After the war the U.S. government did offer up considerable quantities of
surplus birds for sale. The sadly there were few takers. In the early
1950's you could have bought a P-51, B-17, B-25, etc., with only the ferry
time from the factory to the storage base on the log, for just a couple
hundred dollars. Movie studios purchased some for film work, others became
executive transports, still others became fire bombers. Most were purchased
by metals dealers and melted down for their aluminum which was in short
supply after the war. The birds that were in inconvenient locations like
the South Pacific were pushed into piles and burned, or dumped in the ocean.

The fact of the matter is, as I have confirmed from conversations with lots
of WWII veterans, when the guys were released from the service the last
thing most of them ever wanted to do was sit in another cockpit. Most just
wanted to get home and resume their interrupted lives. In addition, the
dawn of the jet age had made the old prop birds obsolete over night. The
guys that stayed in the service wanted to fly F-86s or F9Fs, not Mustangs or
Corsairs. It is only through the efforts of a few individuals after the
war, and a few Museums, that we have any preserved WWII birds at all.


wrote in message
oups.com...
Didn't ANYBODY after WW2 have the love of airplanes and the foresight
to buy at least one military airplane, especially since they were so
cheap? What were they thinking?! Did they not see the value of these
planes for future generations? Why didn't some civilians simply buy a
B-17 for $700 and park it in their yard? Land is cheap in rural areas.
These airplanes are so precious to me. I have loved the glory of ww2
fighters and bombers since the earliest childhood.

Another question: if someone had the money, would it be possible to use
blueprints to build perfect reproductions of airplanes like the B-17
and P-40?