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Kermit Weeks (born July 14, 1953 in Salt Lake City, Utah)〔(Fantasy of Flight website; Kermit Weeks Biography page )〕〔(Fantasy of Flight website; press release )〕 is an American aviation enthusiast, pilot, and aircraft collector. He has competed in aerobatics, designed aircraft, and promoted aviation and vintage aircraft restoration. Inherited oil and gas royalties〔Weeks' grandfather was a geologist who was successful in developing numerous oil fields in and around Australia. ()〕 provide Weeks with the funds, capital and resources to pursue the preservation of historic aircraft. ==Life and career== The Weeks family moved to Miami, Florida when Weeks 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.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Kermit Weeks )〕 Weeks later learned to fly. He eventually purchased a Pitts S-2A in order to fly in aerobatic competition.〔 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.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Kermit Weeks Creator and Owner )〕 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〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Blame Snoopy )〕 and has won several Invitational Masters Championships in worldwide competitions. During the late 1970s, Weeks started to acquire, restore and preserve antique aircraft. 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 antique 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. In 1992, as development plans finalized for Fantasy of Flight, Hurricane Andrew struck the Miami area, virtually destroying the Weeks Air Museum facility (it was repaired and reopened in 1994) and seriously damaging most of the vintage aircraft within it. Some of Weeks' collection, which was damaged by the hurricane 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 2009 he won a bronze Independent Publisher Book Award for the book. 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 2010 he won the Freedom of Flight Award by Bob Hoover. In 2008 Weeks was inducted into the Florida Aviation Hall of Fame, and in 2006 was named a "Living Legend of Aviation."〔(【引用サイトリンク】title= Wings Over Houston presents lifetime achievement award )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Kermit Weeks」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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