what epic scale waste.

[thee_oddball]

If memory serves after WW1 a lot of the airplanes were sold to the public, Why a lot of these planes were left to rot does not make any sense.
36261
https://www.airplaneboneyards.com/post-wwii-military-airplane-boneyards.htm

[Vlerkies]

Well after the war with economies battered by it not to many folks would be up for buying used planes I suspect, and neither would anyone really have the appetite or see the value in acquiring these things unless for a specific purpose.

It is very sad many more were not preserved. I suspect many were re-purposed to make more useful stuff like kitchen pots or utensils at the time.

It's the same with cars, bikes or anything really. Someone needs to recognize the significance of it all looking way ahead.

Also always reminds me of this gem, where Wilson ‘Connie’ Edwards who was a stunt pilot for the original BoB film accepted payment with aircraft as there was no cash apparently (something along those lines). He then stored them in a barn for decades and sold them a few years ago, for top dollar.


After the film Battle of Britain was completed in 1969, Connie Edwards received the aircraft as payment for flying in the film. The unique fighter planes weren’t touched for over 45 years; even their engines were still filled with the same oil. This made it all the more astonishing that after a brief check and a change of oil, it only took a few propeller blades to rotate before the White 5’s engine sprang to life and began purring...
http://www.platinumfighters.com/read-more

Spit
http://www.ieyenews.com/wordpress/connie-edwards-who-used-to-own-cayman-hotel-sells-famous-spitfie/

Nice pics here
https://www.urbanghostsmedia.com/2015/09/edwards-warbirds-texas-barn-spitfire-messerschmitt-battle-of-britain/


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzeux7ZfFuQ

:salute:

[RAF74_Buzzsaw]

By its nature, war is hugely wasteful of both human and material resources.

There was absolutely no reason to keep these aircraft operational... to do so would have been a huge drain on the various countries' economies.

The only reason to keep them would have been if the Western Allies immediately went to war with the Soviets... but that was not going to happen... the public in the West would not have stood for the huge casualties and cost and the Soviets didn't have the resources to fight an extended war against much stronger economies.

Operating these aircraft was only possible by those persons who would be the equivalent of multi-millionaires in today's terms.... maybe you could buy a P-40 for $100, but to maintain and fly one would cost 10's of thousands of dollars... in an era when you could buy an luxury house for $5000.

The aircraft which were of some use for civilian purposes, i.e. the DC-3's, C-46's, etc. were bought by businessmen and a few of the fighters and bombers were either gifted or purchased by third world countries, but the great majority could not be used.

P-51D's, F-4U's and Bearcats were kept as ground attack auxiliaries to the Jets, but everyone in the military knew the days of the prop types was over.

The British made the mistake of thinking their Empire was a going concern, assumed they could keep a substantial standing Army, Navy and Air Force after WWII, and almost bankrupted themselves... they killed their chance to retool their industrial base and as a result were running the same old factories and machine tools in 1960 as they were in 1945. By 1970 they were hopelessly behind Germany, Japan and the rest of the world... those countries had almost no costs to maintain their armed forces and re-invested in a new industrial base and infrastructure.

It is not possible for a country to spend significant percentages of its annual GDP on military hardware and not see a decline in its economic efficiency and industrial well being.

Read "The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000" by Paul Kennedy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rise_and_Fall_of_the_Great_Powers

The US should learn a lesson from the examples of the past. The facts are really indisputable... it is spending too large a percentage of its GDP on the military. (and especially because US military spending is hugely inefficient and driven by political lobbying by a defense industry with a vested interest in bloated budgets)

[Vlerkies]

The only reason to keep them would have been if the Western Allies immediately went to war ,,,,,,,,,,,,
Prime example
109's flying in Israel in 1948, with a mix nationality of pilots (basically anyone willing) defending some or other superior being over another.

[major_setback]

Lots of crates of Spitfires are buried in Burma ....

:recon:

:getaway:

roflmao

36264

36265

[BOO]

Lots of crates of Spitfires are buried in Burma ....

:recon:

:getaway:

roflmao

36264

36265

And 50 190s in Turkey to offset them.

Mind you recovering them wont be cheap. Fortunately I know of a train full of Nazi gold in Poland.... :-)

[DD_Crash]

Those photos of the captured airfields at the end of the war always makes me sad. Particularly the Japanese as there are so few examples left.

[kronovan]

Wasn't some of it, that most WW II combat aircraft traded fuel economy for high thrust. That resulted in an aircraft that was expensive to fly post-war, when getting somewhere quickly, but with a small number of occupants was far less than ideal. As already mentioned, the DC-3 and C-46 were widely used post-war, as being transports made them a good balance between performance, capacity and fuel cost. The other problem from a military perspective of course, was that WW II represented the beginning transition from prop to jet engine, with experiences in the Korean war sealing the deal. That made a lot of the prop-driven stars of WW II yesteryear celebrities in under a decade.

The same was true to a lesser extent in the post Vietnam war era - most aircraft that didn't have the avionics to support good warning and defense were history. You can find your share of scrapyards for those too. :sorry:

[TWC_SLAG]

I bought a book some years ago, “Meatballs and Dead Birds”. It is full of pictures taken in Japan by an Army intelligence officer right after the Japanese surrender. He went to several airbases, and photographed the aircraft sitting there. Looking at them, you think about them all being scrapped and melted down. What a waste, from an historical perspective.

[SIA_Sp00k]

Yet the Pacific is a smorgasbord of WW2 aircraft. metres from the beach. American fighters and bombers at rest in the jungle, not to mention a bevy of shipping deep and shallow in Iron bottom sound. Half buried tanks and amphibious craft. Not all in good nick but some in surprisingly good condition.