Where Can You Find Scrapped Airliners and Military Planes in the U.S.?

Platinum ScrapRecycle and Refine GoldRecycle Precious Metals
Written By Barry Lenson

If your precious metal recycling plans include pulling components out of scrapped airliners and military planes, you are thinking in a good way. A scrapped airplane is one of the best sources of gold, silver, and other precious metal scrap. Plus, a scrapped plane is also chock-full of copper wire, aluminum, and other base metals that can be well worth recycling, even though they don’t have the allure that precious metals have.

Looking for “Boneyards”

A “boneyard” is a junkyard that scraps airplanes. It’s a funny word, but it’s the term to use if you go looking online for the location of airplane junkyards that hold hundreds, or even thousands of planes.

Where are these junkyards located? In almost all cases, they are found in desert areas because scrapped planes simply hold up better in dry storage. Also, it is easier to deliver decommissioned planes to those areas. In fact, most boneyards have their own landing strips where dying planes can simply land and taxi off to their final resting places.

These are the biggest boneyards in the United States:

  • The Davis-Monthan Airport near Tucson, Arizona, stores more than 4,000 decommissioned airliners and military planes.

  • The Goodyear Airport in Phoenix, Arizona, reportedly stores about 2,500 scrapped commercial, military, and even civilian planes.

  • The International Air Center in Roswell, New Mexico, houses about 300 commercial airliners that are being dismantled.

  • The Kingman Airport in Kingman, Arizona, is a full-featured airplane recycling facility that is able to melt down aluminum airplane parts and produce aluminum ingots and bars that are sold to industry.

  • The Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, California, is a major airline recycling facility. We have not been able to obtain information on how many airliners are stored there, but we have learned that it is currently recycling a number of airplanes that were owned and operated by Qantas.

  • The Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville, California holds nearly 300 scrapped airliners.

How Can You Get Your Hands on Used Airplane Components?

The answer is, doing so is difficult because the facilities we list above are too big to take bids from “man in the street” precious metal recyclers. You can, however, contact smaller airports near where you live and ask their managers to help you find smaller boneyards and airplane recyclers in your area.

If you can find planes that are being scrapped, be on the lookout for all printed circuit boards. Thermocouples, which monitor engine and cabin temperatures are another kind of aero scrap you should be on the lookout for.

If You Have Airplane Scrap, Your Next Call Should Be to Us

Give Specialty Metals Smelters and Refiners a call at 800-426-2344. We are here to test your airplane and aerospace scrap and reclaim the gold, silver, platinum and other precious metals it contains.

Barry Lenson
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