As the world-wide efforts of WWII progressed towards its ultimate conclusion a dilemma of what to do with a gigantic supply of surplus military equipment arose. The U.S. Government faced the immense problem concerning the disposal of surplus military equipment and real estate in such a magnitude as no country had ever before experienced.

Faced with the probability of disposing over 200,000 military aircraft alone, it also faced the requirement to shed itself of aircraft factories, military airfields, trucks, jeeps, surplus food stuffs, and a myriad of other items.

As early as 1942 the U.S. Government had begun discussion of this gigantic potential problem that eventually led to the creation of several government agencies to handle this task. The Surplus Property Act was passed by the U.S. Congress in February 1944 and the Surplus Property Administration (SWPA) was subsequently established later that year. That organization spawned a series of follow-on groups that eventually culminated with the War Assets Administration (WAA) that was established post-war in 1946.[1]

Huge aircraft storage facilities were established throughout the U.S. such as those at Ontario, Calif., Kingman, Ariz., Oklahoma City and Walnut Ridge, Arkansas. At these locations covering hundreds of acres of land, rows upon rows of surplus B-17s, B-24s, P-40s, A-20s, C-47s, etc. and every other imaginal type military airplane could be seen stretching into infinity. Eventually much smaller quantities of various surplus airplanes were also stored at smaller facilities throughout the country.

By the latter days of WWII when it became obvious that victory was in sight, numerous brand new airplanes fresh off the factory production lines often were flown directly to various storage sites for later disposition.

Eventually sales events were held at many of these storage sites, large and small, and these various types of aircraft were auctioned off at bargain prices. Surprisingly, the airplane in greatest demand was the Boeing/Stearman PT/N2S open-cockpit two-place Primary Trainer. The demand for the available Stearmans was so great that lotteries often had to be held just to select the eventual bidders.2 The Stearmans were the airplane of choice of the many agricultural spraying companies around the country and were the ideal airplane to be converted into a crop-duster.

Another surprising airplane that was in demand was the Vultee BT-13. That interest was not so much for the airplane itself, but rather for its Pratt & Whitney R-985, 450-hp engine. The many crop dusting companies wanted this engine to install into their Stearmans in place of their original Continental 220-hp or Lycoming 225-hp engines. In the years following the end of WWII it was not at all uncommon to see engine-less derelict BT-13 airframes pushed off and abandoned in the grass at many airfields around the country.

The former U.S. Navy Stearmans featured in this article were ferried from their war-time bases to Naval Outlying Field Cabaniss, located three miles southwest of NAS Corpus Christi, Texas. Cabaniss is still an active U.S. Navy Auxiliary Field today.

The first five Stearmans that would eventually be purchased by the Brevard County Mosquito Control Board were ferried from Cabaniss Field, Tex., almost halfway across the Continental United States to Charleston, N.C., a distance of approximately 1,245 statute miles. They were stored at the Reconstruction Finance Corporation Sales Center at the Cannon Aircraft Sales and Service facility at Cannon Airport awaiting sale.3 These five Stearmans were all Navy N2S-3s . . .