World War II Planes Scramble Once More in Guerilla Actions

September 25, 2007

VAN NUYS, Calif.-Most World War II veterans reminisce now and then. Robert Denny can do that- he flew a P-40 fighter over China -- but he does the other vets one better. For Mr. Denny, the war is still on.

In shops at the local airport here, half a dozen of his workmen are replacing nose cones on A-26 Invaders, a bomber used widely after the Normandy invasion but not manufactured for 20 years. Other workmen labor over wing fuel tanks and fabricate new exhaust pipes for a more powerful A-26 engine.

Mr. Denny has found it profitable to live in the past-at least, when it comes to airplanes. His On Mark Engineering Co. is one of several aviation companies being paid handsomely by the Pentagon to put old warplanes back into fighting shape.

You would think the supersonic jet and the intercontinental missile would have made the old planes obsolete. But limited warfare has produced an urgent need for relatively slow, economical planes that can carry heavy loads of bombs, machine guns and other weapons to support antiguerrilla land campaigns.

Resurrection in War The U.S. stopped making slow, propeller- driven attack planes more than two decades ago. But when the Vietnam conflict grew, it quietly started scouring through old Government storage areas and buying back World War II vintage craft from private owners. Similarly, some South American nations with old U.S. warplanes are refurbishing the craft for use in insurrections and local security.

Turning back the aviation clock is a costly business; Not long ago, the Pentagon paid On Mark $400,000 each to rebuild 40 A-26s, double what the planes cost when they were built initially during World War II by Douglas Aircraft Co. (now a division of McDonnell Douglas Corp.). To outfit the planes for Vietnam combat, On Mark installed 2,500-horsepower engines to replace the old 2,000 h.p. models, plus anti- skid brakes and modern reversible propellers. It also strengthened the wings and added racks for more bombs.

The Columbus division of North American Rockwell Corp. has come full circle with the T-28. Starting in 1953, the company built the single-engine prop plane for the Air Force and Navy at a cost of $142,234 each. They were intended for pilot training, but the Pentagon has decided that the T-28 is useful for what it calls counterinsurgency warfare.

Since 1962, North American has been paid $30 million to convert about 320 T-28s for close air support duty. Most of them are being distributed to 13 foreign governments, generally without charge, under the U.S. military aid program. The Pentagon won't say what governments are getting the planes, but South Vietnam is one of them.

Some South American nations have received World-War II vintage U.S. warplanes as gifts from the U.S. or have purchased them from private American arms salesmen. Such sales are legal with State Department permission.

A Booming Market Hamilton Engineering Co. of Tucson has a $3,750,000 contract from Brazil to overhaul 18 of its aging A-26 bombers, first made in 1942. At the San Bernardino county airport in California, Aero Sport Co. has rebuilt two P-51 Mustang fighters being sold to the Bolivian air force by a used plane dealer for about $45,000 each. On Mark just finished converting 50 A-26s for the Peruvian air force.

The sudden enthusiasm for old warplanes has produced a shortage of parts and planes- and a sharp rise in prices for both. "We're about cleaned out," says a spokesman at the Davis-Montham U.S. Air Force base in Arizona, where unused planes are stored. The base has one A-26 left, and that one is in the base museum.

The U.S. Government occasionally buys back planes that it once dumped on the surplus market for next to nothing. In 1944, a P-51 cost about $57,000. In 1958 the Government sold a batch of them for about $1,500 each. Last summer the Army paid $15,000 for one, to be used as a chase plane in a helicopter test program.

A-26s that the U.S. sold for about $2,500 a decade ago now are being offered by private owners for $10,000. One businessman in the field says T-28s cost about $3,000 a couple of years ago; now the asking price is $8,000. The Pentagon is repurchasing T-28s from private owners who got the planes as surplus to use for crop dusting or stunt flying.

Many old warplanes not scrapped after World War II or Korea have been converted for use as corporate executive aircraft. Others have been put to specialized uses like chemical bombing of forest fires or have been used for racing. But air racing has all but died out, and flying a P-51 for sport, for instance, is expensive. Its 12-cylinder Rolls Royce engine burns 62 gallons of fuel an hour.

Richard Hairston, owner of Aero Sport Co., figures there still are 175 P-51s in private hands. Mr. Denny of On Mark thinks he could find 75 A-26s. Many owners are sitting fast, figuring the prices will keep going up, but some are selling. Gordon Strube, owner of Consolidated Aeronautics Corp. in North Hollywood, Calif., has 40 A-26s stashed away in Tucson airport, "just waiting for customers."

Mr. Strube travels about 75,000 miles around the world yearly buying up old planes, often for their engines, instruments and armaments. France has been one source of T-28 spare parts.

Mr. Strube recently found 12 A-26s in a hangar at Wichita, Kan. An oil company had kept them for use by exploration crews. The profit margin in converting such planes is respectable; with about $50,000 worth of work added to the $10,000 purchase price, they can be sold for at least $75,000.

The spare parts situation is desperate in places. For instance, the P-51 and the T-28 use the same propeller. One dealer grumbles that a four-bladed propeller costing $600 three years ago now sells for $2,400. Mr. Hairston recently paid out $2,000 for a load of junk offered by an airplane surplus company. Most of the purchase was worthless scrap, but the buy included some hard-to-find engine mounts, still in their World War II overseas shipping crates with the Army post office number faded but dimly legible.

Tags: WWII planes, rebuilding


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