Kermit Weeks

Another famous replica in Weeks' collection is the iconic Gee Bee Model Z, a racing plane originally built in 1931 and destroyed the same year during a world speed record attempt.

Kermit Weeks (born July 14, 1953 in Salt Lake City, Utah) is an American aviation enthusiast, pilot, and aircraft collector.

He has competed in aerobatics, designed aircraft, and promoted aviation and vintage aircraft restoration.

Oil and gas royalties from the Weeks Royalty, derived from his grandfather Lewis George Weeks' work, provide Weeks with the funds, capital, and resources to pursue the preservation of historic aircraft.

Weeks and his family moved to Miami, Florida when he was 14, and he began flying model aircraft and competing on the high school gymnastics team.

At 17, with only model airplane flying experience, he began building his own home-built Der Jager D-IX (a biplane powered by a four-cylinder Lycoming O-320 engine).

During his final year of high school Weeks spent almost all his spare time building his airplane; he finished it in about four years, and test flew it at age 21.

Weeks later learned to fly.

He eventually purchased a Pitts S-2A in order to fly in aerobatic competition.

During the late 1970s, Weeks began to acquire, restore, and preserve vintage aircraft.

In 1973 Weeks began entering aerobatic flying competitions while pursuing an aeronautical engineering degree at Miami-Dade Junior College, the University of Florida, and Purdue University.

By 1977 Weeks had built the "Weeks Special," an aerobatic aircraft of his own design, and qualified for the United States Aerobatics Team.

In 1978 he was a runner-up among 61 competitors worldwide, earning three Silver medals and one Bronze medal in the FAI World Aerobatic Championships staged in Czechoslovakia.

Over the span of a dozen years, he placed in the top three in the world five times and won a total of 20 medals in World Aerobatics Championship competition.

He has twice won the United States National Aerobatics Championship and has won several Invitational Masters Championships in worldwide competitions.

By 1985 he had accumulated enough vintage aircraft to start the Weeks Air Museum in Miami.

A non-profit facility, it housed much of his private collection and historic aircraft owned by the museum.

Weeks then acquired a 250-acre site near Polk City, Florida, 20 miles southwest of Walt Disney World, for an aviation-themed attraction called Fantasy of Flight.

It was involved in the opening scene of the 1991 film The Rocketeer.

Weeks owns one of the four remaining original P-51C Mustangs in the world, with an estimated worth of over US$3 million.

In addition, Weeks also owns a P-51D Mustang which came later in the war.

Both use the Packard-Merlin V-12 engine of Rolls-Royce design.

Both the P-51C and P-51D frequently fly together, most notably during the event dubbed Mustangs and Mustangs which takes place every April where the P-51s and a number of antique Ford Mustangs are exhibited side by side.

Weeks is rebuilding an Allison powered Mustang P-51A.

Other original aircraft in the collection include a Short Sunderland flying boat.

One of the seven Sunderland aircraft in existence, it is the only one that is reported to be maintained in airworthy condition, as well as the only airworthy 4 engine passenger flying boat.

In 1992, as development plans finalized for Fantasy of Flight, Hurricane Andrew struck the Miami area, virtually destroying the Weeks Air Museum facility and seriously damaging most of the vintage aircraft within it.

Weeks purchased the Sunderland in England in February 1993 and after a five-month restoration it was flown to the U.S, making stops in Ireland, Iceland, and Canada before arriving at the 1993 EAA AirVenture Oshkosh event.

Following the show it was flown to Fantasy of Flight and regularly flew for the following years.

Some of the collection, including a Grumman F4F Wildcat, P-51C Mustang, AT-6 Texan, and a recently repaired Stinson L-1 Vigilant, have been restored and are now displayed and flown at Fantasy of Flight, which opened in 1995.

On May 26, 2000, Weeks married Teresa Blazina in Sedona, Arizona.

In 2008 Weeks published a children's book, All of Life Is a School, featuring airplane characters.

In 2008 Weeks was inducted into the Florida Aviation Hall of Fame, and in 2006 was named a "Living Legend of Aviation."

In 2009 he won a bronze Independent Publisher Book Award for the book.

In 2010 he won the Freedom of Flight Award by Bob Hoover.

He followed it up with "The Spirit of Lindy" in September 2012.

In 2012 Weeks was awarded the Lloyd P. Nolen Lifetime Achievement in Aviation Award by the Wings Over Houston Airshow.

In 2017 Weeks started producing and selling 'Naked in Jamaica', a Jamaican styled Rum, and retailing blackberries grown at his property in Florida.

Weeks maintains one of the largest private collections of flight-worthy historic aircraft in the world, most of which are at his Fantasy of Flight facility in Polk City, Florida.

The collection contains over 140 civilian and military planes including rare originals as well as reproductions of historic aircraft, such as the Spirit of St. Louis.