I know a guy who does this, a retired TWA captain. But I never had the nerve to ask him. Is there a lot of profit to be made in this profession? This former TWA captain told me that breaking up Convair 880's was hard because the fuselage skins were so thick. Maybe he was joking with me though.

Do you have a random aviation question generator?

Try looking here:

https://afraassociation.org/

How much of an airliner is melted back down to aluminum? I understand al prices are through the roof now. I do recall someone posting years ago that aircraft aluminum could not be used for beverage cans.

Along those lines, are all those airplane wires you see in scrapping videos recyclable for their copper?

I recall my operator getting about $50,000 in scrap about 20 years ago for a former AA 727-200. That was after all useful parts and flight control surfaces were picked off.

For commodity traders, 20 years ago aluminum (unknown type) sold for $1258 per ton, today its $2668. So around 100% more. It was as high as $3183 earlier this year. https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/aluminum. So that 727S would be worth $100 k now

Assuming scrap follows, perhaps more birds will be shredded now (instead of just parked).

MohawkWeekend wrote:

How much of an airliner is melted back down to aluminum? I understand al prices are through the roof now. I do recall someone posting years ago that aircraft aluminum could not be used for beverage cans.

Along those lines, are all those airplane wires you see in scrapping videos recyclable for their copper?

I've heard the same thing about aircraft aluminium. The answer I always got was that beverage cans are require higher quality metal.

As for copper most aircraft wire I have seen is aluminum. its lighter than copper even though the wire has to be larger diameter for the same current.

convair880mfan wrote:

I know a guy who does this, a retired TWA captain. But I never had the nerve to ask him. Is there a lot of profit to be made in this profession? This former TWA captain told me that breaking up Convair 880's was hard because the fuselage skins were so thick. Maybe he was joking with me though.

somewhat less, due to labor cost, than the lowest price you can find for an used aircraft should roughly equal the value of parts and materials.

best regards
Thomas

The Navy recently sold two old carriers out of the mothball fleet, each for $ 1. The bidder needed to tow them to the breaking yard (had to be in US), comply with all of the environmental regs about lead, PCB's, and asbestos, all the labor to cut this up and ship out the scrap at the best prices possible. All told I am sure they are making at least 10% profit on the venture or they wouldn't be bidding regularly. The vast majority here is steel, but lots of other metals too. However, scrap steel is cents on the dollar, scrap aluminum is over a $1.

tommy1808 wrote:

convair880mfan wrote:

I know a guy who does this, a retired TWA captain. But I never had the nerve to ask him. Is there a lot of profit to be made in this profession? This former TWA captain told me that breaking up Convair 880's was hard because the fuselage skins were so thick. Maybe he was joking with me though.

somewhat less, due to labor cost, than the lowest price you can find for an used aircraft should roughly equal the value of parts and materials.

best regards
Thomas

Or more, if the labor cost is already priced in in the scrap value and the scrapper makes some profit...

JayinKitsap wrote:

The Navy recently sold two old carriers out of the mothball fleet, each for $ 1. The bidder needed to tow them to the breaking yard (had to be in US), comply with all of the environmental regs about lead, PCB's, and asbestos, all the labor to cut this up and ship out the scrap at the best prices possible. All told I am sure they are making at least 10% profit on the venture or they wouldn't be bidding regularly. The vast majority here is steel, but lots of other metals too. However, scrap steel is cents on the dollar, scrap aluminum is over a $1.

Scrapping in Turkey or worse, India/Pakistan/Bangladesh makes way more money for the ship owner. Most commercial vessels are cut up in those 4 countries. Many news articles exist on the appalling condones in those yards (except for Turkey).

Does anyone know if they scrap airliners in those countries ?

MohawkWeekend wrote:

JayinKitsap wrote:

The Navy recently sold two old carriers out of the mothball fleet, each for $ 1. The bidder needed to tow them to the breaking yard (had to be in US), comply with all of the environmental regs about lead, PCB's, and asbestos, all the labor to cut this up and ship out the scrap at the best prices possible. All told I am sure they are making at least 10% profit on the venture or they wouldn't be bidding regularly. The vast majority here is steel, but lots of other metals too. However, scrap steel is cents on the dollar, scrap aluminum is over a $1.

Scrapping in Turkey or worse, India/Pakistan/Bangladesh makes way more money for the ship owner. Most commercial vessels are cut up in those 4 countries. Many news articles exist on the appalling condones in those yards (except for Turkey).

Does anyone know if they scrap airliners in those countries ?

Agreed that scrappers around the world are the lowest of low - no safety, no regard to what flows into the water, or really any regard for anything.

The US government has strict rules on disposal if its property, must be scrapped in US following some rules. I recall most of the ship scrapping in the US is down near Brownsville, TX. All of the shipping vessels and cruise liners get scrapped deep in the 3rd world. They just hit the gas and ram the ship into the beach, slowly cut from the front to back from there.

I guess that's why I'm surprised that China hasn't gotten in on aircraft storage and scrapping. They have a desert for dry storage and the technical capability (aren't their MROs doing D check's on US airliners?) to remove parts in compliance with reuse requirements.