Limerick man Michael Kelly (67) has put his incredible aircraft collection on view in Shannon over six decades after his preoccupation with aircraft as a young boy began there.

The collection, which the retired fitter/plumber began assembling from his mid-teens and spent €25,000 each year on at its peak, outgrew his old farmhouse home just 400m from the River Shannon but has found a new one at Shannon Airport.

It will be officially opened in the autumn but is already on display and getting huge attention from passengers as they marvel at the vastness and uniqueness of the permanent exhibition.

The collection, which is housed in display units in a dedicated gallery area just off the departures lounge, includes every popular aircraft to have flown as well as many lesser well known, right up to modern day versions.

All aircraft are 1:200 in scale and among the better known ones are a range of Concordes that perfected take-off ability at Shannon; the Sunderland aircraft owned by Al Capone from the 1930s; the world’s largest aircraft to fly commercially, the Antonov, which has also transited Shannon; the largest aircraft never to fly, the Spruce Goose of the Hughes Aircraft Company owned by ‘the Aviator’, Howard Hughes; the first Ryanair Boeing 737 aircraft; the full Aer Lingus collection from its beginnings and much, much more.

For aviation enthusiasts there’s also the likes of Kelly's own favourite, the VC 10, an aircraft that captivated imaginations when it came out in the 1960s; the Russian Ilyushin 62, which hubbed in Shannon, and Yaks; the Hercules, Lockheed Electra and TriStar; and the British royal’s ‘Queen’s Flight’ BAE 146.

According to www.breakingnews.ie