447th Badge447th Bomb Group
The Kingman Planes

"Warbirds's Swansong"
by Jerry McLain
It is the story of a thousand fighting planes stored at various places in Arizona, most of them awaiting the junkman's hammer. In their fighting days they were proud, serene, deadly rulers of all the skies above Earth. Magnificent machines of war, beloved by the young men who were part of them. The young men have scattered now. The planes are left alone on the Arizona desert, dreaming their dreams of glory, and whispering of never-to-be-forgotten days--but maybe it isn't whispering we hear. Maybe it is the night wind and moondust against the fuselage.
Arizona Highways magazine, May 1947

With only one possible (and debatable) exception,* the aircraft that served the 447th and survived ended up at two storage facilities, where they were unceremoniously stripped, chopped to pieces and melted down. Of those storage fields, Kingman, came to be the best known in part from the article appearing in a 1947 issue of Arizona Highways magazine, and in part because of the scope of the facility.  It was once called "five square miles of airplanes."

52 of the 447th's aircraft are recorded as having reached Kingman after the war.  Those are identified in the following list, together with photographs taken during 1946-1947 before scrapping operations began. Three (possibly four) 447th aircraft are known to have reached another reclamation center at Walnut Ridge, Arkansas.


Storage Depot No. 41 - Kingman, Arizona


42 31168 No photo

42 31206 "JOURNEYS' END" No Photo

42 31225 G "SCHEHERAZADE"

42 37871 No photo

42 37873 F Active Duty photo in Aircraft Gallery

42 38052 No photo

42 39882 L No photo

42 97092 K "HEEL DER FUHRER" Active Duty photo in Aircraft Gallery

42 97392 F "RAMBLIN' WRECK" Active Duty photo in Aircraft Gallery

42 97646 B Active Duty photo in Aircraft Gallery

42 97803 No photo

42 97804 E

42 97900 D No photo

42 97976 D 
"LOUIE THE CREEP"  
"BIT O' LACE"
Profile in the Library

42 102668 G No photo

43 37544 J "D-DAY DOLL" Profile in the Library

43 37870 P
Possibly "Stormy Weather"

43 37756 G "MILK WAGON" Profile in the Library

43 37774 No photo

43 37795 H "DIXIE MARIE" Active Duty photo in Aircraft Gallery

43 37797 Q "AMERICAN BEAUTY"

43 37873 N  "NAZDROWIE" Active Duty photo in Aircraft Gallery

43 38230 E "WOLF WAGON"

43 38450 B 
"LITTLE HERBIE
"LUCKY PARTNERS"
Fragment of noseart in the collection of the Mojave Museum, Kingman.  

43 38466 C 

43 38524 S  "BLONDE BOMBER II" Active Duty photo in Aircraft Gallery, Color Collection

43 38622 Q Active Duty photo in Aircraft Gallery

43 38712 C "BUDDY BUDDY" Active Duty photo in Aircraft Gallery

43 38719 A "THE BLUE HEN CHICK"

43 38768 B "BEELZEBUB" (?) Active Duty photo in Aircraft Gallery

43 38884 A "L'IL SKIPPY" Active Duty photo in Aircraft Gallery

43 38903 Q Active Duty photo in Aircraft Gallery

43 38905 "BANG BANG LULU" Active Duty photo in Aircraft Gallery

43 38940 "THE BLACK BRASSIERE" Active Duty photo in Aircraft Gallery

43 38950 No photo

43 38984 No photo

43 39029 N "LINDA SUE" Active Duty photo in Aircraft Gallery

43 39057 No photo

43 39194 No photo

43 39244 No photo

43 39352 "900 HILGARD" Active Duty photo in Aircraft Gallery

44 6003 F No photo

44 6462 O "SANDUSKY JO" Active Duty photo in Aircraft Gallery

44 6823 "MISS SPENT YOUTH" No photo

44 8301 No photo

44 8310 M "THUMPER"

44 8410 No photo

44 8415 No photo

44-8502 "ALWAYS AVAILABLE" No Photo

44 8643 K Active Duty photo in Aircraft Gallery

44 83279 J Accident report photo in Aircraft Gallery

* The one possible surviving aircraft of the 447th Bomb Group is 44-83684, currently on display and awaiting restoration at the Planes of Fame Museum in Chino, California.  There is conflicting information on this aircraft, but both Roger Freeman (B-17 Flying Fortress Story) and Paul Andrews (Project Bits & Pieces) list the aircraft as the last assigned to the 447th, but likely not ferried to England.