Aero Online

Curiosities 7 – The Aircraft Collector

João Henrique Barboza Jorgetto • Feb 22, 2023

Imagine a whole museum, with more than 102 aircraft and many other cool things belonging just to one person! This is the case of Monsieur Michel Pont, a wealthy Frenchman who turned a castle into a super museum.

The Chatêau de Savigny - lès - Beaune, in the Bourgogne region, is a classic example of the magnitude of the castles of the French nobility from centuries ago, preserved until today to tell this story to those who visit. However, this particular castle also has a collection of cars (the largest private collection of Abarth vehicles is there), as well as motorbikes (more than 250), farm machinery from different eras, fire and police trucks, military items, weapons, exotic wines and... planes!

But to understand how it all started, we need to know the story of Mr. Pont. Coming from a family of French farmers, Pont grew up during the difficulties of the 2nd World War, in a devastated France, watching his family lose what little they had. In his youth, Pont did mandatory military service as a mechanic in the Armée de L'air, the French Air Force, and during his active-duty period he was sent to serve in the Algerian War, which took place between 1954 and 1962. His passion and his contact with airplanes grew exponentially, including involving him in confusion with his superiors. This all happened when Pont was sent into the desert on a mission to collect and destroy the remains of a fighter jet that crashed on-route. The young soldier did everything he was asked, except to destroy some small parts of the plane, which he decided to take as a "souvenir". These constant gifts that Pont collected for his collection earned him an interrogation and an accusation of being a spy for the Maghreb rebels or even a Soviet one, a fact that he had to prove the opposite, saying that his desire was to own parts of planes to have a great collection or perhaps a museum. Pont was then ridiculed by his superiors, given his less than wealthy background. That's when he decided, after returning from the war, to reactivate his parents' winery and make his dream come true.

As you can see, the young Frenchman's ambition paid off, he not only managed to turn the winery into a great reference, but also started to drive race cars and use the big cash prizes he received to achieve his dream. From there came the numerous collections, with emphasis on airplanes. His first "toys" were a De Havilland Vampire and a De Havilland Venom, purchased from the British Royal Air Force and the Swiss Air Force. From then on, purchases were made in the most varied places in the world, from Eastern Europe in the middle of the Cold War, to Migs bought from Ethiopian rebels for negligible prices (Mr. Pont says that his Mig-15 cost less than a trip to the supermarket). However, the costs of bringing and assembling the aircraft to their new home were exorbitant.