This is an I-Heart podcast.

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And we return to our American stories.

And up next, a story that's one of a kind.

In the early 1950s through 70s, a son of penniless

Czech immigrants somehow managed to amass an arsenal of military aircraft, albeit unfliable,

in his own backyard. His name was Walter Soplata. Here to tell his story is Wally Soplata, Walter's son, and the author of The B-25 in the backyard.

Here's our own Monte Montgomery with his story.

Our story begins in the home state of the Wright brothers, Ohio.

Here's Wally Soplata on the eccentric airplane collector that was his father.

Even as a young boy, I realized my father was different.

As a result, the way we lived was different.

But though we had airplanes parked near our house, it wasn't anything I paid much attention

to in my earlier years.

The planes didn't fly or do anything.

Days, months, sometimes years would go by, the planes doing nothing sitting in the same spot.

For many reasons, this is an improbable story that never would have happened in the hands

of any other person than the gifted eccentric who was my father.

The Great Depression financially devastated his family when my father was six years old.

And things only got worse when dad's abusive and

alcoholic father abandoned him and his family when he was eight years old. Later that

helped support a struggling family, dad was forced to go to work at an early age and

...