SOUTHWESTERN ALLOYS
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outhwestern Alloys Corporation was established in 1945 as a division of National Metals & Smelting Co. Up until 1970, like numerous other local salvage companies, Southwestern Alloys conducted their scrapping and recovery business inside Davis-Monthan AFB, however, government clean air legislation introduced later that year brought a stop to on-base smelting. Although the breaking up of airframes did carry on, any furnace operation to recover the metals had to be moved from the base. Faced with this, Southwestern took up residence immediately outside the base perimeter, in premises close to their original operation but now working on the east side of S. Kolb Road. At the time, Southwestern possessed
the only civilian-operated guillotine large enough to handle entire airframes and had the only operating smelter near the base. As a result, the yard became very busy with the disposal of huge numbers of post-war aircraft and was later responsible for the ultimate demise of almost all of the B-36s, B-66s and B-58s stored in the MASDC, together with huge numbers of C-121s, C-124s, Convair T-29 and C-131s and Navy F-9 Cougars. Southwestern’s business became a mix of chopping, smelting, aircraft dismantling, parts removal and parts shipping. As with all companies, bids for aircraft were usually done via the US Government’s General Services Administration (GSA), once all airframe and engine parts reclamation by the military had been completed.
At this point, airframes were turned over to the Defense Property Disposal Service (DPDS), who had a regional disposal office (DPDO) based at Davis-Monthan, which administered the auction sales. Southwestern’s bids were made to suit their capabilities, given they had the only furnace for many years, hence the yard’s appetite for scrap metal rather than restoration. Like many of the salvage companies, bids placed on aircraft at auction were based on expected parts resale value or what the scrap metal was worth. Ancillary components, such as wiring, were sold to companies who would strip and recover copper and precious metals used in the wire and connector pins. In October 1982 the yard contained no fewer than 28 various Convair T-29 variants,
one C-131B, one C-121J, two C-119Fs, eight HUP-2 Retriever helicopters, one UH-34, two T-2B Buckeyes and the dismantled remains of 26 F-8 Crusaders, two F-100Fs and the nose section of a B-52F. Quite a cache for the first yard visited! During 1986, Southwestern Alloys Corporation was renamed National Aircraft Inc. and at the same time acquired property alongside the existing Dross Metals (DMI) premises on E. Nebraska Street, on the south-western side of Davis-Monthan. Southwestern Alloys’ very prominent location, on the side of South Kolb Road, directly opposite the base perimeter fence of Davis-Monthan made the acceptance of airframes very straightforward, with corresponding gates on the base perimeter fence directly opposite Southwestern’s entrance.
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