Pics of Tanker 01 being scrapped

[Nathan]

A friend of a friend story- This is what my friend wanted me to print here on WIX.
Jim
Santa Rosa,CA


OH they are chopping #2 & #3 today - by tonight all three will have been chopped and ALL the parts are going to a scrapper
with a written contract that No - I repeat No parts are to be sold for aircraft use - SCRAP only !!!! The CEO is a "above the Law" Lawyer !! He will not accept
any liability for aircraft parts on other planes!! They actually scrapped good engines and a warehouse full of new parts for P2V's - had it all crushed.
A friend of mine tried to buy a couple engines and they said "No we have plans for them" this is what they were !! These three planes were actually traded to
a seller, and AU claims he didn't move them quick enough so they scrapped them - He was supposed to get a stop order from a court Friday eve - guess the
judge had other priorities?? Hope He Sues the s__t out of them, as he had them sold for fire bomber use in Texas. What a shame.. I found out last night -- there
is a lot more to the story - but not worth writing now!! You are right - "Things like this happen everyday in the aviation world" -- but most of the time - they are
derelict carcasses, NOT flyable /usable planes. Too little - Too Late--

FUUUCK!

[vernicator]

The CEO is clearly a douche...excuse me for the choice of words but it's the the best alternate i could come up with to replace what I REALLY think of him.

[Ztex]

What do you call 10,000 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?


( Disclaimer...My dad was a lawyer )

[CAPFlyer]

Would/will be interesting to hear Jim B. and August's takes on this.

If true, I would agree that this is a chickens.... move by AeroUnion and will definitely make them no friends (not that they'd been trying to make any anyway at a corporate level).

[aseanaero]

There's got to be a reason it is not being parted out or offered to museums

With respect to the museums sometimes they can't get there act together fast enough as they usually have to go through a fund raiser etc.

Not everyone in aviation is in it for the love of it , obviously the owner is looking at the bottom line and to him $5,000 or $10,000 for a set of engine and props is not worth the waiting around and potential liability and there isn't enough money in enthusiasts pockets to save everything ... reality bites !

Also as a previous poster mentioned if it was under a govt contract involved with the Neptunes that states it must be destroyed when retired this owner is conforming with the contract (no matter what us ancient aluminium lovers might think), the same thing is happening in Singapore at the moment under security agreements with their Super Skyhawks , they are shredding EVERYTHING even down to generic avionics which are saleable but are NOT for sale.

While fortunately I haven't been in the position of having to cut up a historical or classic aircraft I do cut up turboprops and old Boeings , when people bleat about that I say fine , pay me what I paid for the hulk and what I will make out of it and you can have it . When they start calculating costs of parking , removal , transport , where they are going to put it etc nobody has put their hand up ... on every single project someone wants me to donate the airframe and then get me to pay to move it !

[astixjr]

Just got word that the story Myles got seems to be 100% correct. Every single Neptune part, NOS, yellow tagged, or servicable is to be destroyed. That includes engines and flyable airplanes. EVERYTHING! It's a free country and it is their stuff but still, this just sucks!

[aseanaero]

Seems a lot of liberties are casualties in the 'war on terror' ...

[Steve T]

What a disgrace. Smacks of our (Canadian) gubmint's wholesale shredding of the CP-107 fleet in 1982 despite interest from a number of parties in those aircraft for firefighting conversion...at least, in that case, I understand that some engines survived.

Is this "open season" on civilian P-2s generally, or just the AU fleet?

S.

[Lt51506]

A very sad thing indeed. There should have at least been a bagpipe playing "Amazing Grace" while they did this to them. R.I.P

[Fouga23]

F*cking bastards!

[Wrenchdude]

Did you happen to get anymore sad pics of T-16 or T-18 being scrapped It's pretty sad that they didn't even pull the engine plugs out of the engines before scrapping the old girls.

[mrhenniger]

Did you happen to get anymore sad pics of T-16 or T-18 being scrapped It's pretty sad that they didn't even pull the engine plugs out of the engines before scrapping the old girls.

Does anyone know the military serials, civil registrations and/or construction numbers of T-16 and T-18? I too would like to hear any details about when they were scrapped. Where exactly were they scrapped?

Mike

[Warbirdnerd]

Did you happen to get anymore sad pics of T-16 or T-18 being scrapped It's pretty sad that they didn't even pull the engine plugs out of the engines before scrapping the old girls.

Does anyone know the military serials, civil registrations and/or construction numbers of T-16 and T-18? I too would like to hear any details about when they were scrapped. Where exactly were they scrapped?

Mike

Tanker #16 = N716AU Bu140963
Tanker #18 = N718AU Bu147964

[Warbird Kid]

I was waiting for the day to see these awesome firefighting aircraft sold to the right owners that would do them good. Guess that's not happening. I sure wish I could have had 30 mins with this corporate level lawyer to see his complete reasoning and maybe have had shown him situations in where liability wasn't a concern and it was perfectly legitimate to release these planes into "the wild". But I'm not a lawyer, lobbyist, or nagger.

If anything the planes could have been sold off with the agreement of being strictly static, or even an artificial reef for GODS SAKE! I was sure these aircraft would have been saved. And I must say I'm shocked and appalled that nobody could have talked to or had gone over the certain individuals that definitely took the quick and easy way out.

What kills me is the fact that these planes would have continued to be used in there already current and very successful role. And now Texas might just burn a little more without these planes.

I'm not sure if everything I said above can be considered completely through or right but this kind of $hit shouldn't be acceptable. Especially when these are completely airworthy aircraft! And here I thought Aero Union was a good company. If your going to use these aircraft well into their sunset years, why not try and find a home for them, sold/leased to be reused, or something other than scrapping perfectly good parts?!?!!?

Maybe I just can't see the benefit or positive side in this action taken by AU. Just seems they could have made allot more money if they had taken the time.

A shame. Truly a shame. Such an underrated and under appreciated Warbird. I guess this how the ones that never made the headlines in history are treated.

Rant over for now.
Drink dispensing will commence shortly.

[engguy]

Yeah some mighty evil and nasty people in control of everything. Everywhere ya look.
This just proves it.
Lots of us would given more than scrap for some of those parts and pieces.