Golden Junk?

The runways and revetments of the Stillwater, Okla. airfield were crowded with 475 surplus bombers and fighters which once cost the U.S. $117,000,000. In Oklahoma City this week, chunky, cigar-smoking Paul Mantz of Los Angeles bought this mighty air armada, which included 228 Liberators and 78 Flying Fortresses. The price: $55,000.

A veteran stunt flyer, Paul Mantz is no novice at making money on war-weary aircraft. His United Air Services, Ltd. already owns 22 flyable World War I planes, rents them to movie companies. He also runs a charter service out of Los Angeles from which he has taken in some $2,000,000 since 1929.

Mantz will save about 75 of his planes to rent to movie companies at $100 to $300 a day, scrap the rest. He estimates that the aluminum alone will bring in $160,000; manufacturers of novelty jewelry will buy the plexiglass for 10-c- a pound, etc. Mantz hopes to make $1,350,000 on his junk deal. But the Reconstruction Finance Corp. thought that he was a bit optimistic. Its estimate of the scrap value of Mantz's planes: $45,000.

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