space Smithsonian: http://www.airspacemag.com/history-o...000009/?no-ist


Reading of the effort Mr Soplata went through and the meager resources at his disposal makes my comment seem altogether misguided. I'm in awe of the man...

We had a military (non-aviation) collector in flyover country whose heart was in the right place, but didn't have the means / real estate to preserve, let alone display, it all. Lost it all to the county tax man.

Soplata didn't have the wherewithal to restore nor even preserve it properly, but he at least saved it from the scrapper.

BTW - I have a museum guide from mid-60s which documents Soplata's collection, along with a few dozen more public museums.

Amazing!
 

I've driven through the area of this collection a number of times and have passed within a few miles of it, never knowing it was there.
How some of these airplanes got to this remote rural location is beyond me.
There is no airport close to the Soplata property, either.
A B-25 that looks to be intact?
A B-36?
Have you ever walked around a B-36?
The thing is huge with more span than any 747 model, although it isn't as long.
How such a thing got transported 200+ miles from Fairborn to a rural area with only narrow roads southeast of Cleveland without heavy equipment is a mystery to me, even if it was moved in pieces.

Congratulations to Private Boneyard
 

I understand he has been promoted to Sgt. Boneyard.

Anyone got a lat & long or UTM for this place?

After an excellent landing etc...

I used to play there as a kid
 

It's always interesting to me to see these "I discovered" articles as we lived not too far away and would occasionally go to the Soplata's place as kids. We weren't supposed to go in the planes but his son was about our age and Walter knew we did. We spent many hours in that B-25 cockpit after watching re-runs of 12 O'Clock High on TV.

A story I remember about the Marauder is that it was flown into some airport when the Navy decided it should be never fly again and be scrapped. The pilot who flew it in went back out and his airplane was missing. Somehow Walter got it before it was cut up. In this aerial view the B-25 is to the right of center, facing west, and the Marauder is to the northeast of the B-25, partially hidden by trees.
Soplata Airplane Sanctuary (Bing Maps) - Virtual Globetrotting

Most of his airplanes were just fuselages with the wings and engines stacked in sheds. In this aerial shot the sheds are along the south side of the property. The sheds contained a LOT and they were as packed as I remember National Air & Space Museum's Silver Hill to have been before the move to Dulles. Probably not financially but from an aviation history perspective those sheds would be a true "find" and if still as packed hold a lot of rare bits. The B-36 fuselage came as big square pieces that he wove together. Seems to me they were roughly 10 ft by 10 ft, give or take.

Somewhere toward the back of the property was/is? a Lysander or something very similar that I thought was really cool. The P-82 I think went to a museum, as did the mentioned Thompson Corsair racer. I remember another Corsair fuselage without an engine. Otherwise, the place was like the Hotel California in that airplanes could check in but never leave.

Walter was nice to us and spent a lot of time talking about what he had to do to move all of it. Remember that when he started and in his early collecting, a P-51 was only worth as much as a race boat builder might give for the engine. Old airplanes were cut up and nobody cared about them like now. Walter was ahead of his time in that he truly believed that he was doing a good thing in preserving history, saw it as an odd fun passion, and had a lot of pride in his collection. For fun, he'd occasionally taxi the wingless T-6 (SNJ?) up and down the long gravel driveway.

Soplata's fostered a lifelong aviation passion and careers for me and a lot of others. I live in the DC area now and do hope his collection can go to real museums at some point rather than truly sinking into the earth.

Thanks for that excellent post, BobnDusty.
As good as those pics were, that photographer did NOT have permission to enter and photograph as he claimed.
In fact, he was refused permission and yet subsequently, it appears, he'd returned at least a couple of times to get his pix.


The Soplata family are not very happy with this dude and the police are probably going to be brought into it.


Since Walter's passing, the family have been considering how best to deal with the collection and decisions will be made in the fullness of time.
In the meantime, trespassers should be VERY careful.

Anyone know what the long, slim-ish fuselage sitting to the north of the B-36 is? (at the NW extremity of the site - there's another tail section between it and the B-36). It's about 100' long - looks like an airliner fuse, but I can't see a mention of anything that would fit in any inventory of the site I can find.

DH106
Probably the P2V Neptune, which is mentioned in the Smithsonian article.

ICT_SLB - thanks, but the P2V is is only 78' long. This fuselage is around 96' long that you can measure, and it looks like small parts of the nose & tail are missing, so the total length could be around, say, 105-110'.

I believe you are looking at his KC-97 Stratotanker. Fuselage only. ser # 51-0253. Not really "slim", unless it is parked next to a B-36!

If anybody's interested in what's currently happening with one of Walter Soplata's aircraft, just goggle:


"XP-82 Twin Mustang Restoration Project"


This 'resto' has been undertaken by the legendary Tom Reilly and after seven years is nearing completion.


A fascinating and inspiring story.
Just goes to show what you can do if you've got money and dedication.

The Soplata Sanctuary article.
 

I just heard that the Daily Mail's 'Mail Online' photo-essay has been pulled for reasons including the ones I alluded to in an earlier post.


Told ya!