{"id":2136,"date":"2010-12-02T01:33:25","date_gmt":"2010-12-02T01:33:25","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=2060"},"modified":"2018-11-08T13:39:13","modified_gmt":"2018-11-08T18:39:13","slug":"fantasy-of-flight-celebrates-its-15th-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fantasyofflight.com\/collection\/fantasy-of-flight\/fantasy-of-flight-celebrates-its-15th-anniversary\/","title":{"rendered":"Fantasy of Flight Celebrates its 15th Anniversary!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the three day weekend after Thanksgiving we celebrated having been open for 15 years!<\/p>\n

Our initial Grand Opening Gala was on on Veterans Day, November 11, 1995 and included a “thousand of my closest friends.” \u00a0People still talk about our amazing opening party where everyone dressed up in WWII Period Formal Dress or Black Tie. \u00a0We laid out the red carpet with searchlights, guard gates and re-enactors, Paparazzi photographers when you arrived to valet your car, a champagne reception, tour of the immersion environments, flight-themed laser light show, my welcoming speech, night aerobatics with pyro coming off the wings, fireworks, USO style Big Band,\u00a0amazing food and drink, an air raid siren with simulated bombing and strafing, a French Cafe with decadent desserts, and then a Rock & Roll Band until the wee hours! \u00a0We opened to the public several weekends later after we recouperated.<\/p>\n

To help celebrate our 15-year Anniversary we flew 15 different airplanes over the weekend, flying five different airplanes per day. \u00a0We also had many things themed around the “15th” for our guests and drew a raffle ticket for a great prize every time I flew one of the planes. \u00a0One group from the United Kingdom got in free, got a free lunch, AND won one of the raffle ticket prizes! \u00a0I told them they needed to buy a lotto ticket as well!<\/p>\n

While I’m very proud of what we’ve accomplised so far in 15 years, which I now see as laying the foundation for our future. \u00a0I’m even more excited about the next 15, which will be the implementation of our future and a fun, creative and exciting time. \u00a0Starting in 2011, we will hit the ground running to revamp our existing product and facility even more. \u00a0We plan to re-theme all the old exhibits, add new ones, as well as add new tours and shows.<\/p>\n

I thought it would be fun to share with you the 15 different airplanes I flew over the three days and in their order –<\/p>\n

Friday #1 – Piper L-4<\/p><\/div>\n

Friday #2 – Norde Stampe<\/p><\/div>\n

Friday #3 – Stinson Tri-Motor<\/p><\/div>\n

Friday #4 – Grumman TBM<\/p><\/div>\n

Friday #5 – Grumman Wildcat<\/p><\/div>\n

Saturday #1 – Bucker Bestmann<\/p><\/div>\n

Saturday #2 – Polikarpov Po-2<\/p><\/div>\n

Saturday #3 – Ford Tri-Motor<\/p><\/div>\n

Saturday #4 – North American AT-6D<\/p><\/div>\n

Saturday # 5 – North American P-51C<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Sunday #1 – Fiesler Storch<\/p><\/div>\n

Sunday #2 – Avro Cadet<\/p><\/div>\n

Sunday #3 – Travelair 4000<\/p><\/div>\n

Sunday #4 – Grumman Duck<\/p><\/div>\n

Sunday #5 – North American P-51D with Aircraft Department celebrating with Champagne!<\/p><\/div>\n

With Legoland opening at the old Cypress Gardens site next fall, we hope to ride on the coat tails of their marketing efforts to bring more tourists to Polk County. \u00a0Other happenings in the works that will help our long-term success will be the widening of our intersection at Interstate 4, Exit 44, as well as the initial construction of a High Speed Rail and stop down the center of the I-4 corridor. \u00a0Orlando to Tampa was THE #1 location for government support of a High Speed Rail System in the United States and the stars are beginning to line up for Orlampa!<\/p>\n

We are all having fun developing Fantasy of Flight into something that does not yet exist. \u00a0Our future product is all about\u00a0pushing our boundaries\u00a0and\u00a0reaching beyond ourselves\u00a0and to get to where we need to go, we will all need to do it ourselves in spades! \u00a0In the end though, it’s not about getting to the destination . . . but the process and experience of getting there! \u00a0And while I would love to have it all done tomorrow, I realize it’s not my timetable and it will happen in its own time. \u00a0Not a problem for me as I’m doing what I love . . . and love what I’m doing!<\/p>\n

Keep an eye on us and visit us from time to time . . . we’re going to do great things!<\/p>\n

Kermit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the three day weekend after Thanksgiving we celebrated having been open for 15 years! Our initial Grand Opening Gala was on on Veterans Day, November 11, 1995 and included a “thousand of my closest\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,61,31,11,41,39,40,21,22,15,62,52,36,50,63,38,64,44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-avro-cadet","category-bucker-bestmann","category-calendar-events","category-fantasy-of-flight","category-fiesler-storch","category-ford-trimotor","category-grumman-duck","category-grumman-tbm","category-grumman-wildcat","category-kermit-weeks","category-nord-stampe","category-north-american-at-6-texan","category-north-american-p-51d","category-p-51c-mustang","category-piper-l-4","category-polikarpov-p0-2","category-stinson-tri-motor","category-travelair-4000","fantasy-of-flight-celebrates-its-15th-anniversary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fantasyofflight.com\/collection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fantasyofflight.com\/collection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fantasyofflight.com\/collection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fantasyofflight.com\/collection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fantasyofflight.com\/collection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2136"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.fantasyofflight.com\/collection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6343,"href":"https:\/\/www.fantasyofflight.com\/collection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2136\/revisions\/6343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fantasyofflight.com\/collection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fantasyofflight.com\/collection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fantasyofflight.com\/collection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}