DR. LUIS VILLAR, SURGEON •ENGINEER • PILOT • COLLECTOR
Dr. Villar is well known as “the man” to see for breast implants with natural cleavage that don’t jump when you flex your muscles, as well as natural facelifts, eyelid surgery that “only your hairdresser knows for sure”, and skin cancer removal with minimal scarring.
He is a trained general surgeon, trauma surgeon, and plastic reconstructive surgeon of renown featured on True Hollywood Stories Investigates: Plastic Surgery Nightmares for his work repairing the victims of incompetent surgeons.
Many consider him well-grounded - but there is another side which puts him well above the ground. He rebuilds antique warbird aircrafts to plastic surgery standards.
He purchased a Stearman N2S-3 from Clyde Dawson at the naked Lady Ranch after being trained by World War II instructor, Wild Bill Voorhes. He then flew the Stearman to St. Croix while accompanying Clyde, who was in a Waco UPF-7 biplane, two weeks after getting his private pilot license. It was an incredibly dangerous thing to do.
Dr. Villar later explained, “When you do something incredibly stupid and you die, everybody says, ‘Oh, what a fool, what an idiot’. But if by fortune you survive, they say ‘what a great adventurer’.” The margin is thin.
For a decade he would fly to film school summer workshops in Rockport, Maine. His schedule was rigorous: three days up flying at 95 mph, one week in the dorms, leave the plane at Owls Head for a month, another one-week workshop, and finally, three days home.
The plane was decorated in Army colors: blue fuselage and yellow wings with a No-HMO logo on the side. But then Hurricane Wilma struck. It hit the West Coast but spun off a tornado that cut through the Stuart Airport, destroying only two hangars. Dr. Villar’s hangar was one of them. Parts were strewn a quarter mile off in the golf course.
The broken Stearman was disassembled and placed in storage until a new hangar was obtained. During the rebirth, Ken Wilson, the Stearman historian, was asked to trace the military life of this aircraft. It turns out that N52588 was born in the Boeing factory in Wichita, Kansas, on June, 1941. Interestingly, it was meant for the Navy, not the army. That meant an all-yellow color scheme. Every part was dissembled, inspected, tested, and rebuilt to plastic surgery standards (better than factory quality). Modern yellow cad bolts were stripped, replated in white cadmium, and baked to remove embrittlement.
A treasure hunt for new surplus parts ensued. Sheet metal fabricated from scratch to original blueprints were obtained from the Smithsonian.
His son, Andrew, helped from the very beginning, and his grandson, Carter, joined in 2020. Three generations.
His mechanic, Mac McDaniels, passed away about ten years ago, and Tom Reilly, one of the world’s premiere warbird restorationists, has overseen the process and trained Dr. Villar to be eligible for the Airframe and Engine Mechanics exam if he seeks another certification.
Whether in the sky or on the ground, Dr. Villar loves restoring people and planes.
VILLAR PLASTIC SURGERY
Dr. Luis F. Villar, M.D., F.A.C.S.
Stuart, Florida 34994 • 772-286-3722
Email: Info@byVillar.com • Website: www.byVillar.com
Facebook: www.Facebook.com/VillarPlasticSurgery