Vintage Aircraft

final 3 days in the life of an old airliner

final 3 days in the life of an old airliner

This 40 passenger twin radial engine Convair 240 was built in 1950. This one had been a roadside display at a local small airport for 12 years. As it was suffering from the elements, the decision was made to dispense with it. These 7 photos show it's final 3 days.

The twin 18 cylinder radial engines producing 2,400 horsepower each are no longer used on any operational aircraft. But some of the parts are usable on later models so an aircraft junkyard bought the engines.

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A movie prop rental house bought the 40 seats since they had an aircraft fuselage but no seats.

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Then it became a simple matter of cutting up the aircraft into pieces that could be hauled to the recycling yard. It became worth 15 cents a pound for the aluminum and 5 cents a pound for the steel.

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On day 2, it was coming apart.

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A local aviation school asked it they could have the cockpit so the entire nose was cut off and loaded onto their trailer. The twin ashtrays, one for the pilot, one for the co-pilot, was a throwback to a different era.

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End of day 2, the end was approaching

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Day 3, all cut up into transportable sections and off to the metal recycling facility.

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Bob Michaels said:
This 40 passenger twin radial engine Convair 240 was built in 1950. This one had been a roadside display at a local small airport for 12 years. As it was suffering from the elements, the decision was made to dispense with it. These 7 photos show it's final 3 days.

The twin 18 cylinder radial engines producing 2,400 horsepower each are no longer used on any operational aircraft. But some of the parts are usable on later models so an aircraft junkyard bought the engines.

A movie prop rental house bought the 40 seats since they had an aircraft fuselage but no seats.

Then it became a simple matter of cutting up the aircraft into pieces that could be hauled to the recycling yard. It became worth 15 cents a pound for the aluminum and 5 cents a pound for the steel.

On day 2, it was coming apart.

A local aviation school asked it they could have the cockpit so the entire nose was cut off and loaded onto their trailer. The twin ashtrays, one for the pilot, one for the co-pilot, was a throwback to a different era.

End of day 2, the end was approaching

Day 3, all cut up into transportable sections and off to the metal recycling facility.
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Bob, this is a highly enjoyable presentation. Well done! Thank you very much for sharing.

All the best,
Mike
 
These pictures show a Aermacchi fighter of the Royal Italian Air Force in WW2; it is displayed at the Volandia Museum near the Malpensa airport
h-by-mauro-angelo-mittino


g-by-mauro-angelo-mittino
 
Yokosuka_Mike said:
Bob, this is a highly enjoyable presentation. Well done! Thank you very much for sharing. .....
Click to expand...

Thanks Mike. The way I photograph has evolved over the years. Historically, I used to photograph in a series where I started early on with a predetermined message I wanted to deliver and shot to make sure I fill in to make all my points. Sometimes those series were over a few weeks, sometimes many years. But in the last five years or so, I have tightened up to doing stories like this one where I have rough script in mind and try to insure I have a beginning, a middle, and a closing in mind. Sometimes it flows, sometimes a struggle. And, sometimes I simply fail.

My style does not work for presentations such as here where it is just one singular image. That's OK since that is not the audience I photograph for.

My next step is the narrated photo story. Here are some examples that I think are good. Very different approaches but good examples.

Niagara by Alex Soth - (great photos turned in a poetic essay) https://dandyvagabonds.com/magnuminmotion.html#section-10

Ghost Town by Thomas Dworzack (Katrina aftermath in New Orleans) caution - graphic images https://dandyvagabonds.com/magnuminmotion.html#section-9
 
Photo of F-117 stealth fighter...
Very stealthy. SO stealthy that... umm. Anyway, an odd shaped thing with faceted flat body panels to reflect radar off in useless directions. Engines above the wings to reduce infrared signature. A single-seat, twin-engine stealth attack aircraft that was developed (using ideas derived from a 1964 Russian research paper!) by Lockheed's secretive Skunk Works division and operated by the United States Air Force. Entered service in 1983, 64 were built, put into “active retirement” in 2008, replaced by the superior F-22 Raptor. “The Boneyard” at Davis-Monthan AFB, Tucson, AZ.
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Pentax K-1, 1.8/77mm SMCPentax
 
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SAAB J 35-1 Draken prototype, Svedino's Car and Aircraft Museum, Ugglarp, Sweden, August 2020. First flight in October 1955.
Canon 30D, Canon 20mm/2.8 USM at 1/60 sec, f/5.6 and ISO400.
 
ktmrider said:
where was the Tri Motor?
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My shots of the Tri-Motor were made at the Double Eagle airfield in Albuquerque, but that plane has been all over the country.

PS: Here's a shot of Amelia Earhart in front of a Tri-Motor, having just arrived in Albuquerque on the plane's maiden flight to the city. The guy second from the right is then mayor, Clyde Tingley.

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(Albuquerque Museum digital archive)
 

Cessna Bobcat UC-78B.
by ASA 32, on Flickr

The "Bamboo Bomber." Freedom Flight America, McGuire AFB, New Jersey, August, 1995.

"Out of the clear blue of the Western sky comes Sky King!"

Sky King flew a Cessna Bobcat in the TV series.

Canon F-1, FD 85mm f/1.2L, Fujichrome Provia 100
 
The Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet is a small light attack jet and advanced trainer co-manufactured by Dassault Aviation of France and Dornier Flugzeugwerke of Germany. In service from 1979, this German Dornier model has a 27mm Mauser cannon in an under-fuselage pod. Pima Air & Space Museum, Tucson, AZ.
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Pentax K-1, 1.8/77mm SMCPentax
 
A-10 Thunderbolt “warthog” with 7-barrel gatling gun. With depleted-Uranium bullets, a tank-buster. Pima Air & Space Museum, Tucson, AZ

U77I1472962739.SEQ.1.jpg
Pentax K-1, 1.8/77mm SMCPentax
 
IMG_5074 by wickerparkbilly, on Flickr

I started to camera scan my grandparent's collection of (mostly Kodachrome, as here) slides. They were both licensed pilots and often competed in flying competitions. My grandfather is on the back of the station wagon. He was a WWII vet and is no longer with us. My grandmother is in the black and white dress and will turn 96 in October.
 
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