Why were almost all of them scrapped?

Being these were planes like the F4U Corsair they would have had little impact on the the us
manufacturers as there were few with the ability to fly them .....

There were thousands if not hundreds of thousands of guys who had
been through military flight training; any of them should have been
able to fly the F4U--perhaps after a few refresher hours in the SNJ
(T-6). After all, the guys who flew them during WW II and Korea got
into them after only a little more than 200 hours of flight training.
Possibly less than that during the early days, when we desperately
needed pilots. (Yes, I realize some managed to kill themselves, but
people do that in cars and Piper Cubs, too.)

and fewer still who could have afforded to maintain and fly one.

Now you've hit the nail on the head! I would have bought a U-bird in
a minute had I been able to afford one.

vince norris







But they weren't all scrapped. Tens of thousands were bought by civilian's
for various reasons. Some became water bombers used by the forest service,
some became shelters and hunting cabins, some were bought by enthusiastic
collecters, and parked in fields until the mice and birds destroyed all
but the hulks, some are flying on poles acting as canapies for gas pumps,
some are posed to look like they crashed into buildings... and some are
in the skies thanks to the efforts of some of the most generous restorers
in the world.

Mustangs have been built almost entirely from scratch, you can buy new
manufactured replica parts for just about any part in the plane. There

And they give new meaning to "expensive parts":-))

is a group that is manufacturing replica German fighters too. Money

If you are referring to the ME262 they are only doing 5 last I heard.
That project has moved around a bit, but I think they have at least 2
flying now.

http://www.rogerhalstead.com/me262.htm Is a photo of the original
loaned to the project to use as a model for the construction of the
new aircraft. It was on static display in front of the Willow Grove
Naval Air Station a ways north of Philadelphia. The photo was shot in
the Fall of 1984 as were the ones of the Orion P-3s.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com


talks, but remember, the effort required to tool up the US manufacturers
to make these planes in the first place was greater in scope than the
NASA moon launches.

It only takes about 10 minutes of research to find this out. I thought
you said WWII planes meant a lot to you?

-Chuck