Wickenburg AAF post-war storage?

[ALOHADAVE]

Where are the surviving P-38s today that were at one time in storage in Wickenburg?

[BigGrey]

I remember reading an article years ago about some guys buying a dozen P-38s at Kingman. It seems they were delivered straight to Kingman from Lockheed and only had test flight and ferry time on them something like 20 hours each. I think the story said if they bought a dozen at one time they got a screaming deal like 1,000 to 1,500 bucks each. I don't exactly remember the players but that is what I recall of the article.

[steve dickey]

The only other field I know of, besides those you listed, that stored and scrapped heavies was Pyote AAF.

Just to add some information, Pyote was never an RFC/WAA field...it was used for and controlled by AAF/USAF as a reserve storage field.


Pyote had a smelter, Ive been onsite and found a large pile of rusted twisted smashed cables ammo feed chutes, etc, etc. Was able to repatriate some items, even melted aluminum.

[jdvoss]

Just curious, but of the remaining P-38's are there any of the 113 produced by Vultee (Nashville) in existence? They received a contract for 2000 aircraft but V-J Day terminated the production. They were identified as the P-38L-VN.

JDV

www.fuselagecodes.com

[george]

Fortunately, Historic Aerials has a 1951 view of Wickenburg AAF. If interested in locating it at Historic Aerials,, its really not near Wickenburg, but a few miles southeast of Forepaugh, and due east of Aguila. Later views show a l-o-n-g runway was constructed sometime after 1951. On Google Earth, the long runway, along with the base ruins, are still recognizable today. Its apparently now called Forepaugh Airport.