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Wyoming County Auctioning Vintage Aircraft

Prices range from $25 to $500 per airplane.

A KC-97 set for auction by Big Horn County.
A KC-97 set for auction by Big Horn County. [Public Surplus via YouTube]
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Key Takeaways:

  • Big Horn County, Wyoming, is auctioning 16 vintage military and civilian aircraft, predominantly from the WWII/Cold War era, with starting bids as low as $25.
  • The sale aims to clear the property and recover legal fees and unpaid lease amounts after the county won a four-year legal dispute over land where the planes were stored.
  • Most aircraft are in poor, non-airworthy condition, appealing primarily to collectors for parts or nostalgia, or to scrap dealers for materials, rather than for restoration to flight.
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Wyoming’s Big Horn County has a unique problem on its hands—16 vintage aircraft in various states of disassembly, and no way to properly store or make use of them. So county officials turned to the internet and are now in the process of auctioning the airplanes to interested members of the public, some for as little as $25.

On PublicSurplus.com, potential buyers can browse and place bids on the aircraft, most of which date to World War II or the Cold War. Among the lots are Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcars, Lockheed P-2 Neptunes, Boeing KC-97 Stratofreighters, Martin 4-0-4s, and a Lockheed C-130 Hercules. Most are in poor condition, having been stripped for parts over the years, and in some cases only the fuselage remains.

Zach Vasile

Zach Vasile is a writer and editor covering news in all aspects of aviation. He has reported for and contributed to the Manchester Journal Inquirer, the Hartford Business Journal, the Charlotte Observer, and the Washington Examiner, with his area of focus being the intersection of business and government policy.

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