Scrapyard Photos; Any More?

The front cover of one of the myriad sections of one of the myriad Sunday papers over the last couple of weekends had a headline along the lines of “Swimwear special – look good on the beach!” with a photo of a model in something unwearable posing in front of what looked like a derelict, partly cocooned, KC-97.

Assuming that it was at Davis Monthan, just how far away is the nearest beach?… :confused:

Adrian

B-52 scrap yard

Didn’t want to wade through all the pages to see if this one had already been posted, therefore another picture for the record.

‘Irian Jaya’, the left half of the island of ‘New Guinea’ is indonesian run. The right half is known as ‘Papua New Guinea’. They are separate countries. PNG was Australian governed, until it was given back to the people to ‘run’. (A somewhat debateable concept..)

Im sure someone will correct me, or give a better picture of things!

geography for Rob

The West part administered by Indonesia is known as Irian Jaya, the East is Papua New Guinea fomerly adminstered by Australia. The track record of actual PNG recoveries is fairly good eg P61 from very high on Cyclops Mountain, several P63s which are now flying.P47s now in the USA and for sale as projects.

What is the difference between a scrapyard and a museum… and visa-versa?

Chinese National Airforce Museum, north of Beijing, November 2005. I have lots more but here’s two for a starters. 🙂

But Papua New Guinea still falls under the control of the Indonesian government, does it not? That’s been my impression as per the politics surrounding the recovery of the Swamp Ghost. If only because of the recent export debacle, I’ll stand by the opinion expressed in my earlier post.

I think the ‘How Low Can You Go’ thread must be a contender- It runs to 15 pages or so, as well.

For Rob Mears.Morotai is part of Indonesia. Swamp Ghost was recovered from Papua New Guinea. In the latter country WW2 aircraft have been recovered,exported then restored.

My god! 459 posts and 44283 views! Must win hands down for the most popular thread on F/P?

no its the peak district there are may crash sites u can visit even the fatal one suo u may see a ghost or 2 there is a book u can buy on this area concerning crashes

no this lightning crsahed in bad weather in the peak district, there is a book u can buy that give the locations of all the aircrashes on the peak district even the fatal ones u may even see a ghost or two some people have.

In respect of the Canberra

During the 90s RAF Wyton became the final resting place of many types of Canberras that had been Struck Off Charge. This small selection illustrates the way many of these were gradually broken up and scrapped. The images were taken (separately) by Alan Barley and Paul Crawley and later sent to me for use on my Canberra Tribute web site. (Serials available for those who want them.)

I once wandered amongst these airframes on the revetts at Wyton when they were there. Wandered in a reflective mood with memories of times past flooding my mind. Memories of when Canberras were everywhere – and I was younger, fitter, . . .

Sad? Yes, but not overly emotional. The Canberra has served its time with the RAF and served well – but all things come to an end. After 55 years in service the Canberra will be remembered fondly by those who flew it and those who kept it flying. But it will also be remembered as an unforgiving beast that could hurt or kill you in a blink of an eye.

However, as with the Hunter, Brittania, Lightning, Buccaneer, Phant, Vulcan, Victor and many other now defunct airframes, the Canberra had its day making the RAF a top force in the world. I’m glad I was part of that Air Force.

Don’t cry for the Canberra, just remember it as it was in its heyday with 62 sqns of them in the RAF alone.

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You might be suprised. I can personally attest to a half dozen intact Corsairs that were scrapped during the early 1990’s in Central America, and the man who did the scrapping was actually a fan of the “Black Sheep Squadron” television series.

Many times, people who aren’t directly associated with warbirds have no clue about their value or the number that still exist. A scrapper in Morotai looking at these junk planes might well assume that there were surely an equal number of them in the same condition back in the States. Fact is, in the end they were oblivious enough about the Western warbird movement to go ahead with the scrapping of a sizable selection of largely intact war veteran aircraft. Some of which still had nose art and kill marks adorning their fuselages.

I have my doubts that the quantity of aircraft survived until 1988 was as great as shown in the pictures. Certainly I would believe that any scrappers that were viewing these circa 1980’s would have been aware of the value of the machines.

Every time I reflect on the situation surrounding Morotai it makes me ill. There was a controversial American broker named Tom Voll who had actually sent pictures back to the United States (specifically to the Yankee Air Force Museum) showing much of these surviving airframes. At the time, the YAF Museum had been looking for a Ford-built B-24 to add to their museum and Voll had found a good example. The YAF Museum responded that they were not interested.

I guess my point is that the exsitence of these planes was not unknown amongst a portion of the warbird crowd during that time, prior to their scrapping. I’ve heard that the island did not have an adequate dock for loading the material onto ships. I also understand that most of the island had been included as part of the grounds of a high-security prison, thus the resulting inaccessibility of these aircraft to the average traveler. Not sure how Mr. Voll acquired his photographs or the right to salvage the planes, but he had actual dollar amounts attached to each type. His photos & description mentioned “B-25’s, B-24’s, A-20’s P-40’s, P-38’s, Dauntlesses, and Corsairs” specifically. Just think back to the current goings-on among the warbird crowd in 1988, and transpose onto that the fact that these 100% original war-seasoned aircraft were still lined up among the weeds!

Hopefully there’s at least one or two more nooks among the South Pacific jungle that might still offer up a sizable lot of historic material before time and the local metal merchants rape the last bit of it for eternity.

If there ever was a testament to the Indonesian Government’s true colors concerning their regard for “historic artifacts”, the State sponsored pludering at Morotai should be all the facts one needs to size up their true intensions, regardless of the contrived statements they recently released regarding the recovery of “Swamp Ghost”. Justin Taylan can preach all he wants, but the aircraft remaining in Indonesian held territories are doomed in their current state.

A one-way ticket for the time machine please!

I found some more pictures of the ultimate scrapyard of your wildest dreams, which was located at the Pitu / Wama Airfield at Morotai Island, part of what was then called the Dutch East Indies.
I scanned them from an old Dutch “Panorama” magazine of January 2, 1948. The pictures were taken by Dutch photographer H. Wilmar.
This graveyard was only cleared as late as 1988, when a smelter was brought there.

To get the complete picture as it was published in a two page full-spread picture in the magazine, make a merge with an editing programme like Photoshop or PhotoFiltre (freeware – very good!) from morotai01, which is the left half, and morotai02.
Also added a Google Earth screenshot of Pitu / Wama Airfield as it is now.

Now, I leave the counting of aircraft to you 😮 😀 😀 😀 !

Tillerman.

That could well be it. Not far away. Was early 70’s and there were about 4 maybe 5. not sure though. I was a young lad, just starting out into the aviation world.

Great thread. many attempts to read all.

Back in the 70’s I seem to remember a few H-19 Chickasaws in a wooded area around the Bagshot, Sunningdale area?? in surrey. I was wondering if anyone can remember them. or what happened to them

How about Ascot ? only a few miles away , home of Staravia , they had a (I only ever saw one) H-19 / S-55 / Whirlwind ex. Spanish A.F in the yard in the mid to late ’70’s . It was faded/sun bleached dark green overall.

Great thread. many attempts to read all.

Back in the 70’s I seem to remember a few H-19 Chickasaws in a wooded area around the Bagshot, Sunningdale area?? in surrey. I was wondering if anyone can remember them. or what happened to them

Three Ju-88s and a Do-17 at Utti airbase in Finland in Summer 1953. These airplanes were scraped during the same year.