Boneyard planes get a new beginning

Twelve items sold in Big Horn County’s online airplane auction last month, bringing in $53,660. This is slightly short of the projected $58,000, but with five items still unsold, there is potential for another auction to generate more revenue. 

“Most everything will be put to some kind of use other than going through the shredder,” South Big Horn County Airport Manager Paul Thur said. “I don’t know if anybody cared, but I didn’t want anything to go through the shredder.”

Five bidders purchased the planes, which became county property earlier this year after their former owner, Harold Sheppard Jr. of Sheppard Trucking, failed to pay rent for storing them at the airport’s “boneyard.” Prior to that, most are believed to have belonged to Hawkins & Powers Aviation’s fleet, used largely for parts. 

 Of the 12 sold, only four fuselages and one tanker will be scrapped by two of the winning bidders. One of the winners is hoping to purchase another plane at a later date; their intentions are to be determined. The new owner of the three largest aircraft is an artist, Thur reported, and will not scrap them. 

Three aircraft that have been spotted traveling through town via truck and trailer in recent weeks are on their way to Utah. Thur kept the buyer’s plans private but noted that they will be reassembled.  “I definitely am going to go see these aircraft in Utah once they’re put back together and doing whatever they’re doing,” he said. 

Two buyers will keep their purchases on county land for all of next year following commissioner approval on Tuesday. The final five aircraft will be put back up for auction “once the dust settles” on the latest sale, Thur said.