and aluminum melts...

During the salvage process it was critical for Kingman's three furnaces to be kept near

that temperature so other metals with higher

melting points wouldn't 'dilute'

the final product.

Even though their ultimate fate was yet to be determined, the planes' dismantling process started immediately upon their arrival at Kingman, beginning with minor, loose items

being extracted right on the flightline.

Later, with their fate sealed and while they

were still parked in rows out in the desert,

larger, more complicated things like propellers,

engines and instrument panels were

recklessly removed, effectively rendering the once-proud aircraft into maligned,

lifeless carcasses.

When it was their turn, one by one each

fighter and bomber was ingloriously dragged

back across the desert...

...to a final staging area, where even more components were yanked, such as undesirable solder-containing wiring harnesses.

First the valuable then the problem

causing elements eliminated, a shell-of-a-plane was pushed under the Blade that dropped however many times that particular aircraft

took to render it into more manageable

chunks...  perhaps 3 or 4 for a tiny P-40 and

as many as a couple of dozen or more to

break down a giant B-32.

Workers then hooked a cable onto landing gear and lifted with a crane, flipping that section onto its back so the struts & tires could be removed with relative ease and deposited elsewhere for further dismantling.

Finally, a specially-rigged bulldozer pushed

the aluminum chunks into furnaces

and the flames were turned up:

Once aluminum became molten, the silvery

liquid naturally wanted to flow downhill, so a swinging trough was used to direct it into

molds of varying sizes & shapes. Waiting only

long enough for them to barely harden, the

larger ingots - affectionately called 'pigs' - were pulled from molds and stacked into piles

using another crane.

Recognize your favorite bomber below?

These are actual Kingman furnace bricks,

made by 3 different manufacturers:

An interesting piece of equipment devised at Kingman consisted of a series of 6" X 34" molds attached to an inclined conveyor belt. Its lower end placed near the flowing trough and the

other pointed into a waiting boxcar, the conveyor would move slow enough as to allow the liquid metal to only harden while it approached gloved handlers, whose job it was to stack these solid, but still extremely-hot ingots into orderly piles.

Through the magic of computers, the logo on

one of those conveyor molds (two of which are pictured at the top of this page) is mirrored

here to show the major recipient of all this

aluminum:

ALCOA = Aluminum Company of America

In the 1950s, with a nationwide surplus of this lightweight material, companies sprang up to manufacture scores of wonderful things like artistic furniture and all sorts of colorfully

anodized kitchenware. Aluminum pitchers with their matching drinking tumblers were very popular, and also very cool.

Remember them? I sure do!

It may be the most abundant metallic element

on earth, but because its refining process is so costly, aluminum has steadily remained

near the top of the recycling list.

So you see, those wondrous & historic

WWII planes aren't really gone after all,

today they just look a bit different!

---

Project "M"

PROBLEM:

What to do with hundreds and hundreds of

pounds of aluminum parts & pieces from virtually every type of plane at Kingman that collectors, restorers and museums over the past 30 years have shown little or no interest in?

SOLUTION:

A two-pronged objective to:

a) Pay tribute to the Planes in a unique fashion

b) Generate funds for research and a museum

...Both of which will require heating the

ALCOA molds once again after 60+ years.

Around these parts, it's known as

Project "M"

Stay tuned.....

 

photo credits this page:

Mohave County Historical Society,

Depot 41 Photo Archive