Warbird Information Exchange

Gang, WOW!!
Check Out this incredible document showing the shopping list of WW2 Warbirds Paul Mantz bought in February 1946:

B-17's, P-40's, B-24's, B-25's, P-47's...
He was like a kid in a Candy Store:

http://www.aerovintage.com/mantz_rfc.pdf

Price?? Ha! Ha! A mere $55,000 for everything!! They were all full of Av-Gas too.
Enough to make You cry...
I wonder what excuse He gave His Wife?? Where do You hide something like that?? ... Digger

Enough for several large air forces......

Digger-
I think I read somewhere that he drained and sold the Avgas from them and recouped most, if not all of his $55,000 investment!

-Pat

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Trust me, I know what I'm doing.

dang, where did they end up (for the most part)?
B

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documenting restored B-17s and those undergoing restoration to flight:

Nearly all got the chop within a few years. (Mr Mantz, a shrewd businessman, had bought many of the airplanes as studio props--a rental air force for eventual war-movie use. That didn't fully pan out, but Mr Mantz recovered his expenditure, and probably turned a profit, scrapping-off the dozens of Warbirds instead. The Avgas-siphoning/resale story is reportedly true also, and again shows Mantz' business acumen.)

Three of the 1946 mass-acquisition did survive, and all three became rather famous into the bargain: Mitchell N1203 became a camera-ship; P-51Cs N1202 and N1204 were converted for transcontinental racing and between them dominated the four postwar Bendix Trophy transcons. The Mitchell and one of the Mustangs are flying (the 51 is Kermit Weeks' "Ina the Macon Belle"), and the other Mustang is at Udvar-Hazy (in its later guise as Charlie Blair's polar-record "Excalibur III").

S.

As I recall(OOGAH..OOGAH..a-nutz memory check please?), Mantz immediatley recovered
most if not all of his investment with the sale of the drained fuel. This purchase qualified
Mantz as the owner of the 5th largest air force of the world at the time. The rest was gravy...That's my
take on the story....

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He bowls overhand...He is the most interesting man in the world.
"In Peace Japan Breeds War", Eckstein, Harper and Bros., 3rd ed. 1943(1927, 1928,1942)
"Leave it to ol' Slim. I got ideas...and they're all vile, baby." South Dakota Slim
"Ahh..."The Deuce", 28,000 pounds of motherly love." quote from some Mojave Grunt
DBF

very true

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

From the Paul Mantz biography, Hollywood Pilot, by Don Dwiggins:

"These ships, which had cost the taxpayers $117,000,000, Mantz picked up for $55,000 - quite a bargain considering that the Reconstruction Finance Corporation estimated their scrap value at $45,000. Paul figured to keep seventy-five ships for movie rental and junk out the rest, and he knew the RFC had holes in their head - the $45,000 value wouldn't even buy the aviation gas he now owned. There was at least $160,000 worth of scrap aluminum to be smelted down into waffle irons...$100,000 worth of plexiglas, at ten cents a pound to be cut up into novelty jewelry... more than 1000 good engines and a warehouse full of something everybody else had overlooked - the 6004-A oxygen regulators that an embarrassed government would buy back for seventy-five dollars each for their own post-war airplane fleet."

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Cheers,

Craig

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U.S. Marine Corps Sikorsky HRS / CH-19 Helicopter Database
U.S. Coast Guard Sikorsky HO4S / HH-19 Helicopter Database

The last I heard, (in1976) was that B-25H 43-4643 N1203, was allegedly destoryed while on a drug run. Have I been misinformed?

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Kind Regards,
Gary Lewis
J.A.F.O.

Gary,

An entire page of data for N1203, including the rumor of it's demise, is available on Scott's site here:

http://www.aerovintage.com/N1203.htm

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Cheers,

Craig

Facebook Groups:

U.S. Marine Corps Sikorsky HRS / CH-19 Helicopter Database
U.S. Coast Guard Sikorsky HO4S / HH-19 Helicopter Database

All that money and not a single P-38!

So what else would $55k have bought in 1946 (how may cars or homes) so we can get a better idea of the true cost of this amazing fleet in todays terms?

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Warbird Colour - Authentic historic aircraft finishes http://www.warbirdcolour.co.uk

What Things Cost in 1946:
Car: $1,400
Gasoline: 21 cents/gal
House: $12,500
Bread: 10 cents/loaf
Milk: 70 cents/gal
Postage Stamp: 3 cents
Stock Market: 177
Average Annual Salary: $3,150
Minimum Wage: 40 cents per hour

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Cheers,

Craig

Facebook Groups:

U.S. Marine Corps Sikorsky HRS / CH-19 Helicopter Database
U.S. Coast Guard Sikorsky HO4S / HH-19 Helicopter Database

Most deflators would put $55,000 in 1946 dollars somewhere between $500K and $1 million of today's dollars. A bargain, but not pocket change.

August

Did I miss something or there were no P-51D models only C models on the list. Were the P-51Ds still considered front-line fighters at the time?

There had been a few D Mustangs stored at Stillwater before the sale, I presume the AAF moved them out prior to Mantz buying the inventory.

The scrapping process was quite a bit different here than at the big storage areas. The airplanes were cut up into pieces small enough to truck off the field and shipped by railcar to the smelter rather than being reduced at Stillwater. Lots of small parts and slag still remain around the parking areas, and quite a lot of artifacts are displayed in the museum at the terminal.

Scott