Airplane Salvage Yard = awesome parts potential

I spent part of yesterday with a buddy digging through an airplane salvage yard. Holy smokes, the potential! Just the linkages were making my head spin with ideas. If the stuff can't be FAA certified it is pretty much sold off cheap. We just walked up and down the aisles grabbing stuff thinking "that would make a cool brake pedal" or "that will make a cool door handle" etc. And fuel lines! And hydraulic lines! And hardware!! By the boatload! Heim joints! Turn buckles! It just went on and on. If you haven't searched for airplane salvage yards near you, do it now. Make friends with the owner and ask what stuff can't be sold for aviation use. Some of the stuff I wanted were simple things (like brackets) that would take me forever to make at home, but are sold for almost scrap by the salvage yard.

An example:

We were thinking this would make a great "cutting brake" master cylinder. No idea what it did on a plane, but we knew what we could use it for on a hot rod.

Where is this magical place you speak of?

Probably Atlanta. That's where all the cool stuff is these days.

MG Bryan wrote: Probably Atlanta. That's where all the cool stuff is these days.

This place was near Atlanta, but there are yards all over.

You can see some of the stuff we got on the floor:

If you don't live near an aircraft salvage, there's also this: http://www.barnstormers.com/

I've previously wandered onto that site only to emerge weeks later disheveled, dehydrated, unshaven and slightly confused. Didn't buy anything though . . .

Great. I've been looking to do a motor swap...

Lycoming FTW!

I kept checking out the awesome disc brake assemblies. They look like a top fuel clutch pack. Then I found out they routinely sell used brake assemblies for $12k and up. I put it back on the shelf.

Some of the cooler stuff was the internal ducting for A/C and stuff. Really compact and light, great stuff for routing A/C vents on a tight project car.

Is there a national directory of these places? Searching "aircraft salvage" with my city in google doesn't give me anything to go with.

I want a place like this around me.

I want to start an airplane salvage yard.

If anyone knows of a cheap parts plane, keep me in mind.

I'm completely 100% serious. Looking for challenge money buy in ;) (still serious).

Really.

My cousin worked for a big operation (the big operation) in the KC area. Said they basically sold stuff for 50% of "new parts" cost. He worked strictly commission. They dealt mostly with big stuff.

I want to get started slowly in the GA market (small planes). Maybe...someday...who knows.

Clem

kazoospec wrote: If you don't live near an aircraft salvage, there's also this: http://www.barnstormers.com/ I've previously wandered onto that site only to emerge weeks later disheveled, dehydrated, unshaven and slightly confused. Didn't buy anything though . . .

Don't go there. Don't. You'll end up with a half built Thorp T-18, and you don't even know how to fly.

That sounds really cool to me. I would like some gauges just for display!

Feedyurhed wrote: That sounds really cool to me. I would like some gauges just for display!

I hear that. I want an accelerometer and an elevation gauge in my car.

Around here, an elevation gauge might actually be useful.

Great, now the IT guy at work is going to wonder why I googled about cutting brakes. "Bob, are you in some kind of trouble?"

To save anyone else from falling under the suspicion of suspicious IT folks, I found that cutting brakes are used to stop one wheel from turning, typically on tractors, dune buggies or rock crawlers, so that the vehicle can pivot around the one stopped wheel giving it a ridiculously small turning radius. It has nothing to do with getting rid of an annoying ex-wife.

Kazoospec - I think you've just destroyed my weekend by posting that link. Thank goodness its been 15+ years since I've been into flight simulators because otherwise I'd be contacting the guy with the A-10 cockpit to turn it into a simulator (although I really doubt I could afford it).

Bob

I have always wanted to do an aircraft themed hot rod....

Keith wrote: Around here, an elevation gauge might actually be useful.

I was certainly glad i had one on my GPS when i was there...

I bet Alex could have used one as well. He was pretty baffled at how hard his poor little NA was working at the top of Grand Mesa.

Ok, combine parts of this thread with the locost thread.

Find a good amount of aluminum honeycomb, learn how to connect it together, and you get a super strong and super light racar core. Just like they made them in the 70's and early 80s.

I was kindof hoping you were going to go in the direction of a GRM $2012 prop plane race series.

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: I was kindof hoping you were going to go in the direction of a GRM $2012 prop plane race series.

You would fly a plane that you made for $2012 from junk?

I remember when junkyard wars did it, twice. scared the heck out of me when the challenge actually happened, and the vehicles left the ground. The worst one being that glider challenge in England.

I'll pass.

alfadriver wrote:

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: I was kindof hoping you were going to go in the direction of a GRM $2012 prop plane race series.

You would fly a plane that you made for $2012 from junk? I remember when junkyard wars did it, twice. scared the heck out of me when the challenge actually happened, and the vehicles left the ground. The worst one being that glider challenge in England. I'll pass.

Only live once!!!

Altitude / elevation could be done via GPS or a MAP sensor and the right control & display logic. Sort of a radio altimeter, this is basically how it's done with actual aircraft.

I guess if someone wants to get smart with it, a cheap MAP sensor, a PIC or similar processor, and the right altitude gauge could work.

now that we're all building Quonset huts or renovating hangars as Man Caves we need something to put in them, don't we?

My good friend always wanted to build a real-life sized computer game simulator out of an old airliner fuselage where you'd be on "Looking Glass" monitoring your computers during The Big One. You'd have the plane bank, turn and shudder just like the real thing while you're playing Nuke-yoo-ler Confrontation with the Russkies...

alfadriver wrote: Find a good amount of aluminum honeycomb, learn how to connect it together, and you get a super strong and super light racar core. Just like they made them in the 70's and early 80s.

There is a special adhesive used for that IIRC

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: Is there a national directory of these places? Searching "aircraft salvage" with my city in google doesn't give me anything to go with. I want a place like this around me.

Yes, CIncinnati has (had?) a pretty major hub at one time at the CVG Int'l airport - Deltas US Hub was here at one time. Also, there are 4 or 5 fairly active regional airports - I have to imagine with all this aviation traffic and infrastructure in the area, theres got to be a boneyard nearby....but I cannot find anything on teh googelz - any ninjas wanna jump in?