Evening star., 1945-11-18
BY NORMAN A. KAHL,
Star Staff Correspondents.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla, Nov. IT.
Ofiicals in charge of the, Nays
salvage program indicated today
that the practice of making expen-
siye repairs on obsolete planes just
so they can be flown to a scrap
heap will end soon.
Oficers at the naval base here
conceded that this method of dis
posing of surplus aircraft is ineffi-
cient, but they pointed out that it
Is hangover from war days when
such system was necessary.
They just haven't gotten around!
to changing it yet" one officer said.
ut looks as If it would be simple
just send an order down from
Washington But you know how
those things are in the Navy"
The procedure as it exists now is
to send all f1yable surplus craft to
the Reconstruction Finance Corp S
salvage depot at Clinton, Okla, for
eventual disposal. Planes not in
condition to be flown are salvaged
here.
Before the war ended, however,
when the Navy could not afford to
tie up space at this busy base by
storing worn out or damaged planes
to await salvage operations, many
of them were repaired and sent
to the RIGS salvage dumps. Since
VI Day, the repair shops have been
under orders from Washington to
put in maximum of 200 man-hours
to get plane in fyable shape. If
it is estimated the repairs will re-
quire more work than that the plane
is salvaged on the spot.
The salvage plant here can handle
about Is planes a week. When an
unf1yable plane is declared surplus,
it is brought to the salvage yard
and every usable part is stripped
from the frame. These parts are
carefully put away in storehouse
to be used as spare parts for ships
which are still in service.
Just how many Of these parts will
be needed to help maintain the
peacetime naval air arm is prob
lematical. The answer depends a
good deal on how big Congress will
allow this fleet to be and how fast
chronological improvements make
even the latest types of naval
planes obsolete
When the Navy salvages plane,
1t saves the parts and then cuts up
what is left to be melted down into
aluminium ingots. A 10,000-pound
capacity smelter is being built for
this process and ought to be in op-
Grafton around the first of the year.
1t will cost the Navy 3 cents to pro-
duce pound of 81 per cent alum
mum. The current price for this
secondary metal is 61a cents.
Minor Salvage at Clinton.
When a plane is flown out to the
RFC salvage center in Clinton, how
ever. very few of the parts are SAL
vaged. Newspapermen were allowed
to inspect the RFC dump at Walnut |
Ridge, Ark, where the Army has
brought in 5000 scrapped planes.
Only equipment removed by the
Army are the guns, radio and radar
sets and some tires. The rest is left
to the mercy of the RFC.
RFC officials who accompanied
newsmen on the inspection trip were
realistic about their problem. They
are aware that they have millions
of tons of junk on their hands, and
they will be lucky if they can get
enough out of it tcJ pay for more
than the salvage operations. They
don't expect to recover any of the
original cost.
There just isn't any market that
the Government can find for COM
bat planes or their component
parts. Even when a ship is instrin-
sically sound, it hasn't any peace
time value. The RFC had hoped
industrial uses might be found for
some of the parts. Accordingly they
invited representatives of industry to