a couple of left over b17s after the war.

[BrendAn]

[onetrack]

There's one simple reason the Allies won the war in the air during WW2 - the Americans built nearly 325,000 aircraft in total, and the Japanese only built 76,000 aircraft, and the Germans only built 119,000 aircraft.

The British also built 131,549 aircraft, an amazing effort, considering the majority of able-bodied British men were at war, and the country was under constant aerial attacks - unlike the U.S.

 

Australian aircraft production in WW2 was pretty pale in comparison, at around 2,300 aircraft in total.

 

World War II aircraft production - Wikipedia

EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

 

[BrendAn]

i got this photo from a facebook page called plane historia. they have some excellent pictures.

[kgwilson]

I remember reading somewhere that the US built no new cars after entering the war and aircraft production was delegated to most of the car companies where their mass production techniques were put in to devastating effect allowing huge numbers to be produced. This did have on going problems with quality control with many mistakes made causing numerous accidents in testing and training. Around 15,000 US airmen died in accidents before they got a chance to have a go at the enemy.

[facthunter]

Training in Multi Piston  engined planes always had a high fatality rate. Boeing built 28% of the  war planes. Ford built the "Liberator" which was kept unmodified for Servicing and training ease I think a total of about 8000 units. Many were bult by women I've never heard of any particular quality issues. Many were "ferried" on risky routes..  Nev

[facthunter]

I reckon that picture is  faked the more I consider it, They would ALL have to be flown into there. Nev

[onetrack]

I think you'll find the photo is genuine, it's a photo of Storage Depot No. 41 in Kingman, Arizona.

 

At its peak there were 4,700 surplus aircraft stored there. They were nearly all turned into scrap. I'll wager some were near-new.

 

No market existed for dedicated bombers in civvy street. As for parking, the military would've had numerous tow tugs pulling them into neat rows.

 

Kingman Army Air Field aircraft boneyard in post-WWII Arizona, Storage Depot No. 41, and modern-day airliner storage at Kingman Airport

WWW.AIRPLANEBONEYARDS.COM

 

 

Edited August 11 by onetrack

[BrendAn]

5 hours ago, facthunter said:

I reckon that picture is  faked the more I consider it, They would ALL have to be flown into there. Nev

They were new aircraft. Pretty good chance they could fly.

[BrendAn]

5 hours ago, facthunter said:

I reckon that picture is  faked the more I consider it, They would ALL have to be flown into there. Nev

 

[facthunter]

Different with the Jet stuff.  You can't make money flying WW2 bombers. They are built with very low structural load factors and high servicing costs. Nev

[BrendAn]

6 hours ago, facthunter said:

Different with the Jet stuff.  You can't make money flying WW2 bombers. They are built with very low structural load factors and high servicing costs. Nev

So where did they park the thousands of left over aircraft at the end of the war. You say the history group are photo shopping so where did they all go.

[facthunter]

Many were scrapped. There's no future  for them . Just a lot of upkeep to keep them flyable and it's not worth it. Sell off engines. They can be inhibited.  etc

[kgwilson]

Rukuhia airfield, now Hamilton Airport in NZ was home to several hundred aircraft from B17s, Corsairs, P51s etc after WW2. Rukuhia was turned in to a refit and repair depot in 1942 for aircraft damaged while in service in the Pacific. Most were American of course. They were offered for sale in the late 40s but only a handful were ever sold. Most got sold for scrap & ended up as pots & pans. There was a scrap merchant there who got heaps of them for next to nothing and was still selling aircraft parts right up till the 1970s. There is nothing left now of course.

 

 

I read a story written by the son of the caretaker there when he and his mates used to run around jumping from wing to wing. They still had fuel in the tanks and some of them had guns that still worked. He recalled when they fired the guns once and the police were called. Eventually the ammo was removed from them. He remembered that his fathers Humber Snipe was always fuelled with aviation fuel & went like the clappers.

[BrendAn]

31 minutes ago, facthunter said:

Many were scrapped. There's no future  for them . Just a lot of upkeep to keep them flyable and it's not worth it. Sell off engines. They can be inhibited.  etc

Of course they were scrapped. I don't know why you have taken this approach to the topic. I don't understand what you are going on about.  

[facthunter]

Trying to respond to your question, actually. Nev

[BrendAn]

38 minutes ago, facthunter said:

38 minutes ago, facthunter said:

Trying to respond to your question, actually. Nev

 

Ok . I give up.i just thought I would post an interesting photo but then the nevativity kicked in.  Look up plane historia, they have terrific images and I am sure they would not putting fake stuff.

[BrendAn]

https://planehistoria.com/

[Cyrano]

Excellent link BrendAn and Boneyard vid !

[Red]

Its mind boggling really, I remember as a young un seeing some footage where a load of slowly decaying Superfortresses were stored somewhere really remote in the desert and I fantasised about how cool it would be to just set up camp in one of them and spend the summer out there

[facthunter]

Looks like a good site but We have all encountered "enhanced" images and there will be More (and More)  . Planes get hot when not airconditioned on the ground.  Nev

[BrendAn]

off topic but related.  a few years ago there was a story on tv about some p51 mustangs that were dug up at woomera i think.

they were restoring one of them. was it common practice to bury stuff like that or was it to do with radiation.

[BrendAn]

Mustangs recovered from nuclear test site _ Wings Over New Zealand.html

[facthunter]

Some are buried with Live ammo etc to discourage retrieval. Buried stuff won't be in that good condition.  Nev

[onetrack]

There were no aircraft buried at Woomera that I know of, but I understand the Lincoln bombers that were ordered to fly through the mushroom clouds were so contaminated, that at least 4 had to be scrapped.

The eventual disposition of these 4 Lincolns is disputed. Their ADF serial numbers are A73-25, A73-47, A73-52 and A73-54. You can find a little information on these Lincolns, if you search for "Operation Totem" in the link below.

 

http://adf-serials.com.au/ADF Telegraph Autumn 2014.pdf

[T510]

I spent a fair bit of time operating out of Woomera, both the main airport and Evetts field and from what I saw they didn't bury anything.

 

There were piles of aircraft parts just dumped in the desert around the hangars. 

 

Even the remains of the Canberra at the end of the main runway had other aircraft parts dumped on top of it