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A rusty locomotive stands like a sentry at the front gate. "You know how hunters have trophies," said Wade, 50, of Atco. "These are our trophies, and they all have a story to tell. It's my pride and joy. "I plan to die in this yard. He was cutting up the cockpit of an RB-57 bomber jet in 1986 when the explosive charges for the ejector seat suddenly blew the canopy and blasted a stainless-steel bolt -- like a bullet -- into his upper right arm. "At the Atco yard, we separate the parts, according to the metals, and package them so THEY CAN} be sent to whoever is going to get them," he said. The controls and instrument panels in the cockpits are open to the elements and deteriorating but still spark the imagination. Thousands of planes across the country are due to be "timed-out" -- judged obsolete due to the metal and parts fatigue -- in the next couple of years. In April, parts of one of Wade's passenger planes were rented for $35,000 to simulate a crash site at the Atco Raceway, where municipal, county, state, and federal officials drilled under realistic conditions that included mock casualties. " Over his shoulder was the nose of a C-130 cargo plane emblazoned with the letters USAF, along with A-7 Corsair, F-4 Phantom, and A-4 Skyhawk fighter jets, all from the Vietnam War. " "I've never studied crash sites," he said, "but I've cleaned up enough that I know what's what. Nearby was the yawning mouth of a Korean War veteran, a F-86 Sabre jet with now-defanged machine-gun channels on either side of the cockpit. The planes are shorn of their wings for transport to Wade's yard. "We're a one-of-a-kind operation because of our mix of aircraft," said Wade, smoking a cigar while strolling amid his "trophies. "We put Sanford and Son to shame; we make them look like amateurs," he said of the former TV sitcom junk dealers. "We chopped up about a dozen of them and we have enough parts for about three," Wade said. Also amid the collection is an operating Army truck; another Convair 880 passenger plane -- this one believed to have been flown by billionaire Howard Hughes -- and an armored car from the army of former Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega. "They could go to companies that buy aluminum, stainless steel, nickel, or copper. Wade comes by his Hollywoodish banter naturally. "My father and grandfather owned this property, so we've had it a long time," said Wade, who has never married. Trees and vegetation have grown up around some of the aircraft, creating scenes like those seen in the Hollywood movies Raiders of the Lost Ark and Romancing the Stone. "We put the 'P' in American Pickers," he said, referring to the TV series about buying antiques and collectibles. They've also been in the 1995 movie Twelve Monkeys with Bruce Willis and the 1983 film Eddie and the Cruisers with Tom Berenger. . |
Monday, 4 June 2012
Where old aircraft go to die
