When I was a kid I got to go in the boneyard. Climbed up a little into the Bock's Car and a JU-88. Lots of B-47's and B-36's there and first gen fighters. The fighters were stacked about 4 high.
Eight or ten years before that they were selling P/F-51's, some with as little as fifty hours or ferry time on them and they were selling for $500-$1500. Also, back then you could get a balloon pilot license with no experience, IIRC.
Out at Litchfield Park, which is southwest of Phoenix, Spads and Corsairs were being melted down. After the Corsair/P-51 air war in Guatemala the Gov't stopped seilling surplus combat aircraft to citizens.
