Warbird
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WARBIRDS' SWANSONG
After WW II more than 7,000 retired army bombers, fighters and training planes were left standing row on row at the old Kingman Army Air Field five miles east of Kingman, Arizona, now Storage Depot 41 of th War Assets Corporation. It was the world's greatest concentration of aircraft in one area at one time,covering five square miles . Kingman Army Airfield was a flexible gunnery base which once had an army population of 17,000 officers and men.
5,437 of the planes, offered for competitive bidding with the provisions that they would not be used for flight purposes since they were not adaptable for civilian use, were purchased for $2,780,000 by Martin Wunderlich, a Jefferson City, Missouri, contractor. [ It is rumored the the fuel drained from these planes was sold for more than the purchase price of the planes.]
But so outstanding was the Kingman depot's safety record that in the delivery of 7,000 planes involving an estimated 21,000 flying men,there wasn't a fatal accident.
Only planes with low flying time were "pickled." yet Kingman soon had 1,1000 such B-24 s standing wing tip to wing tip.
At one time last summer the Kingman storage records showed 2,567 B-24 Liberators, 1,832 Flying Fortresses, 478 of the P-38 Lightnings, another 200 of the P-38 photo planes, 37 of the B-29 Superforts, not to mention 141 B-25 Billy Mitchell medium bombers and hundreds of P-47 Thunderbolts, P-40s of Flying Tiger fame and A-26's then America's newest and fastest medium bomber.
The depot sold B-17s at $13,750 and B-25s at $8,250. Prices asked on other types of aircraft included the A-26 at $2,000 each; P-61, $6,000 each; P-47, $3,500 each; P -40, $1,250 each, and A-24, $1,650 each.
None but American citizens could purchase planes at Kingman, and before being offered for sale the ships were stripped of all confidential equipment such as bomb sights, radar and some radio installations.
[ Taken from May 1947 Arizona Highways ]
