Aircraft Disposal: From State of the Art to Heap of Scrap
Image by Senior Airman Alan R. Wycheck
Ever wondered what happens to a state of the art aircraft at the end of its useful service life? For those that don’t go on to museums, fate is often dealt out by the unforgiving arms and jagged claws of mechanical diggers. And while it’s a crying shame when it happens, it’s certainly an impressive sight to behold…
Along with the heavy machinary, “scrappers” now use hand-held gas saws to accomplish many of the “finer details”, as you can see in the video below where they literally cut the back of a massive airliner’s fuselage off by hand! (Ironically, the most crude of instruments is enough to finish off aircraft that were once at the forefront of technology! Even the Stealth Fighter isn’t immune.)
Below you can see the way the US Air Force’s legendary B-52 Stratofortress‘ are disposed off, via the guillotine. The massive aircraft may be the most impressive bomber ever to grace the skies, but it is no match for the huge plate of metal, which is dropped from above as a means of severing the wings from the fuselage. The latter is then chopped into several large chunks of twisted metal, allowing passing Russian spy satellites to survey the devastation and monitor the disposal of certain aircraft types vis-a-vis post-Cold War arms limitation treaties.
For further reading, be sure to check out Weburbanist’s great article: 15 Radical Ways to Recycle Airplanes and Parts, as well as Airplane House and Boat Conversions on Dark Roasted Blend.
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Ugh this is more disturbing that the video from my spleen transplant operation!