I had a chance to visit the Walt Soplata farm this past week...a very
interesting experience.
For those who don't know about the Soplata Farm, Mr. Soplata is a junk
collector who also happens to share an affinity for airplanes. The results
of his 50-years of saving airplanes from the scrap heap and smelter are
resting next to his house in Newbury, Ohio, along with all the other junk he
collects like cars, books and magazines, trucks, old computer and
electronics, and other scrap. It is not a museum -- the airplanes are not
there for display, but are the personal collection of Mr. Soplata. The
airplanes are all in derelict condition -- wrecked, in pieces, and rotting
away exposed to the midwest US weather. He purchased these airplanes over
the years as his own hobby, and in many cases, has saved some one-of-a-kind
airplanes from destruction when nobody else (especially the US military)
cared about them.
First of all, I was glad that someone had posted directions on how to find
his place here on USEnet, otherwise I *never* would have found it. It is
buried away from sight off a dirt road. When I got there, I was amazed by
the sight from the dirt road in front of his house...what a junkpile! I'd
seen photos of the Soplata farm on other webpages
(
http://209.133.73.85/Fea/0001-1000/Fea_101-200/Fea181-190/Fea182_Walters-Fa
rm_Williams/part1/Fea182.htm), so I had a general idea of what to expect
when I got there. What I didn't know, however, was what would actually be
there, since I'd heard of at least two airplanes from there being sold off
and restored (
http://www.airrace.com/corsair74.htm). In addition, I'd read
here on r.a.m. that Mr. Soplata was possibly dead.
Anyhow, I walked up to his house and knocked, but nobody answered. I heard
of others visiting Walt's farm and just walking through things without
asking, so I thought I'd go see what I could without being too intrusive.
Even right there at the house, and I was amazed with what was there. On his
front lawn was a wingless T-6...in front of his door, a T-33 fuselage and
the cockpit to a Victor...in the driveway the cockpit to a DC-7. I started
strolling up the path through the junkpile, passing on the right side a B-52
fuselage on it's side, a Howard DG-A fuselage, a BT-13 fuselage, and a
complete F-86F. On the left side of the path were a T-28 fuselage, what
looked to be an AT-11 (I could just see the bombardier nose) and a Boeing
commercial airliner cockpit. I spotted what I initially believed was a
P-51H, but on closer inspection, it turned out to be the left fuselage of
the XP-82 (44-83887). I snapped a few photos, then left the main path to
the right and waded through the tall grass toward a complete FG-1Corsair
with the wings folded. Next to the Corsair was one of the Skyraider
prototypes (XBT2D-1, BuNo 09103). Also scattered around were a complete
B-25J, a F7U Cutlass jet, and a P-47N fuselage. Further to the west was a
C-82 fuselage and a Sikorsky helo of some kind stuffed amongst the trees.
It was at this point that Mr. Soplata walked out to find me...he is still
alive and well and "working" on his collection. Initially he was not happy
that I was out looking at his junk, and was *really* not happy that I was
taking pictures! Apparently Mr. Soplata has had some problems with people
visiting his farm and the IRS thinking he "runs a museum". So, he asked me
to stop taking pictures, and to not publish the photos in any publications,
which might encourage more people to come visit his airplanes. He asked me
to leave, so I apologized to him and I followed him back out to my car on
the dirt driveway. On the way, however, he asked me who I was and why I was
there. During the course of our conversation, he must have realized I was
an airplane enthusiast just like him because soon he was leading me on a
guided tour of his collection and talking away about every single airplane!
Anyone who meets Mr. Soplata may get the impression that he's a doddering
old man. It's true that he doesn't come across as the brightest individual,
but after spending an afternoon talking with him about his hobby and his
airplanes, I realize that he's really just old and eccentric. He has an
amazing memory when it comes to aviation, and especially recalling specifics
about his airplanes. Every airplane we'd walk up to, he'd give me a
detailed history of where he got it, how much he paid for it, and even
specific service histories of the airframes he had. It's very evident that
he cares about his airplanes -- he does what he can to protect them from the
weather by covering up cockpits and canopies, and building small shelters
over some. He even talked quite a bit about how he was going to "put them
all back together", which is obviously an overly ambitious project for an
elderly man given the condition of some of the airplanes.
We talked about people buying airplanes from him -- I tried to talk him into
selling me his T-6 or his BT-13 -- and he indicated that he didn't like to
sell off his airplanes. "It's my hobby," he said, "and I paid for these
with my own money." He said that people have come to him many times and
offered to buy individual items or even the whole collection. "There's a
guy in Texas who wanted to buy everything, and he even offered to build me a
house down there just so I could still live next to my airplanes!" Another
collector offered him $3 million for everything "and maybe I should have
taken him up on it, I dunno." Recently he has sold off a P-82 Twin Mustang
and an F2G Corsair, "so I could pay off the IRS," he said. He's especially
against having any of his airplanes fly again -- he mentioned several times
how angry he was that rare warbirds that have been restored to flying
condition and are flown on the airshow circuit get destroyed in crashes.
Apparently there was a stipulation with the sale of the F2G Corsair racer
that it never be flown again. Other than that, he has no intentions of
selling much of anything as long as he's alive.
When he dies, however, he says "everything will be for sale in
Trade-a-Plane" with the money going to support his children. He mentioned
who he planned to be the executor of his will and who will arrange the sale,
but I don't remember who it was.
So, Mr. Soplata spent the rest of the afternoon showing me the rest of his
collection, including his famous YB-36 which is sitting there cut up into
many pieces. I also saw a complete TBM Avenger, F-86E, F-84, T-50, and
Fleetwing (which he says is the only one still in existence). There were
also fuselages for a Canberra, an F-105, a few T-28s, another TBM....there
are just too many to list from memory.
All in all it was a very interesting visit. I sincerely hope that these
aircraft find their way to a museum or into better care before they're gone.
