Paul Allens Collection Sold to Walton Family Member

[Scudrunner]

News of a proposed sale to entrepreneur and philanthropist Steuart Walton, the grandson of Walmart founder Sam Walton, was first reported in April and became official on Thursday

https://www.geekwire.com/2022/paul-alle ... ll-reopen/

[Slick Goodlin]

Big fan of museums that fly stuff, not a fan of Wally World. I’m torn.

[Colonel]

My uncle used to hunt with them every year. They didn’t seem like bad people.

[Scudrunner]

Well the grandson likes airplanes so he can't be all that bad no?

[David MacRay]

Didn’t Sam die crashing an ultralight?

EDIT: Ok, I’m going to have to look later to see why I was thinking that. Wiki says he had blood cancer.

Maybe it was a family member.

[Colonel]

John Thomas Walton (October 8, 1946[1] – June 27, 2005) was an American war veteran and a son of Walmart founder Sam Walton.

Walton died on June 27, 2005, when the CGS Hawk Arrow home-built ultralight aircraft (registered as an "experimental aircraft" under FAA regulations) that he was piloting crashed in Jackson, Wyoming. Walton's plane crashed at 12:20 p.m. local time (1820 GMT) shortly after taking off from Jackson Hole Airport.[8]

The National Transportation Safety Board later reported that Walton had improperly reinstalled the rear locking collar on the elevator control torque tube. This allowed the torque tube to move rearward during his flight and loosened the elevator control cable tension. The outcome of the failed repair was an inflight loss of pitch control, without which Walton could not control the aircraft's altitude.

Shortly before his death, Forbes magazine had estimated Walton's net worth to be US$18.2 billion, tied with his brother Jim as the 4th richest person in the United States[9] and 11th-richest person in the world.

[Colonel]

Ultralights are dangerous pieces of junk

Sam Walton used to fly an Ercoupe to visit his stores, back in the day. He quit flying, I think, and later left the piloting to the pros in his corporate jet.

Unlike say Thurmun Munson

In August 1979, Munson had been flying airplanes for over a year and purchased a Cessna Citation

A whole year of part-time flying! That’s a lot, isn’t it?

[Scudrunner]

Had to go looking, I knew somewhere in the back of my mind when Sam quit flying he got a 414 to tour around in.

What many do not know is that use of private aircraft was key to Sam Walton’s business strategy in building his Walmart empire. He was a private pilot and used his Cessna C414 to travel around Arkansas and neighboring states to visit his stores, scout new locations, and recruit staff.

Being based in Bentonville, Arkansas, in the early days there was no interstate highway there. Back then, a road trip to visit another store could take eight hours, whereas a short flight could cut that down to one hour.

In order to build the business, Sam built a fleet of airplanes to be used as business tools.

Today Walmart has over 11,695 stores and clubs across 28 countries. Walmart’s travel program takes employees to locations all over the world, including to cities and towns not always closely served by commercial airports.

While the world’s largest retailer still relies heavily on scheduled airlines, it also operates 22 private jets – one of the largest corporate fleets in the world. The Walmart executives very rarely have to stay overnight, and travel on these jets to multiple locations in one day. For a lot of companies, the benefits of the corporate aircraft far outweigh the cost.

“Walmart is probably the most penny-pinching, efficient company on the planet,” says Chris MacDonald an ethics expert and visiting professor at the Keck Graduate Institute in Claremont, California.

The Walmart fleet of Private Jets is made-up mostly of Bombardier Learjets (carrying up to 10 people, with a range of around 2,200 miles); one Bombardier Global Express; and one Bombardier Global 5000 with intercontinental range.

Incidentally, during the financial crisis of 2008-2009, Walmart continued to increase its private jet fleet, resulting in it being able to keep prices of groceries low for its customers, as this way of traveling increased efficiency.

https://www.avbuyer.com/articles/owners ... ool-113073

[David MacRay]

Thanks, it was John there.

I remember wondering at the time, why he was not flying a regular plane, since he certainly could afford whatever he wanted.

Right now, I kind of wonder if what he was flying could take off and land on his lawn or something interesting?

[David MacRay]

I agree with Slick, love functional airplane museums, Walmart not so much.

Interesting article.

“Steuart… His net worth has been estimated at $300 million.”

Why is he so poor?