Scrapped planes after WWII

[Franz von Werra]

I've heard that many aircraft passed from assembly lines directly to scrapyards, due to the impossibility to stop the frantic activity of US factories all at once after the war had ended.

Is it true?

[SMF144]

No, not at all.

Where did you hear of this nonsense?

Stephen

[shooshoobaby]

Franz - This is correct. Many of them were purchased by scrap dealers for the metal and Aviation Fuel. Some were purchased at auctions for various uses. Many were scrapped in Kingman and Tucson,Arizona, Walnut Ridge ,
Arkansas , Stillwater , Oklahoma by the U.S. Government. The Navy dumped many in the ocean and others were destroyed in other countries.
Most of these were bombers and some fighters. New P -51s and F4U Corsairs were retained by Armed Forces as were B - 29s ,a few B - 17s
and new Transports.
Mike

[ArtieBob]

IMHO shoshoobaby's reply is not correct in the sense that the "franti c activity" of US factories could not be stopped all at once. Many of the aircraft at Kingman were actually flown back from the Pacific theater, for example. Since the end date of the war was unpredictable, war effort continued right up to and following V-J day. Some aircraft had been taken out of production prior to that time but many of the newer types, B-29, A-26, P-80 etc. did not shut down at all, although in most cases the rate was cut back. Understand that even in WWII, the time from the start of manufacturing, i.e.,cutting aluminum, forging blanks, etc. to final assembly was from months to nearly a year. Because of these lead times, when the stop orders came there would be components all the way from aluminum sheet stampings up to completed aircraft in the chain. IIRC, most of this material went directly to scrap dealers and local salvage companies. Thousands of aircraft were scrapped or abandoned around the world, USA, GB, German, Jap, etc. There was just very little use for combat aircraft for several years following the end of WW II, the best were kept and the rest disposed of.

Best regards,

Artie Bob

[shooshoobaby]

From biography of Bob Sturges , WW II Test Pilot for Boeing. Post WW II he delivered several B - 17s purchased from bone yards.Flew the famous B -17 to Portland , Oregon that was mounted over a Gas station.It is still there. These aircraft were brand new and the unsold ones were mostly scrapped . Many that were purchased were for the aviation fuel. The tanks were drained and the aircraft was re- sold to a scrap dealer.

[Franek Grabowski]

Many factories continued production of unnecessary tools of war just because not to dramatically increase unemployment ratio and allow economy to convert to peace terms. This is politics and I have heard a lot of complaints that it has nothing to aircraft.

[Larry Daley]

To Ed:

Then I can safely state that Valley was an allied air base, with U.S., Czech and other allied planes using it?


Larry Daley

[Franek Grabowski]

Nonsense. There was a shortage of aluminum in the Eastern Block, and almost everything was melted down. Most of the recoveries from 'the East' are aircraft and tanks illegally removed from remote areas.

[phil]

Hello wranek,
maybe in poland that was the case to collect alu coz of the shortage,but as i have contacts in some east countries I know about what i am talking.
even last year i collected german airplane parts in chech rep.
even in russia remoted area's you have to be surprised what still can be recovered those days left behind by russian and german forces,i saw it all on video taken by russians who visited my place here only a few years ago.!
3 years ago i recovered luftwaffe items that came from a dump in germany
and i have the evidence from this.
its like with everything you have to know the contacts and the places.
I have been to norway on wrecks,thanks to local guides and with cooperation of norweagan air force we were able to come to those wrecks.if you go to norway and tour around and you don't know anything you can drive around for a year without finding it.
all this is talking about personal experience and not from "i have heard from people..."
kindly regards
phil