See the photo essay below on this page with photos of the scrapping and smelting process used at Kingman. Storage Depot 41 and Kingman was returned to the county as a municipal airport. A huge part of the American airpower fleet had been reduced to ingots. These 5,483 aircraft scrapped by Wunderlich at Kingman generated $7.5 million in gross income.īy July of 1948, less than three years since the end of WWII hostilities, the job was done. 5 million pounds of aluminum propellorsĪ total of 85 reconnaissance aircraft, 615 fighters, 54 light bombers, 266 medium bombers and 4,463 heavy bombers were disposed of at Kingman.6 million pounds of aluminum from engines.The Wunderlich contract at Kingman was successful, and resulted in the ultimate recovery of significant resources: The furnaces were run 24 hours a day, and could consume up to 35 aircraft a day. Three furnaces were operated at Kingman for melting about 70% of an airplane's metal components into ingots. ![]() The final step was placing parts into the smelter, or furnace, for melting. Some hand cutting of smaller parts was also done. The Great Book of World War II Airplanes is easily one of the best books out there covering the subject of WWII military aircraft.The book covers all of the most well known aircraft which makes it great for a person who has an interest in WWII aviation the level of detail of the technical drawings makes it interesting even for a person that already has alot of knowledge on the subject. The main aircraft airframe was then sliced into major pieces using a guillotine. Interior items of the aircraft such as radios, oxygen equipment, handguns, manuals, life rafts, fire extinguishers and instruments were removed. The guns were retrieved by the government, but the Nordens were 'demilled' using a sledgehammer. However, a few planes did arrive with some machine guns and a few Norden Bombsights, which were temporarily and securely stored. ![]() ![]() 50 cal machine guns and Norden Bombsights) had already been removed at other temporary storage depots. Aircraft engines were then removed and placed in rows on the desert floor.īy the time the planes reached Kingman, most of the ordnance (predominantly. Consolidated B-24 Liberator "Missouri Miss" meets the guillotine at Kingman Army Air Field and Storage Depot 41įuel was drained from the aircraft and sold.
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