I would love the chance to transform an old warbird into a home, a boat, or even make minibuildings from sections of the fuselage, but unfortunately the U.S Government will not sell any aircraft, subs,or large ships to the American public unless it is to be only turned into scrap form (and the ships are to be dismantled in other nations due to enviromental regulations and health concerns). Which is a shame because there are a million different uses that they could be re-purposed for use as ...
So sad, now it is all to do to find one I would have loved to get my hands on a PT Boat, just born to late I guess, saw one here that was to far gone right before it was scraped in a marina, awsome
Actually, I have to disagree. They are valuable because there are so few of them. If they had kept them in Large numbers they would still be rotting in some plane graveyard.
My point was that vast numbers of, by then, obsolete WWII aircraft were scrapped in the immediate post-war period, with little concern for what they might be worth 60 years later.
I illustrated my point with the example of the then 11yo '67 Chevy Camero, sold for $500 in '78, that if you had it now, might be worth well over $20K.
I totally understand you. Go to your local scrapyard and ask which is the most valuable car in there. They will tell you that is the one that were produced in less quantities than the others.
Imagine if they still had 2000 WWII airplanes in fairly good condition. Do you think that they still would be so valuable??
I was agreeing with you, but also pointing out that no matter what price you pay to aquire a military aircraft, (or any aircraft, really,) you're still going to need deep pockets to enjoy it.
(2/2) need for the old warplanes to be used as trainers, in fact trainer aircraft got rebuild as attack aircraft T-6 Texan/Harvard.
3. they sold more planes after the war b-25's, Grumman Avenger's, p-51's which would become the backbone of the air forces of liberated Europe for example.
add to 1. fighter aircraft took over the role as the main fighter aircraft so no need for old and slower piston aircraft, only the p-51 one was still in use as ground attack aircraft.
@thisissparta789789 almost all of the planes that where in combat got scrapped after the war because they where just worn out after the extensive flying and damage. they had lots of brand new bombers that came to late to have an active role in the war.
1. they used ww2 era b-29's as their main bomber in Korea, and a few b-17's only for Photo and rescue missions.
2. they build lots and lots of trainer aircraft during the war and unlike the bombers lots of them survived so there was no...(1/2)
@thisissparta789789 In 1946 the B-17 Flying Fortress and also the B-24 and B-25 were outclassed and of no more really military worth. You must consider, both were developed in the 1930s. Only B-26 and B-29 as also F4U and F-51 were still used in postwar conflicts as in Korea.
I was on the crew that buried the remaining plane parts. I think it was in 2001. I worked for Pacific Stabilization out of Vista, Ca. We buried all the rest of the plane parts so they could pave over it. All these plane are buried under the Kingman Airport. Sad. Tough job to bury these magnificant planes.
Much of the WWII stuff was already gone by the late 40s. There are photos of portable smelters at Kingman, quickly turning these aircraft into stacks of aluminum ingots.
Sounds like a bunch of ignorant dumb fucks bitching about the only US military installation that makes money! They store all of our reserve aircraft there because of very low humidity and low amounts of rain. Otherwise they would be forced to clog up all of our local airports with overflow, refurbished, and sale-able aircraft...maybe you'd prefer us to park them in your ass? If we need these aircraft for another major war at least we are prepared and not caught with our pants down.
@MIKE89510 Opps I dropperd a nuke, I nukered the storage site... What a good thing, a very very good thing, that these where stored in multiple facilities. Oops they where, all just stoored, in the singggle faciillllityyy! (deep voice).
Allso Einstein was a fraud whom plagirized his works, he says ridiculous stuff like that black stuff in space is matter, and he says stupid things about religion. He is only idolized because of media idolization of him..
I could just cry seeing these beautifull machines just being wasted . Sure they represent the waste and horror of war but they should have been preserved and should be funded and flown still today. Instea of send ing $ to wortless 3rd world starving . Let them die and keep our planes flying . But its just a dream
I spoke to the restoration staff at the NMUSAF in 11/10, when we visited. The 'Swoose' will be restored back to as she was as 'Ole Betsy' when she flew actual combat missions in Dec. '41 & Jan.'42 out of Mindinao and Australia. Will be in natural metal finish, much like the P-36 on display was returned to. Already has its 'bathtub' belly gun position refabricated and in place. As the 'Swoose' she flew the rear area, stripped of most armament, mostly as a VIP transport and hack.
Nice to know that we always wasted so much money on killing people....Even today we the U.S. Taxpayers are wasting 12 BILLION dollars a month in Iraq and Afghanistan. For what?
@neckarsulme Wasted money? The only thing we wasted money on was for you to go to school. Did you learn anything in history class? or were you smoking pot? Let me give you a quick lesson. You would be speaking German if those planes were not built. We did not attack Germany! they invaded almost all of Europe. killing millions. Europe asked for our intervention and we still remained neutral. It was only until Pearl Harbor that we declared war.
@Sanjacsouth Hey Einstein, Germany didn't attack us, Japan did.....our fight was with them, we dropped the bomb..done deal. No, we wouldn't be speaking German had we not saved Europe's behind, Germany would've seen what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. What exactly did we get out of the war in Europe? All we've done since 1945 is waste trillions of dollars overseas, then we complain at home ther's no money to maintain our own infrastructure. Nice to know the Marshall plan helped Europe alot.
@dooalittledippsy I can only surmise that wherever you went to school they didn't even have basic textbooks. The info I gave in my reply is historical fact, if you wish to live in a fantasy world that's your problem. you sound like one of those Eurotrash fools anyways.....Have a nice life.
@Sanjacsouth Hey Einstein, YOU would be speaking German, Italian, Dutch, Irish or French if your grandparents had not been imigrating to the US. Or are you a native American? He-who-speaks-dum, ugh!
Agree with album183. The B-17 was not an airframe that could convert to a postwar transport role. It was not economical to operate, even was postwar 100 octane avgas was about $0.40/ US gallon. And most of the returned combat bombers were effectively past their expected useful lives. The country, including most USAAF veterans, was eager to get on with life and didn't want to relive the war with memorials. That's why your Coke can may have been a B-17 or B-24 in a previous life. Sad but true.
thank god the swoose survived that scrap year. she is sitting in a storage facility in pieces waiting for money to be put back together. she is the only surviving B-17 B in the world!
My father flew some of these in from Kansas to Arizona here as flight engineer/navigator in both 17s and 24s. He spent his war time flying between Portland ME, Iceland, Greenland doing weather recon/reports.
The B-17D overflying the Kingman salvage yard is none other than the famous
'Swoose'/'Old Betsy'. This was a scrap of newsreel footage from 1946 when she was purchased as a war memorial for the City of Los Angeles and flown out by one of her wartime VIP transport pilots, Col. Frank Kurtz. He earlier had named his firstborn daughter 'Swoosie' Kurtz, in honor of his plane. After languishing for over 60 yrs with the National Air & Space Museum, the plane is being restored at
Thank God for the Confederate Air Force and folks like them that keep these old geese flying. Every child should get to hear the throaty rumble of the Wright Cyclone engines of the B17; every child should get the chance to see one fly overhead; every child should get the change to climb aboard for a visit. I was so very fortunate living betwixt Renton Field and Boeing Field in Seattle and seeing and hearing Fifi, and the CSA Air Force Fly over - in the nineties.
@madcitymcflyer. Thanks. I always wondered: 'Why weren't these turned to civilian shipping aircraft or still used for transport.' Thanks for the answer, everyone was sorta broke and aviation was still pretty new at that time, plus the jet age. I think it's just such a since of pride it just kills ya to see it all go to waste.
@madcitymcflyer. Thanks. I always wondered: 'Why weren't these turned to civilian shipping aircraft or still used for transport. Thanks for the answer, everyone was sorta broke and aviation was still pretty new at that time, plus the jet age. I think it's just such a since of pride it just kills ya to see it all go to waste.
Incredible as it seems, in 1946 a B-17 could be had from the War Assets Administration, fully flyable, including topped off tanks of 100 octane avgas, for about $1600. Some of these were almost zero-time airframes, flown directly from Vega or the Douglas aircraft plants that built them under license to Boeing. Incredibly, less than 100 made it out that way. Reason: no one had the interest or the money after a long war.
@madcitymcflyer, If you are the CEO of a company in 1946, and need to purchase a surplus army plane(s) for transporting. Do you buy a B-17 and spend even more converting it?Or do you buy a DC-3 which will probably already be equipped for however you want to use it? Plus airfields at the time were already handling & servicing commercial DC-3`s and thus no need for a new hangar or specially trained pilots and ground crews
In addition to the aircraft disposal center on the desert floor at Kingman, AZ, other WWII aircraft were scrapped out or sold at Walnut Ridge, AR, Altus, OK, Chino, CA among the larger disposal centers. There were other smaller stateside airfields that handled some of the scrapping. Many low-time aircraft were also disposed of on wartime airfields where they were left in Germany and in the Pacific theater.
Well, I would love it if these hadnt been chopped up after the war, but then again how special would they be if they were on every block? It would have been great to have the foresight to keep some of the more famous ones (like they did the Memphis Belle). Who wouldnt want to go see Old Crow, or Richard Bongs P-38 for example!
A short portion of this clip series [starting at 0:11 sec.]records when the sole-surviving B-17D "The Swoose" was recovered in 1946 for a proposed war memorial by the City of Los Angeles and flown out of the War Assets Administration Disposal Center, Kingman, AZ . You can see the 'Swoose' overflying other stored B-17's. Virtually all of these WW II aircraft were scrapped out or disposed of by early 1948.
I totally understand your confusion. You must remember that for 5 years we stripped the US of all Aluminun, Magnisium, Steel, Rubber and any thing gold for electronics. We had to recycle all of that metal so we could rebuild our future defense systems. You could say the same argument applies to all of those faboulous cars from the 50's. We recycle the old stuff to get the new stuff. Hope this helps
What staggers me, is that the Americans flew them all back across the Atlantic to scrap them. How many aircrews were loss taking them home to the scrapyard?
WW2 built aircraft was not designed for thousands of hours' flying time. The high-performance engines were fast wearing, and their alloy airframes built at a price that allowed the maximum number of aircraft at the penalty of a short lifetime of them in terms of fatigue. They were used more than you'd would think after the war until they reached the end of their flight hours. Most of today's airworthy aircrafts are ones that saw very little use before being ending up as "gate guardians" etc.
@knutgordon Interesting point. I never thought about it like that! Though, now that I do think about it, it makes sense. Especially after recently finishing the book 'Semper Fi in the Sky' in which Marine pilots would ditch/lose numerous planes over the duration of the war. I guess the brass kind of planned on these planes living fast and dying young... Makes just slightly less painful to see this.
At the end of WW2 the British Government took brand new Short Sunderlands out to sea and scuttled them, today the British Government is shredding for scrap brand new Nimrod aircraft...LUNACY !!!!
@stupidrider53 exactly, they had the same feeling at the time that is why nobody really cared if they melted them all down..now in days its a different story to see a b-17 flying its so cool i mean i took a ride in the b-17 nine-o-nine and it was such a great experience..but thank god you got out of truck safe and sound.
the thing is that right after the war people did not think of those airplanes as we do now as classic warplanes those were the planes in which they lost a lot of close friends and almost their own life, i know the planes brought them back home but still most of the aircrews and almost every one just wanted to forget about the war and get on with life..thumbs up if you agree.
My dad knew a guy who bought a fleet for dirt cheap, recouped half the cost by selling the remaining fuel, and made tons of money on the main engine bearings which were platinum.
You know what happened to the jeeps? They were dumped in the ocean.
My late father was a pilot in the US Air Force and he told me that after the war, one of the things that he did was fly brand-new aircraft from the manufacturers in Tennessee to the graveyard in Arizona. This must be the place he told me about. He said that they'd take the new planes and run the motors up and shake 'em down then do some test runs to see if there were any oil leaks then they'd go straight to Arizona. They'd be stripping them down as soon as they landed.
I wonder if any of the air force people realized when we got into korea that "oh shit, we just scrapped most of our planes" Kinda stupid to recycle something that can be used again and is worth more not scrapped.
@zipacna1980 We did do a smart move and upgraded the b-29 to the b-50 which we used in korea. i was saying that we could have just sold more of the bombers and would have gotten some money to build newer planes for korea.
@Flexjeff2 but they changed the name.. some one got offended about the word Confederate.. now its the Commemorative Air Force.. still thanks for the CAF
@Flexjeff2 Why do you think it is heartbreaking mate? They had done the job and America had better things to spend its tax money on than keeping a lot of clapped out old plains it had no use for.
If it meant no more wars then I'd like to see every military plane in the world sitting in a scrap yard. Turn them all into something fun for all of us to fly.. I know it's not realistic and I do love the old war planes, but war sucks.. Win or lose, everyone loses..
They should scrap out the 52s and sell teh others for adventure/joy flights to civilian operators.. Why not? What good are they sitting in the sun for the next 100 years?
Sure, but I'm also talking about modern ex-military aircraft. Of course they shouldn't put out current technology but the moratorium took it all away, even older (and worthless for modern combat) aircraft like the F4 or F14. They pale in comparison to modern technology so why would anyone care?
My father was USAAF who traveled the USA to collect, reassemble and have retrained the survivors of B-17 missions over Europe. IF those planes could only speak........fewer A-types like A-24 and A-26 with crews survived action.
If you do some research, youll read that one chap bought 1100 B17s privately. From the fuel drained he made more than it cost him to buy them. He bought them at a cost of $13,700 . Cripes idve had two!!
Kingman- down on Route 66. We, of course, got English Rose kitchens made with the skills used in fashioning aluminium fabrications. My neighbour's house- a Victorian station has extruded aluminium guttering- it must be from the late 1940s or early 50s- replacements to the cast iron from 1888. I have often wondered what planes they were from- they are coming down now to be replaced with plastic- he is replicating the profile as it's not the usual curve.
Bomberguy; I've just cross-referenced various U.S. records & publications to "check out" the actual B.17-'G' @ 0.37 nicnamed "Leading Lady". Two candidates for the 385th B.G.sharing that 'nickname' = one was 42-97979 coded HR-U which went M.I.A. over Dresden (2/3/45) ~~ & the other is 42-97668 (also "Leading Lady") which was retired to Kingman on 29th Nov' 1945.
So, this appears to be "the" retired '17-'G' in the video @ 0.37
(was previously @ Rougham with the 94th, hence the huge tally).
@pxjanders I ask myself that a lot. I worry China's industrial output would be a lot higher than ours these days.... Actually we have the Boeing and Automotive plants still here, but a lot of stuff has gone overseas. War today would be a lot different than it was in 1945. That wasn't that long ago when you think about it. Nobody would benefit another world war. I suspect a war would be over natural resources if we had another.
if it wasnt for these planes the world be under nazi control..yes it was a lot of money but USA wasnt part of this war,they were asked to help and they did in men,money and machinery...
@sw8741-This may sound odd, but in many ways the WWII vet’s passing now is not sad at all. Let me explain; those that fought in WWII dreamed of getting thru the war and living to a ripe old age and for the ones that made it thru, their long prosperous lives filled with family and friends are a true celebration of their achievement. I take great solace in knowing that these brave men did not die young, but instead lived to a very old age and got to live life their lives to the fullest.
@Cooleemee43 what you said is true so it doesn't sound odd at all. my dad was a PBY and B24 pilot in the pacific and passed away last yr at 86. his last mission was going to be low level flight over japan dropping leaflets and calling for surrender over loudspeaker before the invasion of japan began. fortunately for me and my siblings they dropped the A bomb first so his task was scrubbed along with the estimated 1million casualties an invasion would have cost. i'm proof of your comment
@sw8741- I'm so glad that my comment made sense, I just wasn't sure I could articulate my feelings on the subject well enough not to offend. I think of all the young men that never got to see the peace they gave the world and that is what makes me really sad. The full life your dad lived after the war honored those that didn't make it, and made their ultimate sacrifice so incredibly worthwhile. God Bless your dad and those that served with him, I am humbled by what they did for their country.
For Anson and aviation buffs "Indiekline" has just put up an interview with the lads who are restoring an Avro Anson MK11 at RCAF Trenton Air Museum Ontario Canada
humans love to argue. lol. any tube vid will spark comments that have nothing to do with the video. that is fun for some and boring for others. lol like how did obama negro mulato african kenyan immigrant become president? see what i mean?
Tony LaViere, the head test pilot at Lockheed during the war was heavily involved in developing and debugging the P-38 Lightning. For fun he liked to race airplanes and tells of going to this collection field and buying a P-38 with a $2500 cashiers check. He said many had less than 20 hours of flight time. After giving it a checkout and inspection he flew it home to Burbank.
Amazing. And just to think in the space of 50 year many of these warbirds have becomes so rare (I thinking of the spitfire here) that they now command big dollars at auction if they ever go that far.
@weenyone i would also think of the Westland whirlwind, hawker hurricane, fairy battle, bristol blenheim, vickers wellington, gloster gladialtor,bristol beaufighter, hawker typhoon, bristol beafort, de-havilland mosquito and many others that would be worth a fortune right now!
Cool video. There is a quick shot of a B-17 with "The Swoose" painted on the nose. This is a very famous airplane. Read more about it at wikipedia: search on "The Swoose"
This has *got* to be the same place that a scene from the movie "The Best Years of Their Lives" was filmed. Some of the settings appear to be identical. You can find clips on here...
Because one day they might be needed again.....
So sad to see them all lined up like that :'(
peyo001 6 days ago
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I would love the chance to transform an old warbird into a home, a boat, or even make minibuildings from sections of the fuselage, but unfortunately the U.S Government will not sell any aircraft, subs,or large ships to the American public unless it is to be only turned into scrap form (and the ships are to be dismantled in other nations due to enviromental regulations and health concerns). Which is a shame because there are a million different uses that they could be re-purposed for use as ...
shirleymae30 2 weeks ago
if only they had kept a few more around :(
singningwongho 3 weeks ago
What blows my mind the most...
Today it takes years to build just a small handful of aircraft.
In the 40's it only took days to build the 1000's of aircraft we see in this video.
bennyc333 1 month ago
So sad, now it is all to do to find one I would have loved to get my hands on a PT Boat, just born to late I guess, saw one here that was to far gone right before it was scraped in a marina, awsome
soccercleatscrush 1 month ago
Truman.. what a jerk!
rolin600 2 months ago
Between just 1945, and 1948, the US scraped over 125,000 aircraft.
The Jet Age was upon us.
And to all of you that are wining about what those aircraft would be worth now...
That 1967 327 4-speed Camero you sold for $500, in 1978 - just sold for $27,000, last week.
Had you but known... *LOL*
skeilak 2 months ago 4
@skeilak
Actually, I have to disagree. They are valuable because there are so few of them. If they had kept them in Large numbers they would still be rotting in some plane graveyard.
gcmarcal 1 month ago
@gcmarcal
Honestly, I don't understand your comment.
My point was that vast numbers of, by then, obsolete WWII aircraft were scrapped in the immediate post-war period, with little concern for what they might be worth 60 years later.
I illustrated my point with the example of the then 11yo '67 Chevy Camero, sold for $500 in '78, that if you had it now, might be worth well over $20K.
skeilak 1 month ago
@skeilak
I totally understand you. Go to your local scrapyard and ask which is the most valuable car in there. They will tell you that is the one that were produced in less quantities than the others.
Imagine if they still had 2000 WWII airplanes in fairly good condition. Do you think that they still would be so valuable??
gcmarcal 1 month ago
@gcmarcal
I'm sorry. I somewhat misunderstood your comment, before.
I agree, if more such aircraft survived, their individual value would be less.
Still, nothing is ever cheap with military aircraft.
Go to your local airshow, and ask the guy who owns the B-25 what it cost him to buy, restore, and maintain the ol' girl. Ask him what a tire costs.
Then ask him what he shells out, to fuel her up with over 900 gallons of 100 octane aviation-grade gasoline.
skeilak 1 month ago
@skeilak
I never said that is cheap to maintain these birds! ;)
gcmarcal 1 month ago
@gcmarcal
I wasn't saying you did, Sir.
I was agreeing with you, but also pointing out that no matter what price you pay to aquire a military aircraft, (or any aircraft, really,) you're still going to need deep pockets to enjoy it.
skeilak 1 month ago
It's sad they trash all those birds. Now days they'd be worth a fortune. Just the nose art would be priceless !!!
pinwizz69 2 months ago
Why cruel world why?!
mybluebelly 2 months ago
Sad to see so many in a scrap yard.
Those planes are a part of history.
More of them should have been saved.
George Vreeland Hill
GeorgeVreelandHill 2 months ago
(2/2) need for the old warplanes to be used as trainers, in fact trainer aircraft got rebuild as attack aircraft T-6 Texan/Harvard.
3. they sold more planes after the war b-25's, Grumman Avenger's, p-51's which would become the backbone of the air forces of liberated Europe for example.
add to 1. fighter aircraft took over the role as the main fighter aircraft so no need for old and slower piston aircraft, only the p-51 one was still in use as ground attack aircraft.
willemran 2 months ago
They shouldn't have scrapped them for several reasons:
1. The Korean War just a few years later.
2. Trainers for new pilots.
3. Why not sell then to other countries? We sold some B-17s to Israel so they could bomb arab forces in the first Arab-Israeli War.
thisissparta789789 2 months ago
@thisissparta789789 almost all of the planes that where in combat got scrapped after the war because they where just worn out after the extensive flying and damage. they had lots of brand new bombers that came to late to have an active role in the war.
1. they used ww2 era b-29's as their main bomber in Korea, and a few b-17's only for Photo and rescue missions.
2. they build lots and lots of trainer aircraft during the war and unlike the bombers lots of them survived so there was no...(1/2)
willemran 2 months ago
@thisissparta789789 In 1946 the B-17 Flying Fortress and also the B-24 and B-25 were outclassed and of no more really military worth. You must consider, both were developed in the 1930s. Only B-26 and B-29 as also F4U and F-51 were still used in postwar conflicts as in Korea.
weddinganejakopp 2 months ago
some guy brought up shedloads of planes at the end of the war knowing the fuel inside alone was worth many times the price he paid
scottvoltageable 3 months ago
I was on the crew that buried the remaining plane parts. I think it was in 2001. I worked for Pacific Stabilization out of Vista, Ca. We buried all the rest of the plane parts so they could pave over it. All these plane are buried under the Kingman Airport. Sad. Tough job to bury these magnificant planes.
SoCalDualSport 3 months ago
@SoCalDualSport
Much of the WWII stuff was already gone by the late 40s. There are photos of portable smelters at Kingman, quickly turning these aircraft into stacks of aluminum ingots.
FiveCentsPlease 4 weeks ago
Sounds like a bunch of ignorant dumb fucks bitching about the only US military installation that makes money! They store all of our reserve aircraft there because of very low humidity and low amounts of rain. Otherwise they would be forced to clog up all of our local airports with overflow, refurbished, and sale-able aircraft...maybe you'd prefer us to park them in your ass? If we need these aircraft for another major war at least we are prepared and not caught with our pants down.
MIKE89510 3 months ago
@MIKE89510 Opps I dropperd a nuke, I nukered the storage site... What a good thing, a very very good thing, that these where stored in multiple facilities. Oops they where, all just stoored, in the singggle faciillllityyy! (deep voice).
Allso Einstein was a fraud whom plagirized his works, he says ridiculous stuff like that black stuff in space is matter, and he says stupid things about religion. He is only idolized because of media idolization of him..
iamjacobnz 3 months ago
why not sell them i dont get it
nolifemerc 3 months ago
This is makes me sad...
greeneups 3 months ago
I could just cry seeing these beautifull machines just being wasted . Sure they represent the waste and horror of war but they should have been preserved and should be funded and flown still today. Instea of send ing $ to wortless 3rd world starving . Let them die and keep our planes flying . But its just a dream
sinclairopaline 4 months ago
I want to go there
avgnman72 5 months ago
I spoke to the restoration staff at the NMUSAF in 11/10, when we visited. The 'Swoose' will be restored back to as she was as 'Ole Betsy' when she flew actual combat missions in Dec. '41 & Jan.'42 out of Mindinao and Australia. Will be in natural metal finish, much like the P-36 on display was returned to. Already has its 'bathtub' belly gun position refabricated and in place. As the 'Swoose' she flew the rear area, stripped of most armament, mostly as a VIP transport and hack.
madcitymcflyer 5 months ago
These should of been given back to the American Public who paid an arm and a leg for them in taxes back then.
cobrachoppergirl 5 months ago
@cobrachoppergirl - and then what? Set it up in your front yard?
JBofBrisbane 4 months ago
@JBofBrisbane
I would..
paulvolio 4 months ago
Nice to know that we always wasted so much money on killing people....Even today we the U.S. Taxpayers are wasting 12 BILLION dollars a month in Iraq and Afghanistan. For what?
neckarsulme 5 months ago
@neckarsulme Wasted money? The only thing we wasted money on was for you to go to school. Did you learn anything in history class? or were you smoking pot? Let me give you a quick lesson. You would be speaking German if those planes were not built. We did not attack Germany! they invaded almost all of Europe. killing millions. Europe asked for our intervention and we still remained neutral. It was only until Pearl Harbor that we declared war.
Sanjacsouth 4 months ago
@Sanjacsouth Hey Einstein, Germany didn't attack us, Japan did.....our fight was with them, we dropped the bomb..done deal. No, we wouldn't be speaking German had we not saved Europe's behind, Germany would've seen what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. What exactly did we get out of the war in Europe? All we've done since 1945 is waste trillions of dollars overseas, then we complain at home ther's no money to maintain our own infrastructure. Nice to know the Marshall plan helped Europe alot.
neckarsulme 4 months ago
Check your history Einstein ,you are wrong. You are right about USA being a waste of space though and printing their worthless money.
dooalittledippsy 4 months ago
@dooalittledippsy I can only surmise that wherever you went to school they didn't even have basic textbooks. The info I gave in my reply is historical fact, if you wish to live in a fantasy world that's your problem. you sound like one of those Eurotrash fools anyways.....Have a nice life.
neckarsulme 4 months ago
@Sanjacsouth Hey Einstein, YOU would be speaking German, Italian, Dutch, Irish or French if your grandparents had not been imigrating to the US. Or are you a native American? He-who-speaks-dum, ugh!
TheNovaAxon 3 months ago
Agree with album183. The B-17 was not an airframe that could convert to a postwar transport role. It was not economical to operate, even was postwar 100 octane avgas was about $0.40/ US gallon. And most of the returned combat bombers were effectively past their expected useful lives. The country, including most USAAF veterans, was eager to get on with life and didn't want to relive the war with memorials. That's why your Coke can may have been a B-17 or B-24 in a previous life. Sad but true.
madcitymcflyer 5 months ago
@madcitymcflyer
The B-17 was outdated in 1942, never mind 1946.
The Lancaster did have a post war role as the airframe was bigger.
NearAbbeyRoad 5 months ago
Time...Marches on...
deetjay1 6 months ago
thank god the swoose survived that scrap year. she is sitting in a storage facility in pieces waiting for money to be put back together. she is the only surviving B-17 B in the world!
bad74maverick1 6 months ago 15
@bad74maverick1 sorry the only surviving b-17D
bad74maverick1 6 months ago
My father flew some of these in from Kansas to Arizona here as flight engineer/navigator in both 17s and 24s. He spent his war time flying between Portland ME, Iceland, Greenland doing weather recon/reports.
600joe 6 months ago
The B-17D overflying the Kingman salvage yard is none other than the famous
'Swoose'/'Old Betsy'. This was a scrap of newsreel footage from 1946 when she was purchased as a war memorial for the City of Los Angeles and flown out by one of her wartime VIP transport pilots, Col. Frank Kurtz. He earlier had named his firstborn daughter 'Swoosie' Kurtz, in honor of his plane. After languishing for over 60 yrs with the National Air & Space Museum, the plane is being restored at
the USAF Museum.
madcitymcflyer 6 months ago
@madcitymcflyer I saw the Swoose in the restoration area at the AF museum a few weeks ago, along with Memphis Belle.
jb5532 5 months ago
Super!
Dracony345 6 months ago
yeah...that's kingman...alot of these airframes ended up as aluminum siding for homes in the late 40's and early 50's......
nogard152 7 months ago
i want tobuy one of those
AndrewTheBeast77 7 months ago
During WW2 America built nearly a 1/4 million aircraft
mihy26 7 months ago
At that time for $3,000.00 you could walk away with an operational and relatively new P-51.
Maturin01 7 months ago 13
@Maturin01 nobody had 3 grand, that would buy a house
datzfast 7 months ago
@Maturin01 no, about 1,500 or a trade of your new ford pickup
trippletrain77 2 months ago
@Maturin01 i thought it was $800
Thunderstruck170 1 month ago
@Maturin01 event less!! my grandfather buy one at 500$!
alexpower15 1 month ago
@alexpower15 I'm jealous. I wish I could afford a P-51.
bennyc333 1 month ago
@bennyc333 i don't want to be an asshole but went i will get my pilot license he gonna give me the p-51
alexpower15 1 month ago
@Maturin01 yeah but that was A LOT of money back then
creativechap 1 month ago
@Maturin01 Back then 3000 bucks was a lot of money. You could buy a nice home for that price at that time.
jdh91741 3 weeks ago
Thank God for the Confederate Air Force and folks like them that keep these old geese flying. Every child should get to hear the throaty rumble of the Wright Cyclone engines of the B17; every child should get the chance to see one fly overhead; every child should get the change to climb aboard for a visit. I was so very fortunate living betwixt Renton Field and Boeing Field in Seattle and seeing and hearing Fifi, and the CSA Air Force Fly over - in the nineties.
whotmewory 8 months ago
im sure my mom rivited alot of planes there - wish i knew which one - ive got some rivets she kept in ww2 - the best generation -
nutbagbrew102 8 months ago
@nutbagbrew102 How riveting!!!.......sorry!!!
TheSimonHarris 8 months ago
@TheSimonHarris i know- silly story but true - do you know if the planes are still there or did they get cut up?
nutbagbrew102 8 months ago
A sad sight but at least they got there - so many didn't!!
NiallMS 8 months ago
Wow , imagine the stories that these planes could tell huh !!
barbenH 8 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
@madcitymcflyer. Thanks. I always wondered: 'Why weren't these turned to civilian shipping aircraft or still used for transport.' Thanks for the answer, everyone was sorta broke and aviation was still pretty new at that time, plus the jet age. I think it's just such a since of pride it just kills ya to see it all go to waste.
tinmanrobby 9 months ago
@madcitymcflyer. Thanks. I always wondered: 'Why weren't these turned to civilian shipping aircraft or still used for transport. Thanks for the answer, everyone was sorta broke and aviation was still pretty new at that time, plus the jet age. I think it's just such a since of pride it just kills ya to see it all go to waste.
tinmanrobby 9 months ago
Sort of reminds me of the ones that didn't make it. R.I.P, brave aircrew.
ALOTEF 9 months ago
Incredible as it seems, in 1946 a B-17 could be had from the War Assets Administration, fully flyable, including topped off tanks of 100 octane avgas, for about $1600. Some of these were almost zero-time airframes, flown directly from Vega or the Douglas aircraft plants that built them under license to Boeing. Incredibly, less than 100 made it out that way. Reason: no one had the interest or the money after a long war.
madcitymcflyer 9 months ago
@madcitymcflyer, If you are the CEO of a company in 1946, and need to purchase a surplus army plane(s) for transporting. Do you buy a B-17 and spend even more converting it?Or do you buy a DC-3 which will probably already be equipped for however you want to use it? Plus airfields at the time were already handling & servicing commercial DC-3`s and thus no need for a new hangar or specially trained pilots and ground crews
album183 5 months ago
A "priceless waste".
CunningStunt777777 9 months ago
DM AFB
Y2R4U 9 months ago
Where is this location?
ManOfWealthnTaste 9 months ago
This is the ultimate goal of any mass conflict. To end up with a shit load of weapons and on one to use them on.
tina6581 9 months ago
It's amazing that any of those planes survived.
Thank you to all the people who have resurrected and restored even a sample of these classic war birds.
Thank you C.A.F.
hammerogod 9 months ago
Bet there are a LOT of collectors now that would have loved going through there with a pick-up & trailer!
oldfart387 9 months ago
Pearl Harbor
16ats 9 months ago
In addition to the aircraft disposal center on the desert floor at Kingman, AZ, other WWII aircraft were scrapped out or sold at Walnut Ridge, AR, Altus, OK, Chino, CA among the larger disposal centers. There were other smaller stateside airfields that handled some of the scrapping. Many low-time aircraft were also disposed of on wartime airfields where they were left in Germany and in the Pacific theater.
madcitymcflyer 10 months ago
Well, I would love it if these hadnt been chopped up after the war, but then again how special would they be if they were on every block? It would have been great to have the foresight to keep some of the more famous ones (like they did the Memphis Belle). Who wouldnt want to go see Old Crow, or Richard Bongs P-38 for example!
vetitoe362 10 months ago
@vetitoe362 Airplanes on every block? :P
trixigt2 10 months ago
@vetitoe362 You have ariplanes on every block? 8D
trixigt2 10 months ago
@trixigt2 Nope, just saying people wouldnt be as excited to see one at an airshow if they were all over the place.
vetitoe362 10 months ago
A short portion of this clip series [starting at 0:11 sec.]records when the sole-surviving B-17D "The Swoose" was recovered in 1946 for a proposed war memorial by the City of Los Angeles and flown out of the War Assets Administration Disposal Center, Kingman, AZ . You can see the 'Swoose' overflying other stored B-17's. Virtually all of these WW II aircraft were scrapped out or disposed of by early 1948.
madcitymcflyer 10 months ago
I totally understand your confusion. You must remember that for 5 years we stripped the US of all Aluminun, Magnisium, Steel, Rubber and any thing gold for electronics. We had to recycle all of that metal so we could rebuild our future defense systems. You could say the same argument applies to all of those faboulous cars from the 50's. We recycle the old stuff to get the new stuff. Hope this helps
RobSar63 10 months ago
What staggers me, is that the Americans flew them all back across the Atlantic to scrap them. How many aircrews were loss taking them home to the scrapyard?
Tignarius 10 months ago
id love to be there and see all those b-17's. you will never see that many ever again.
jpmeyer95 11 months ago
If you've got nothing better than this to do with them, can I have them?
BigMrFirebird 11 months ago
WW2 built aircraft was not designed for thousands of hours' flying time. The high-performance engines were fast wearing, and their alloy airframes built at a price that allowed the maximum number of aircraft at the penalty of a short lifetime of them in terms of fatigue. They were used more than you'd would think after the war until they reached the end of their flight hours. Most of today's airworthy aircrafts are ones that saw very little use before being ending up as "gate guardians" etc.
knutgordon 11 months ago
@knutgordon Interesting point. I never thought about it like that! Though, now that I do think about it, it makes sense. Especially after recently finishing the book 'Semper Fi in the Sky' in which Marine pilots would ditch/lose numerous planes over the duration of the war. I guess the brass kind of planned on these planes living fast and dying young... Makes just slightly less painful to see this.
dgareea31swtg 11 months ago
this is like gta san andreas xD
BGMafiaDMX 11 months ago
incredible how the government has been wasting money.
PLISKEN12 11 months ago
At the end of WW2 the British Government took brand new Short Sunderlands out to sea and scuttled them, today the British Government is shredding for scrap brand new Nimrod aircraft...LUNACY !!!!
vultee1956 11 months ago 2
@stupidrider53 exactly, they had the same feeling at the time that is why nobody really cared if they melted them all down..now in days its a different story to see a b-17 flying its so cool i mean i took a ride in the b-17 nine-o-nine and it was such a great experience..but thank god you got out of truck safe and sound.
alexsagara87 1 year ago
the thing is that right after the war people did not think of those airplanes as we do now as classic warplanes those were the planes in which they lost a lot of close friends and almost their own life, i know the planes brought them back home but still most of the aircrews and almost every one just wanted to forget about the war and get on with life..thumbs up if you agree.
alexsagara87 1 year ago 72
@alexsagara87 I gave you a thumbs down just for asking for a thumbs up, jackass
low72 8 months ago
@alexsagara87 well said
panchodaman 4 months ago
@alexsagara87 Your post was almost touching until you asked for thumbs up... thumbed down.
DisturbedForever92 3 months ago
Thats not an airplane graveyard, that was my personal fleet at the time.
LethalHobo 1 year ago
Wow....
just wow.
lst1195 1 year ago
God, I can't bear to watch that.
The thought of what those men went through in those planes- and how the planes brought them home- to be melted.
Oh well, another time, I guess.
DP3219 1 year ago
My dad knew a guy who bought a fleet for dirt cheap, recouped half the cost by selling the remaining fuel, and made tons of money on the main engine bearings which were platinum.
You know what happened to the jeeps? They were dumped in the ocean.
Tony1584 1 year ago
this is just sad and heartbreaking. who in their right mind would scrap all of these beutifil peices of engineering
armaholic99 1 year ago
I don't care about the age of the plane. Man how I would love to own just one of those things to use and fly.
Zethioth 1 year ago
@Zethioth
i agree, to have one of those sitting out the back of your house would be very cool thing to own.
dandantheminiman 1 year ago
My late father was a pilot in the US Air Force and he told me that after the war, one of the things that he did was fly brand-new aircraft from the manufacturers in Tennessee to the graveyard in Arizona. This must be the place he told me about. He said that they'd take the new planes and run the motors up and shake 'em down then do some test runs to see if there were any oil leaks then they'd go straight to Arizona. They'd be stripping them down as soon as they landed.
localcrew 1 year ago
... I could howl, thus a waste... one could have given a copy to every museum in the whole world in each case...
warbirds-power.de
ColaWhiski 1 year ago
So sad.
Eurofighter19 1 year ago
Notice the aircraft flying along with the camera plane at 0:11 is a B-17D or earlier (not tail gun) Wonder if it's the Swoose?
terreplein 1 year ago
Man, those planes should be in museums.
CanadianoftheCoast 1 year ago
@CanadianoftheCoast Especially all the ones with alot of mission markers-- heros who brought their crew home
71tankerman 1 year ago
please dont tell me those are perfect flying condition warplanes
mrclaytonio 1 year ago
@mrclaytonio at the time they were...now they are probably buried or have been recycled.
expostfactum 1 year ago
I wonder if any of the air force people realized when we got into korea that "oh shit, we just scrapped most of our planes" Kinda stupid to recycle something that can be used again and is worth more not scrapped.
rcsupercubbuilder 1 year ago
@rcsupercubbuilder C'mon. Even a B-29 was absolete for Korea already.
zipacna1980 1 year ago
@zipacna1980 We did do a smart move and upgraded the b-29 to the b-50 which we used in korea. i was saying that we could have just sold more of the bombers and would have gotten some money to build newer planes for korea.
rcsupercubbuilder 1 year ago
Comment removed
lolahavasuaz 1 year ago
why put them out for display , can the metal in the plane be reused? just melt them down and sell the alu and steel.
nolifemerc 1 year ago
Thank God for the Confederate Air Force. Seeing those planes is heartbreaking.
Flexjeff2 1 year ago 19
@Flexjeff2 but they changed the name.. some one got offended about the word Confederate.. now its the Commemorative Air Force.. still thanks for the CAF
painterjohn512 1 year ago
This won't post if attach a URL, so type
Aircraft Graveyard scene from The Best Years of Our Lives
into Youtube. There is a lot of good up close footage of the planes in the movie, which was made soon after the war ended.
AggregateDood 1 year ago
Actually its easier than that, I just noticed that it is in the "related videos on the right 4th from the bottom.
AggregateDood 1 year ago
@Flexjeff2 Why do you think it is heartbreaking mate? They had done the job and America had better things to spend its tax money on than keeping a lot of clapped out old plains it had no use for.
tina6581 9 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
That broke my heart seeing those abandoned warriors. God bless the Confederate Air Force.
Flexjeff2 1 year ago
Comment removed
Flexjeff2 1 year ago
If it meant no more wars then I'd like to see every military plane in the world sitting in a scrap yard. Turn them all into something fun for all of us to fly.. I know it's not realistic and I do love the old war planes, but war sucks.. Win or lose, everyone loses..
texNoz 1 year ago
@texNoz
There is an aircraft graveyard in Arizona. b-52s, chopped up into 6-7 pieces just sitting there. huge numbers of jets from vietnam to present.
Shriekshack 1 year ago
@Shriekshack
They should scrap out the 52s and sell teh others for adventure/joy flights to civilian operators.. Why not? What good are they sitting in the sun for the next 100 years?
texNoz 1 year ago
@texNoz many were snapped by private buyers but it is hard to find buyers for thousands of them!
pramboy09 1 year ago
@pramboy09
Sure, but I'm also talking about modern ex-military aircraft. Of course they shouldn't put out current technology but the moratorium took it all away, even older (and worthless for modern combat) aircraft like the F4 or F14. They pale in comparison to modern technology so why would anyone care?
texNoz 1 year ago
Yeah, that's Kingman. The Swooze was there before it was saved.
freiherrudet 1 year ago
Damn, what a waste !!
MrRJDB1969 1 year ago
so sad too bad someone didnt buy a field of them and preserve them how awesome would that be.
grayparatrooper 1 year ago
My father was USAAF who traveled the USA to collect, reassemble and have retrained the survivors of B-17 missions over Europe. IF those planes could only speak........fewer A-types like A-24 and A-26 with crews survived action.
peterann1 1 year ago
i would kill just to see all of these planes inside and out.....
Eminem1Mw2 1 year ago
If you do some research, youll read that one chap bought 1100 B17s privately. From the fuel drained he made more than it cost him to buy them. He bought them at a cost of $13,700 . Cripes idve had two!!
Funboymark 1 year ago
Thanks to the US from a proud and greaful Englishman, whos Grandfather flew Catalinas watching the coast. May we remember them.
Funboymark 1 year ago
love the nose art,iam crying inside at the thought of those birds going to be made into razor blades-the price of victory i guess
sobuliak 1 year ago
Were they actually being scrapped!? Thats absolutely crazy, that would be te best field trip ever if that still existed!
MakeGlovesNotWars 1 year ago
Kingman- down on Route 66. We, of course, got English Rose kitchens made with the skills used in fashioning aluminium fabrications. My neighbour's house- a Victorian station has extruded aluminium guttering- it must be from the late 1940s or early 50s- replacements to the cast iron from 1888. I have often wondered what planes they were from- they are coming down now to be replaced with plastic- he is replicating the profile as it's not the usual curve.
NickRatnieks 1 year ago
@NickRatnieks Yeah, I think the same thing sometimes when I see a bunch of aluminum. "What plane did this used to be?"
freiherrudet 1 year ago
Bomberguy; I've just cross-referenced various U.S. records & publications to "check out" the actual B.17-'G' @ 0.37 nicnamed "Leading Lady". Two candidates for the 385th B.G.sharing that 'nickname' = one was 42-97979 coded HR-U which went M.I.A. over Dresden (2/3/45) ~~ & the other is 42-97668 (also "Leading Lady") which was retired to Kingman on 29th Nov' 1945.
So, this appears to be "the" retired '17-'G' in the video @ 0.37
(was previously @ Rougham with the 94th, hence the huge tally).
Hunstanton29 1 year ago
Remember...this is what happens to people, too, when they are no longer needed.
killingamps 1 year ago
It's just astonishing to see the industrial output of the US during the Second World War. Could we do it again today if we had to?
pxjanders 1 year ago
@pxjanders Yes.
kolbpilot 1 year ago
@pxjanders NO!
travcmbs 1 year ago
@pxjanders I ask myself that a lot. I worry China's industrial output would be a lot higher than ours these days.... Actually we have the Boeing and Automotive plants still here, but a lot of stuff has gone overseas. War today would be a lot different than it was in 1945. That wasn't that long ago when you think about it. Nobody would benefit another world war. I suspect a war would be over natural resources if we had another.
arizonaresident1 1 year ago
hello niggers!!!hamburgers eaaters
comelunch103 1 year ago
they dying just like us:/
xazoulini1 1 year ago
if it wasnt for these planes the world be under nazi control..yes it was a lot of money but USA wasnt part of this war,they were asked to help and they did in men,money and machinery...
ducati0000 1 year ago
This is just depressing...
B17EFlyingFortress 1 year ago
after the war they gave planes away for really cheap prices and alot of farmers used them as chicken coops
ridwickthedragon 1 year ago 4
@ridwickthedragon they sold P-51 just like that, I realy wish that the P-51 wasn't as rare as it is now
legoeasycompany 1 year ago
can you imagine if those aircraft could talk? all those young men who flew them are very old and dying off. sad.
sw8741 1 year ago 2
@sw8741-This may sound odd, but in many ways the WWII vet’s passing now is not sad at all. Let me explain; those that fought in WWII dreamed of getting thru the war and living to a ripe old age and for the ones that made it thru, their long prosperous lives filled with family and friends are a true celebration of their achievement. I take great solace in knowing that these brave men did not die young, but instead lived to a very old age and got to live life their lives to the fullest.
Cooleemee43 1 year ago
@Cooleemee43 what you said is true so it doesn't sound odd at all. my dad was a PBY and B24 pilot in the pacific and passed away last yr at 86. his last mission was going to be low level flight over japan dropping leaflets and calling for surrender over loudspeaker before the invasion of japan began. fortunately for me and my siblings they dropped the A bomb first so his task was scrubbed along with the estimated 1million casualties an invasion would have cost. i'm proof of your comment
sw8741 1 year ago
@sw8741- I'm so glad that my comment made sense, I just wasn't sure I could articulate my feelings on the subject well enough not to offend. I think of all the young men that never got to see the peace they gave the world and that is what makes me really sad. The full life your dad lived after the war honored those that didn't make it, and made their ultimate sacrifice so incredibly worthwhile. God Bless your dad and those that served with him, I am humbled by what they did for their country.
Cooleemee43 1 year ago
For Anson and aviation buffs "Indiekline" has just put up an interview with the lads who are restoring an Avro Anson MK11 at RCAF Trenton Air Museum Ontario Canada
indiekline 1 year ago
I think they would cost ten bucks each :3 without the AMMO D:!they'd make billions if they sold it for this price :D.
robloxkingvids 1 year ago
goes to show..where all our taxes go to.. :(
BELSON666 1 year ago
humans are smart creatures, spend all that resources on weapons, go America
aljosaostojic 1 year ago
Depressing, sad, but yet celebratory that these war birds go silent for all the necessary destruction they were born to reap on the foe.
ObltKG4 1 year ago
my heven! =O
finnboy95 1 year ago
That many aircraft then, just think now. Plus the many different kinds. I want to see it some day.
lostintranslationman 1 year ago
Should have made that place a museum !!
jakespop67 1 year ago
@jakespop67 yes I agree with you
philip0072 1 year ago
humans love to argue. lol. any tube vid will spark comments that have nothing to do with the video. that is fun for some and boring for others. lol like how did obama negro mulato african kenyan immigrant become president? see what i mean?
Rico8458 1 year ago
give me 3 B-17's there and i would be worth $ 6 million U.S.
pramboy09 1 year ago
Seems like a waste but keep in mind...everybody was working...and best of all,
we won the war.Thank you to all our veterans.
dennisusetorace 1 year ago
what a shame
cactuschris2002 1 year ago
I wnat one
th3sp0rk 1 year ago
Tony LaViere, the head test pilot at Lockheed during the war was heavily involved in developing and debugging the P-38 Lightning. For fun he liked to race airplanes and tells of going to this collection field and buying a P-38 with a $2500 cashiers check. He said many had less than 20 hours of flight time. After giving it a checkout and inspection he flew it home to Burbank.
greenfuzz13 1 year ago
Amazing. And just to think in the space of 50 year many of these warbirds have becomes so rare (I thinking of the spitfire here) that they now command big dollars at auction if they ever go that far.
weenyone 1 year ago
@weenyone i would also think of the Westland whirlwind, hawker hurricane, fairy battle, bristol blenheim, vickers wellington, gloster gladialtor,bristol beaufighter, hawker typhoon, bristol beafort, de-havilland mosquito and many others that would be worth a fortune right now!
pramboy09 1 year ago
Cool video. There is a quick shot of a B-17 with "The Swoose" painted on the nose. This is a very famous airplane. Read more about it at wikipedia: search on "The Swoose"
flunkn70 1 year ago
To the brave Americans that flew these planes- Thank You so much.
rickbar123 1 year ago
This has *got* to be the same place that a scene from the movie "The Best Years of Their Lives" was filmed. Some of the settings appear to be identical. You can find clips on here...
WheatLover 1 year ago