Not for the squeamish: Kingman AAF photo essay from LIFE

[ZeamerB17]

It's interesting to note that Kingman was not the largest post WWII a/c salvage yard but it seems to have been the one that was photographed the most.

I would like to see more photos from Albuquerque, personally. A certain B-17 I am very interested in met her end there.

[Second Air Force]

It's interesting to note that Kingman was not the largest post WWII a/c salvage yard but it seems to have been the one that was photographed the most. One of the things about the post WWII a/c scrapping drive that has always puzzled me is the speed with which it took place. I've also found it a bit strange that many of the larger salvage locations were given to single companies and the awarding of the contracts had more to do with "how fast can you melt these a/c" than "who can give the government the most money in return for the scrap". The government was in a hurry to get rid of this stuff and they were ready with a plan that they had started working on well before the war ended. I've recently become very interested in the details of that plan and its principle architect. More on that subject in the future, I'm still doing research on it and I'm not quite ready to stick my neck out yet.

Here's one for you B-24 vs B-17 freaks: Why did more B-17s make it from the salvage yards to private owners? Was it because the B-17 was a better plane than the B-24? Seriously, I'm looking for some independent verification of something that turned up in my research.

Albert,

If you don't already have a copy, find MILITARY AIRCRAFT BONEYARDS BY Nicholas A. Veronico, A. Kevin Grantham, and Scott Thompson. They have a good synopsis of how the surplus hardware planning was undertaken. The planners started to study how to deal with war surplus materiel in 1943 and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation eventually implemented the storage/surplus plan.

Scott

[astixjr]

Albert,

If you don't already have a copy, find MILITARY AIRCRAFT BONEYARDS BY Nicholas A. Veronico, A. Kevin Grantham, and Scott Thompson. They have a good synopsis of how the surplus hardware planning was undertaken. The planners started to study how to deal with war surplus materiel in 1943 and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation eventually implemented the storage/surplus plan.

Scott

I don't have a copy of that book Scott but I've heard about it and I sure would like to find a copy of it. I read your post yesterday but have been dealing with some issues at work so this was my first chance to reply. When I got home this evening I saw an overnite package from Nick on my front porch so I thought maybe Nick had been lurking on here again. It turned out to be a copy of Airliners in Flight by Nick Veronico and George Hall and brings back some great memories of my time at Evergreen. The book has lots of photos of the boneyard at Marana and Avra Valley, AZ.

I'm still searching for information or the actual court case records but apparently, David R. Davis, the inventor and patent holder of the Davis Wing, filed a lawsuit in an attempt to prevent the Government from selling surplus B-24s without paying him an additional $500.00+ per airplane. The original agreement apparently called for a $5.00 per B-24 royalty fee but Davis said that the agreement was only for military use of the plane. Davis felt that once a B-24/PB4Y was in civilain hands, he was owed more money. The government eventually won the court battle when the Davis Wing patent was declared mostly invalid but by that time, most of the B-24s had already been scrapped.

I'd like to find some additional information and verification of the Davis Wing patent dispute as it involved the B-24. If any of you WIXers can point me in a direction, I'd appreciate it.

[Second Air Force]

I've read about the same information as you just posted about Mr. Davis. The legal issues may have had some bearing on the surplus sales of the Liberator, but I rather doubt it. The B-24, for whatever reason, had few takers in the civilian world versus the B-17. Even the Air Force didn't want it, preferring to use B-17s for the utility jobs available in the post-war years.

I've been trying to think of B-24 variants that were sold to the civilian registry from the RFC storage fields but can only think of the C-87 that Milton Reynolds rescued (I think from Walnut Ridge). He also tried to purchase a B-32 in '47 but that fell through. AM927 doesn't really count as she was in the care of Consolidated at the end of the War.

Scott

[the330thbg]

Please take a look...,

http://www.lancastermuseum.ca/noseartaahm.html

are these preserved panels still around? How come we have never seen them or heard of them?

I haven't.. has anyone else?

[Django]

I heard of them, but have only seen what is online. Don't know the history on their survival.

This intriqued me though, from the paragraph about Kingman... "Only one B-17 nose art painting was saved. It was found in the local Elk's Lodge in May 1982."

Which one is that???

[Second Air Force]

Chad,

The surviving Kingman B-17 panel is the mortal remains of Lucky Partners, 43-38450 of the 447th Bomb Group. Here are a couple of links:
http://www.447bg.com/43-38450.htm
http://www.mohavemuseum.org/kaaf5.html

Scott

[Django]

Thanks Scott. That's awesome! I had no idea.

[Garth]

Not sure if this is the right place, but if, in the Google/LIFE archive, you search on Navy Planes San Diego or Navy Planes North Island, there are 3-4 pages (quite a bit of overlap between the two) of F4Fs, F6Fs, F4Us, SBDs and PBYs in the tricolor scheme.