By ROMONA WASHINGTON
editor@newssun.com
AVON PARK - Kenny Long hasn't always had a passion for airplanes, but one sure wouldn't know it to talk to him.
After graduating from Avon Park High School, Long signed on for a six-year stint with the U.S. Marine Corps. He scored high on a pattern analysis test and was offered a job flying. He refused, saying he didn't think he'd enjoy it. Besides, he would have to extend his commitment for another four years. He was still in boot camp and wasn't willing to do that.
It was until he completed his duty and returned home, married to wife Freda, that Long accepted an offer to fly with friends Stanley and Kenny Wells, who had built a helicopter.
"As soon as I got in that plane, I knew. I flew nearly every day for a long while after that," he said. That was in 1974.
The passion for flying has taken Long on many adventures, both in the air and on land. Quite the woodworker, Long built a desk in 1980 modeled after an airplane that still sits in his office at Long's Air Conditioning. In the early 1990s he was offered a plane from the Avon Park Air Force Range that he wanted to have mounted on The Mall as a tribute to the city's bond with the military. His offer, which was complete with maintenance of the aircraft, was turned down. He didn't stop.
He had a plane situated in his yard on East Palmetto Street shortly after that incident, but the city cited him for an abandoned vehicle. "At that time, I decided I was going to build my own plane," he said.
And he did.
During the past four years, when his work crews were slow, Long has had them building plane parts. Recently, those parts have been mantled into a built-to-scale 1917 Sopwith Snipe, the most famous of all Sopwith planes used in World War I. It is the plane that took the place of Snoopy's plane, the Sopwith Camel.
"The Sopwith Snipe was much more maneuverable than the Camel," Long said. He researched and read much material and books on the plane -- officially called the E8102, which was first flown by Canadian Major William G. Barker -- before assigning tasks to his employees to start building his rendition.
The work started with the fuselage and then was sidelined for about two years while work kept his crew busy. The rest of the plane has been built over the course of the past two years.
The plane, which now sits in his yard, is real. The body is made of Apa wood from Africa and stainless steel. The propellor at one time hung over the fireplace at Lodwick Academy, a school in Avon Park where Air Force personnel received training during World War II. The engine doesn't really run, but the propellor will slowly rotate when an electric switch on the house is turned on.
All of the controls work, as do the rudder pedals. The cylinders on the engine came from a real airplane and the instrument panel are from a World War I plane. The two machine guns are to resemble the Vickers .303 caliber machine gun.
"Everything used to build this was plane was made at Long's. I would tell them what I wanted and the guys at the shop would build it," he said, giving much credit to Jackie Carter, Mike Smith and Larry Egan.
The final outcome couldn't have made him happier.
"This is exactly what I was wanting. I would go over with the men what I wanted and they did it. It came out exactly as I wanted it to. There's not a thing I would change," he said.
The plane, he said, should still be standing 100 years from now.
For now, it's a toy for his kids, his grandchildren ... and himself.
Sunday, May 24, 2009 - www.newssun.com/0524--long-s-plane