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B-24 Liberator Bomber Scrapping After World War II
The B-24 Liberator's spacious, slab-sided fuselage was built around a central bomb bay with two compartments that could hold 8,000 pounds of ordnance each. The B-24 provided excellent service in a variety of roles due to its large payload and long range.
 Consolidated B-24 Liberator "Missouri Miss" meets the guillotine at Kingman Army Air Field |
Included on this website is a table showing a recap of B-24 Liberator production by model, and by manufacturing plant. Numbers represent our best research on the subject; there are minor variations in numbers reported by other sources and outlets.
After the end of World War II in August of 1945, the U.S. Army Air Corp found itself with thousands of surplus, and now obsolete, B-24 Liberators.
Of the 18,493 Liberators that were built, most were sent to military airplane boneyards for temporary storage, sale, or scrapping and smelting into aluminum ingots.
While some Liberators were sold and continued usage in civilian aviation, most ended their service, not in combat, but in the smelter at locations such as Kingman Army Air Field in Arizona.
Few B-24 planes survive today. In the United States, only two aircraft are airworthy, and six complete airframes are on static display. Read more about B-24 Liberator surviving aircraft, serial numbers, location, and photographs
Photos of B-24 Liberators After World War II
B-24 Liberator "Gambler's Luck" awaiting the furnace at Kingman Army Air Field in Arizona as seen in LIFE |
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B-24 Liberator "The Dragon and His Tail" with engines removed at Kingman AAF in Arizona ... this aircraft was one of the last scrapped at Kingman |
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After 97 missions, B-24 Liberator "Shy Chi Baby" rests in the boneyard at Kingman Army Air Field |
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B-24 Liberator "Contrary Mary" ... "The Scroungy 8 Over the Golden Gate"
(LIFE Magazine photo) |
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Consolidated B-24 Liberator "Hot To Go" ... "You Lucky Girls" stored in the Arizona desert boneyard Post-WWII at Kingman AAF |
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B-24 Liberator "Mary Ann" sits in the sun of the Arizona desert after WWII at Kingman AAF |
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B-24 Liberator Scrapping and Melting Project at the Kingman Army Air Field boneyard in Arizona
Rows of B-24 Liberators await the scrap heap at Kingman AAF in Arizona "Old Black Magic" 0333 in the foreground as reported in LIFE Magazine |
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Ford B-24L-15-FO Liberator "Mabel's Labels" ... "Gimme a Great Big Smile!" S/N 44-49854 ... Served with the 64th Bombardment Squadron, 43rd Bomb Group, 5th Air Force Shown below with engines removed and awaiting the guillotine and smelter |
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Rows of aircraft engines removed from surplus B-17 and B-24 bombers at the Kingman AAF boneyard |
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Consolidated B-24 Liberator "Missouri Miss" meets the guillotine at Kingman Army Air Field |
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Once cut in pieces, aircraft remnants are moved to the smelter (in the distance) |
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One of the three smelters, or furnaces, used at Kingman to melt small pieces of aircraft into ingots |
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Stacks of aluminum ingots ... the remains of the great American World War II bomber fleet |
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