The “Aircraft Graveyards” That Keep Aviation Alive | Condé Nast Traveler

"Clinton McJenkin runs BAS Part Sales in Missouri, a surgical aircraft-salvage operation that takes old, wrecked, and unwanted airplanes apart into components that range from six-figure turbine cores to armrests worth less than $50. Their Missouri yard — once an airfield and now overgrown with trees — holds some planes that have sat for 50 years, and the company lists 127,000 parts online, selling to six or seven countries a day (engines to China, landing gear to the Middle East, avionics to Europe). They demonstrate how reclaimed parts can dramatically cut costs — a wheel assembly that’s $100,000 new might be $25,000 second-hand — and even damaged items find second lives as training aids, prototypes, or art (a bent prop became a farmer’s illuminated monument bought for $900). Hundreds of parts are pulled from a single aircraft; some sell within days, others sit in inventory for years, awaiting the right customer." - Scott Campbell