Paul Allen's Flying Heritage collection sold

[On the way]

https://www.planeandpilotmag.com/news/the-latest/2022/04/15/paul-allens-museum-aircraft-collection-reported-sold/

 

Really bummed out about this. Used to go down to Everett as many times as I could in the summer to watch the Fly Days there. Now, there will be no more. I wonder who has the Stuka they were restoring. Hope his sister rots in hell

 

[On the way]

Apparently sold to Sam Walton's grandson

 

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/paul-allen-flying-heritage-collection-232207439.html

[sunday]

Would the new owner be able to spend enough to keep the collection in a good state of repair?

Also, wonder what Allen's sister is doing, or plan to do, with all the money she is reaping selling his late brother's dreams.

[On the way]

On 4/20/2022 at 2:14 AM, sunday said:

Would the new owner be able to spend enough to keep the collection in a good state of repair?

Also, wonder what Allen's sister is doing, or plan to do, with all the money she is reaping selling his late brother's dreams.

Well the walmart fortune is pretty bottomless and by all accounts the grandson is a military and aviation enthusiast. So it should be in well maintained. Just bummed that the collection was taken out of the pacific northwest and relocated to god knows where. Allen's sister can go to hell. She had more then enough money in the estate to keep the doors opened on the museum but chose not to. She has been selling off his superyatchs and what not too.

[sunday]

New owner's worth is about $300 mill, "only"...

[DB]

Better that they go into the hands of someone who will value them than someone who does not.

Both the Littlefields collection and this one suggest that those who have a collecting habit and ample cash to feed it should be looking to secure their legacy, and not leave it at the whim of uncaring relatives. A museum trust is presumably the best that can be done, I don't think you want to gift it to government.

[rmgill]

Yep. Alan Cors is doing the proper groundwork to make sure his collection doesn't get destroyed by the BATF. 

Edited April 21, 2022 by rmgill

[JWB]

 

[nitflegal]

7 hours ago, DB said:

Better that they go into the hands of someone who will value them than someone who does not.

Both the Littlefields collection and this one suggest that those who have a collecting habit and ample cash to feed it should be looking to secure their legacy, and not leave it at the whim of uncaring relatives. A museum trust is presumably the best that can be done, I don't think you want to gift it to government.

To be fair, before his death Jacque had a good relationship with the Collins family and had expressed that if they were going to close out his personal museum he wanted them to get it, which is why his widow gave his collection to the Collins Foundation.  

[DB]

5 hours ago, nitflegal said:

To be fair, before his death Jacque had a good relationship with the Collins family and had expressed that if they were going to close out his personal museum he wanted them to get it, which is why his widow gave his collection to the Collins Foundation.  

Ah, I must have misunderstood the talk at the time.

[nitflegal]

6 hours ago, DB said:

Ah, I must have misunderstood the talk at the time.

There was a lot of back and forth.  Littlefield's restoration employees were legitimately pissed off and vocal about it because they were pretty unceremoniously dumped by his museum when it got liquidated.  It's a shame because they were some of the best armor restoration folks in the business.

[On the way]

On 4/21/2022 at 4:23 AM, sunday said:

New owner's worth is about $300 mill, "only"...

Yeah, but mommy, and uncles have billions $. In anycase, i think that is more then enough money to keep the planes flying and in good condition. The expensive restoration projects have been sold off.

[On the way]

On 4/21/2022 at 11:42 AM, DB said:

Better that they go into the hands of someone who will value them than someone who does not.

Both the Littlefields collection and this one suggest that those who have a collecting habit and ample cash to feed it should be looking to secure their legacy, and not leave it at the whim of uncaring relatives. A museum trust is presumably the best that can be done, I don't think you want to gift it to government.

Yup. both the owners of these collections have enough money in their estate to manage these collections indefinitely. But they either did not make it clear that was what they wanted in their wills, or the executors of the estates did not give a rats ass.

[On the way]

For those who may know, across the runway at Paine field, from Paul Allen's collection,  was the Historic Flight Foundation (HFF). This collection was founded by John Sessions and I love this smaller collection because it was more interactive. You can pay $250 for a whole day ground school on the DC-3, TBM Avenger, B-25 Mitchell, SPitfire, etc. and end up with a FAA ground handling cert. They too had their fly days for their collection. ANyway, this collection has now permanently moved to Spokane, leaving the greater Seattle area with no regular flying aircraft displays. A very sad day for me.

[Stuart Galbraith]

On 4/23/2022 at 1:45 AM, On the way said:

Yup. both the owners of these collections have enough money in their estate to manage these collections indefinitely. But they either did not make it clear that was what they wanted in their wills, or the executors of the estates did not give a rats ass.

You made me think of something I saw the other day. I subscribe to Kermit Weeks youtube page, and he was removing a Lancaster he had from some containers that were leaking, and then I guess will put them back in new containers.

Yes, it costs an arm and a leg to restore, but why own it unless you plan to? Far better to sell it off to someone that can do something with it, then running the risk of leaving it to the hands of executors whom might just see it as an opportunity to maximise income by parcelling the components out. Which Weeks seemingly has already done by loaning the components to people like Peter Jackson.

Just leaves me feeling very uncomfortable, seeing as there is only 17 left, and few of them in any position to fly again.

 

 

[On the way]

10 hours ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

You made me think of something I saw the other day. I subscribe to Kermit Weeks youtube page, and he was removing a Lancaster he had from some containers that were leaking, and then I guess will put them back in new containers.

Yes, it costs an arm and a leg to restore, but why own it unless you plan to? Far better to sell it off to someone that can do something with it, then running the risk of leaving it to the hands of executors whom might just see it as an opportunity to maximise income by parcelling the components out. Which Weeks seemingly has already done by loaning the components to people like Peter Jackson.

Just leaves me feeling very uncomfortable, seeing as there is only 17 left, and few of them in any position to fly again.

 

 

Well, that is a good question. Most of the collection that the Walton kid bought from Paul Allen's estate was already restored and many in flyable condition.  So, if that is any relief it should be in the hands of a wealthy aviation enthusiast. Before Covid, they had several projects in the midst of being restored. One of which was a JU 87 Stuka. Not sure if that was completed. But Allen never sold them off to someone else to be restored. I guess because he had the money and the trained people to do the restoration himself. Of course he did not count on his impending death. MAybe he did not set aside funds in his estate to endow the museum and make sure the restorations were completed and the museum would continue. But even if he did not, I am sure his sister knows how much the museum meant to him and as a memorial to his father........... and yet the cold hearted biatch sold it. 

[Harold Jones]

On 4/21/2022 at 12:42 PM, DB said:

Better that they go into the hands of someone who will value them than someone who does not.

Both the Littlefields collection and this one suggest that those who have a collecting habit and ample cash to feed it should be looking to secure their legacy, and not leave it at the whim of uncaring relatives. A museum trust is presumably the best that can be done, I don't think you want to gift it to government.

Littlefield had started to do just that, but died before he could complete the vehicle transfers, for tax reasons he didn't transfer all the vehicles at once.  The National WW2 aviation museum down in Colorado Springs is an example of what can be done.  https://www.worldwariiaviation.org