What happened to all the retired aircraft when COVID-19 hit?
The other day we were driving past the Cotswold Airport in Kemble, and unexpectedly came face-to-face with a long line of retired planes!
It looks like Kemble airfield is being used to store a lot of aircraft at the moment since they aren’t flying passengers around the world, including a few retired British Airways 747s.
There were 6 BA 747s at the Kemble Cotswold Airplane Boneyard as far as I could see.
Since Covid has hit, 747s have suddenly become a lot more rare, with the airlines abandoning them in favour of the newer more efficient twin-engine planes.
Apparently there are another 14 of these at Cardiff Airport at the moment also waiting to be dismantled.
There were quite a few other aircraft being stored at Kemble, I assume also waiting to be dismantled, or in storage until hopefully the demand picks up again.
What will happen to these planes?
Most of these aircraft are at the Kemble aircraft graveyard waiting to be dismantled and recycled by Air Salvage International.
I’ve had a look, and while most of their work is around salvage and scrap, it turns out they’ve been known to recycle old planes as film props, some of their aircraft have appeared in Fast and Furious 6 and World War Z, and one of their planes is even at Thorpe Park as a piece of theming for The Swarm rollercoaster!
Where can you see them?
You can see these 747s for yourself if you’re in the Cotswolds area – just head to Kemble Cotswold Airport on the A429, and then.. Well you can’t miss them.
You can park up where the taxiway crosses the main road and see the planes through the fence.
Thank you for reading 🙂
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