There might be some cool people at Microsoft after all.

[GDS_Starfury]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2013/06/04/inside-microsoft-mogul-paul-allens-multi-million-dollar-wwii-airplane-collection/

This story appears in the 24. kesäkuuta 2013 issue of Forbes Life.


Paul Allen, Microsoft billionaire and airplane collector. Photo: Eric Millette.


PAUL ALLEN IS STARING UP AT THE BARREL of an enormous gun–more like a cannon and more than twice his height. In the newly opened second hangar of his Flying Heritage Collection, the billionaire Microsoft cofounder points at an 88mm Flak 37, Nazi Germany's most feared piece of artillery during World War II. Allen owns three of the estimated two dozen left in the world, and his are all in full working order.
"The 88s were the first thing we got, right?" Allen asks Adrian Hunt, the curator of his museum, a half-hour drive from Seattle. "When my father came under fire in World War II, that was actually the thing that fired at him."


Allen's late father, Kenneth, landed in Normandy the day after D-Day. In 1945 he and his fellow infantrymen of the 501st Quartermaster Railhead Company were bombarded near Remagen, Germany by Nazi soldiers firing 88s loaded with 20-pound shells. Kenneth Allen survived. He returned from overseas more taciturn than when he left, with a Bronze Star and haunting memories of comrades who would never come home.


As Allen walks past his collection of perfectly preserved World War II planes, weapons and tanks, one of the best in the world, the 60-year-old reels off from memory stories of each relic's chance discovery. "This one, this Messerschmitt, was on a beach in France buried in a sand dune," he says, pointing at a monoplane with a swastika on its tail.


He stops next at the Ilyushin IL-2M3 Sturmovik, a Soviet war bird nicknamed Black Death by the Germans. "This one was pieced together from four wrecks in northwest Russia," he says. As he gestures at its meticulously restored fuselage, a turquoise-and-silver ring the size of his knuckle gleams from his right hand. It belonged to his father. He rarely takes it off.

[Martok]

Very cool. 

[Con]

Its what we would all do as well if we had more money than Midas

Con

[TheCommandTent]

Very cool indeed

[LongBlade]

Its what we would all do as well if we had more money than Midas

Con

No kidding.

Thanks for sharing, Star.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I met Paul Allen a few years back in a bar at the float plane terminal in Vancouver.

My friend and I were there enjoying a few pints and noticed that a few stools down from us was a slightly pudgy middle aged guy at the bar.  He was well into his cups and was drunkenly chatting with an extremely attractive young blonde lady and what we thought was her rather fit boyfriend.   Then he started pawing the lady and we thought, well, this is going to get interesting.  Then one of the bar staff got on the PA and announced "Would the owner of the Bentley, licence number blah blah blah, please move it as it's blocking the taxi zone."  (I love the fact that they gave out the licence number so as to avoid confusion over the plethora of Bentleys in the parking lot.)

The drunken older guy muttered something and the young man rushed out to move the car.

Then the guy noticed us gawking at the whole scene, gave us a wolfish grin, ordered some pints for all of us and introduced himself as Paul Allen.  We chatted with him for a little bit and he seemed nice enough but he was pretty far gone by that point and wasn't really able to carry on a conversation all that well.  Evidently, he owns (owned?) an island just over the border in Washington state and would come up to the pub fairly frequently.  Never saw him there again though.

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

Gates got him out of microsoft fairly early on. He kept the stock.

[Tuna]

Awesome stuff, glad there was a photo Gallery with the article... Glad to see some people out there preserving history. Like some of the Panzer museums in Europe.. In the US we had all those vintage tanks rusting up outside of Aberdeen.. I think recently they started trying to clean them up, but all those years outside takes it's toll as well..

[Staggerwing]

There are a few episodes of a show called Tank Overhaul (ore something like that) on Netflix. In one they overhaul an Elifant for static display and an other follows the rebuild of two Centurions, one in Canada and one in the UK. The episodes are slim on content but still worth a watching.

[mirth]

There's only two dozen 88s left? That's surprising.

[airboy]

There is a Tank Museum in Danbury Virginia that has the armor inside giant hangers.  Most of the tanks have functioning motors.

http://www.aaftankmuseum.com/

I've been there and it is awesome.