Reward Offered; Crooks May Have Just Wanted Trailer

This hasn't been the best week when it comes to bad things happening to good airplanes. Just as ANN received word that vandals struck 11 planes parked at New Jersey's Monmouth Executive Airport sometime between Sunday night and Monday morning, a News-Spy tipped us off about the theft last week of some 2,500 pounds of vintage aircraft parts near Falcon Field in Mesa, AZ.

Robert Kropp is affiliated with the Wingspan Aviation Heritage Foundation, a not-for-profit museum located in Mesa, AZ. He filled us in this week on what happened to some valuable aircraft parts belonging to the organization.

"The Mesa Police Department is seeking information on the following theft of a dual axle low-profile trailer containing approximately 2,500 pounds of vintage Lockheed fixed-wing aircraft parts reported stolen July 14. Items reported missing are 1940s and 1950s vintage Lockheed aircraft wings -- most notably a complete 36' aircraft wing section from a T-33 trainer as removed from a locked and fenced storage compound located one block east of Mesa's Falcon Field municipal airport."

Kropp says the aircraft wings were strapped onto an open 28' trailer, in a storage lot next door to the airfield. The trailer was last noted at the site, 5601 East Hermosa Vista Drive, Wednesday, July 9. The items stored on the trailer were uncovered, and visible from both the ground and air.

More details: the trailer contained two strapped aircraft wings, one stacked on top of the other. The upper aircraft wing is painted silver, and has a national "star and bars" insignia on one end and block lettering "USAF" on the other end. This wing obscured yet another Lockheed aircraft wing -- a right-hand wing panel off a PV-2 -- cradled underneath the upper wing section. Both components were secured on the trailer with cargo straps.

The components are fabricated from aircraft-grade aluminum -- making them appealing targets for theft, with scrap metal prices going through the roof. However, Kropp adds, that may not have been the motive. Area scrap metal dealers report that as of Monday, no one had tried to sell them the parts; the thinking now is that the crooks may have just wanted the trailer, and not necessarily the wings.

Anyone with information about this incident is encouraged to call the Mesa PD at (480) 644-2211, and refer to the following case numbers -- DR #20081960305, DR #20081960354, and DR #20081960332. The Foundation is offering a $1,000 reward for the safe return of these valuable pieces of aviation history.

(Photos courtesy of Robert Kropp)

FMI: www.wingspanair.org/