POLK CITY, Fla. — For a quarter-century, the aircraft museum Fantasy of Flight advertised along Interstate 4 with a white and blue Douglas DC-3 passenger plane sitting on a pedestal. 


What You Need To Know

  • Fantasy of Flight Museum closed in 2014, but the owner is working on reopening it again  

  • The Douglas DC-3 has sat along I4 in Polk City for 25 years 

  • The plane has seen better days and is in need of major repairs 

It was an icon – something that passersby could see and be perhaps drawn in to the museum to check it out.

However, after many years of advertising in the elements, the aircraft is in dire need of repairs.

Fantasy of Flight owner Kermit Weeks moved the aircraft off its pedestal and it is now sitting outside of a hanger at the museum.

“People couldn't get in because some of the hatches were off, so it was time to get it off there, so it's kind of an end of an era,” Weeks said. 

He hopes to do restoration work and put on static display.

Weeks has a passion for aviation. He has an incredibly large collection of aircraft that would cause any aviation buff to geek out. His collection includes a World War II bomber like the B-17 Flying fortress, a B-25, and even a cargo aircraft with an incredible back story.

Spectrum News
Spectrum News

“This actual airplane flew on D-Day – Operation Market Garden, the Battle of the Bulge,” Weeks said. 

His collection also includes World War I reproduction aircraft and civilian planes dating to the 1920s. Some of the planes were featured in films. 

“This is the actual airplane that did all the wing walking for the 'The Great Waldo Pepper,' a Robert Redford film,” Weeks said. 

The Fantasy of Flight attraction closed in 2014, but Weeks has big plans for the future and is planning a new experience for those who come to visit. 

“I want to take attraction elements that deliver common themes for the human experience, to deliver them in ways not to teach people history, but to teach people about themselves,” Weeks said. 

Spectrum News
Spectrum News