Image by Senior Airman Alan R. Wycheck
Ever wondered what happens to a state of the art aircraft at the end of its useful service life? For those that don’t go on to museums, fate is often dealt out by the unforgiving arms and jagged claws of mechanical diggers. And while it’s a crying shame when it happens, it’s certainly an impressive sight to behold…
Image by Alan Radecki
Along with the heavy machinary, “scrappers” now use hand-held gas saws to accomplish many of the “finer details”, as you can see in the video below where they literally slice through a massive airliner’s fuselage by hand. (Ironically, the most crude of instruments is enough to finish off aircraft that were once at the forefront of technology. Even the Stealth Fighter isn’t immune.)
Below you can see the way the U.S. Air Force’s mighty B-52 Stratofortress‘ are disposed of – via the guillotine. The B-52 may be the most impressive bomber ever to grace the skies, but it’s no match for this huge plate of metal, crashing down from above to sever the wings from the fuselage. The latter is then chopped into several large chunks of twisted metal, allowing passing Russian spy satellites to survey the devastation and monitor the disposal of certain aircraft types to satisfy post-Cold War arms limitation treaties.
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