Texas family donates fighter jet to Volo Auto Museum to honor their father
The Volo Auto Museum is known for an array of vintage and celebrity cars - as well as tractors, bicycles, snowmobiles and other modes of transportation. But Wednesday's new arrival adds some zip to the roster.
A French military fighter jet delivered on a flatbed truck from Beaumont, Texas, is the latest attraction for proprietor Brian Grams, who waited patiently in the cold rain as the disassembled Fouga CM-170 Magister was unloaded.
"It's neat getting something other than a car," Grams said. "It's not every day we see a jet come in. In fact, it's only the second day we saw a jet come in."
The other is a full-sized replica Harrier jet built for "True Lies," a 1994 Arnold Schwarzenegger film.
Grams wasn't looking for another jet but couldn't refuse an offer from the family of the Fouga's previous owner, Bill "Hat" Watkins, a Texas entrepreneur and businessman who was said to have had his own share of movie-worthy moments.
Watkins died in 2012, and the slick jet he flew for fun remained in storage until his daughter Lorraine Watkins Davenport saw the auto museum featured on a TV show called "Small Town Big Deal."
"I saw that and saw they had a fighter jet there and said, 'I wonder if they're interested in our jet?'" Davenport said.
The family had an offer to sell it, she said, but determined the museum would be the best place for her father's legacy to be shared and the aircraft to be treated with respect.
"We wanted people to enjoy it," Davenport said.
It was transported to Volo and reassembled for display by Florida-based DeLand Barnstormers.
The nimble, two-seat Fouga was built in the late 1950s and used for fighter training but was not equipped with weapons. With a wingspan of 33 feet and the body of about the same length, it could reach a speed of 440 mph.
Used for only a few years by the military before being phased out, the turbojet with the distinct V-tail design became available to the public and is said to be sought after by experimental aircraft enthusiasts.
According to his obituary, Watkins was a jack of all trades with experience as an electrician, a carpenter, an auto salesman, a shrimp boat owner and a poultry farm manager. He was co-owner of ACI Building Systems Inc. in Batesville, Mississippi, an eight-hour drive from Beaumont.
The idea to buy the Fouga came on a trip in 1997 to Batesville in Watkins' Piper Aerostar, said Stig Lunde, a native of Norway who learned to fly in the U.S. and became Watkins' pilot.
"Bill was reading the Trade-A-Plane magazine and then suddenly said, 'Stig, you reckon I would look good in one of these?'" Lunde recalled. Shortly after, the pair traveled to New York, received instructions from the owner and completed the transaction.
For about a year, Watkins hid the purchase from his family, who learned of it after he crashed the Aerostar and was hospitalized. After he was out of intensive care, a friend asked Watkins if he was ready to fly his jet, according to his son Charlie, who was in the room.
It ended up in a hangar most of the time and was flown for enjoyment.
"I'm sure he would be proud if he knew the plane was taken care of at the museum," Lunde said.