US WRECKS AND RELICS - 1970s

A selection of my photographs of retired or abandoned aircraft in USA in the late 1970s

A trade school at Honolulu Airport held a variety of stripped instructional airframes in a compound in 1977.
Behind the Republic Seabee was Douglas A-26C N5636V and a USAF Convair T-29

Retired Brandt Air Beech 18s and DH.104 Dove N668R were in a compound on the Lagoon Drive side of Honolulu Airport


Derelict Canadian-built Harvard Mk.4 CF-WWM (ex RCAF 20319) on a ramp at Mojave Airport, California in September 1977
with disposals US Coast Guard HU-16 Albatross amphibians 7238 and 2134, which had been damaged here by a windstorm.
All three were to later fly again


In open storage at Sequoia, California in 1977 was this Grumman TBM-3 BuAer 53593 with hand-painted registration N5567A.
It had been owned by a fire tanker company since 1958 but not converted, retaining its former US Navy markings


Lockheed Lodestar graveyard in a corner of Mesa-Falcon Field, Arizona in October 1979:
retired N31E had been blown on top of N810G by a wind storm, damaging both Lodestars

Alongside the tangled Lodestars was a third, N141C with "Vistas Unlimited" titles and Howard Aero wing and nose mods.

Also at Mesa were these US Navy disposals Douglas C-54s, stripped for parts by Aircraft Specialities Inc.
The aircraft in the foreground had civil registration N44915 hand spray-painted over the Navy paintwork on the rear fuselage

Among operational C-54 sprayers and tankers at Mesa in October 1979 was Aircraft Specialties' C-54D N67017
which was being stripped for parts after its nose was struck by a taxying aircraft
The extensive parking ramps on the old terminal side of Tucson Airport, Arizona had many stored and derelict aircraft.
This view from a departing airliner in October 1977 shows one of those storage areas, at Hamilton Aircraft Co.

Douglas A-26 44-35901 derelict at Tucson in October 1977. It was registered N91351, but never had a civil conversion

Fairchild C-82A Packet 44-23006 at Tucson, had been civil registered as N6997C since 1956 but not made operational

Fairchild C-82A 44-23033 at Tucson in 1977 was also civil registered as N6999C from 1956, but remained stored.

Former RAAF Vampire trainer A79-616, allocated N11922, at Tucson in October 1977 looks to have not been assembled
since shipping from Australia. Behind are three retired Command Helicopters Kaman Huskey civilianised choppers

Only two prototype Columbia XJL-1 amphibians were built in 1946 as proposed Grumman Duck replacementss for the US Navy.
Here's N54205 (ex Bu31400) on flat tyres at Tucson in October 1977. See Grumman Amphibians this website

By 1977 only a few Beech 18 series remained at Tucson. Earlier in the decade Hamilton Aircraft stored nearly 100 ex military
models here for rebuilding as Hamilton freight and executive conversions, up to the stretched trigear turbine Hamilton Turboliner.
This is one of many former RCAF Beech 18s which made their last flight from Canada to Tucson.

Ryan Field is out in the Sonora Desert not far from Tucson. Military disposals C-47s were stored here in 1977

44-76257 at Ryan Field in the C-47 dump, with undercarriage removed as well as engines and parts

Miami International Airport had dozens of retired and stripped transport aircraft, prior to a big clean-up in the 1990s.
DC-6 N90710 seen in October 1979 was last used by Pegasus Air Travel Club


DC-6A freighter N610SE retired and stripped for parts at Miami in October 1977

DC-6B N9042G retired at Miami in October 1979 still wears faded FAA paint scheme from its days as FAA's N114

Many US military disposals Douglas C-118s were given civil conversions during the 1970s, but others were just used for parts.
N3490F was formerly a USAF C-118A but was a stripped hulk at Miami by October 1977

This storage yard was found among the freight warehouses and railway lines near the Miami Airport cargo ramps in 1977.
It housed a row of C-46s, several Beech 18s, a Pan American DC-7 and a DC-6

N708Z was a former USAF Douglas C-54G waiting to be scrapped at Opa Locka, Florida in October 1979.
It had been used by the US Atomic Energy Commission based at Albuquerque, New Mexico

Fort Lauderdale, just up the Florida coast from Miami, was also a haven for retired prop transport aircraft in the 1970s.
Mackey International Airways DC-6B N4354B was being stripped for parts in October 1979

At a trade school on Fort Lauderdale Airport was Sikorsky S-51 N4926E and other instructional airframes.
Behind is a rare former US Navy McDonnell FH-1 Phantom N4282A with wings folded, painted black and white

North to Alaska, where this ex Interior Airways Curtiss C-46 N4860V was in a C-46 dump at Fairbanks International

Beech C-45G N9499Z was one of several Twin Beech types abandoned at Fairbanks-Metro airfield in September 1979

Interior Airways Fairchild C-82A N5102B retired at Anchorage, Alaska in 1979. This old tramp freighter had many owners
since civil disposal by USAF in 1955. The roof auxiliary jet was part of the Stewart Davis Jet Packet 1600A modification


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