Finding a Decommissioned Plane to Buy
 

Dear fellow FT'ers,

Thought this might be the best place to get some advice in the right direction for an interesting query.

I am making a movie and the majority of it happens on a plane. We are going to build a wide body jet, probably in Cape Town, where we can shoot the movie.

Does anyone know where I could start searching for planes that have been sent to the graveyard and we can buy seats, parts, etc to build the set? I am certain there is a world in which airplane parts and decommissioned planes trade hands - but I don't know where to begin my research. Any help and advice would be very much appreciated.

There are a couple of huge airplane graveyards in the US. The biggest one that I know of is near Tucson, Arizona.

Finding a Decommissioned Plane to Buy
 

Actually the on near Tucson is not the biggest one. It's located at Marana Pinal Airpark. The biggest one is at Victorville California. You can also check Mojave Spaceport in California, Kingman, Arizona - Goodyear, Arizona - Greenwood, Mississippi - Opa Locka, Florida, Maxton, North Carolina or 20 other graveyards in US. They also have one in France and one in UK.

This is really helpful. Thank you everyone. If anyone has any other tidbits this will really be appreciated...

This company dismantles aircraft in the UK: http://www.airsalvage.co.uk/

hth

Finding a Decommissioned Plane to Buy
 

I don't know how I forgot the second biggest graveyard in US. It's at Roswell New Mexico.

There are companies that provide these things. The biggest is http://airhollywood.com I don't know what your budget is, but there are probably similar companies in Cape Town.

These are the coolest things I've ever seen! I particularly liked the Air Hollywood intro video.

Wow. I want to go tour that place!

OT, but if anyone wants to play around in the front 50' of an old BA 747, there is one at the Hiller Aviation Museum in the Bay Area. Run up the staircase and sit in the pilot's seat and everything.

Cape Town, South Africa ?
There are 2 off 747's in the museum at the end of the runway at Rand / Germinston airport in J'burg. Always wondered how they got those in. When I was training at Rand (in C152 & C172's) the SA Air Force DC4's used all the runway width.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rand_Airport
http://www.randairport.co.za/
http://www.saamuseum.co.za/our-locat...d-airport.html

Very good call. Sadly whilst they let you shoot in them you can't damage them at all because they're museum pieces

It fits....barely.
 

I remember seeing a video of them bringing one of the 747s into that airport. Pretty amazing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap_nyRzEOMI

sjclynn