11 Vintage Planes Bought In Big Horn County To Become Art, Scrap Or Land In Museums

"The Boneyard" near Big Horn County Airport is emptier than it was a month ago, but it's not going anywhere. 

Many of the 11 vintage aircraft recently sold in a Big Horn County auction still have some life left ahad of them. Some will become museum exhibits or art projects, while others are being scrapped. But most of the Greybull aviation “Boneyard” remains intact.

After a Public Surplus auction, 11 vintage aircraft owned by Big Horn County sold for more than $50,000.

Paul Thur, Big Horn County Airport manager, was pleasantly surprised by the diversity of the six buyers who bought the aircraft. The buyers include aircraft aficionados, scrappers, and an artist with soaring ambitions.

“It's more than I would have ever guessed," he told Cowboy State Daily. “I'm sure most people would agree they did not want everything to go through the shredder, and pretty much got our wish.

"Four of the six buyers are helping these aircraft live on somewhere else, so two-thirds of the aircraft aren't going to end up in a junk pile." 

Thur couldn't go into much detail on what the buyers say they are planning for their planes, but he’s eager to share what he can. Only two of the six were interested in stripping what they bought for scrap.  

"They're currently cutting up and stripping what they bought, recycling everything, and selling it to scrapers,” he said. “But those were mainly fuselages and incomplete aircraft. The intact ones are staying intact.”

Another buyer has already picked up two aircraft and two fuselages and taken them to Utah. Thur said that buyer intends to have those aircraft reassembled and put on public display in the near future. 

"The fourth bidder already took his one plane to Utah, and that one will be reassembled as well," he said. 

The sixth buyer is "an artist," said Thur, who has something ambitious in mind for the three largest aircraft in the auction.

"It's going to take him a while to get his project rolling, but the idea is that all three aircraft will be reassembled,” he said. “Everything's going fine with the removal process," he said. "No surprises or cans of worms.”

One thing Thur wanted Greybull and Wyoming residents to know is that the iconic Boneyard is there to stay. He's seen "fake news" that every aircraft was or will be taken away, but that has never been the case. 

"That's just patently false," he said. "Less than half the aircraft are going away, and the Boneyard will probably still be there long after we're all gone." 

Purchasing Planes

In September, Big Horn County put 16 World War II and Cold War-era aircraft up for auction. They were acquired after a lengthy legal battle with Harold Sheppard, the man who had been leasing the property but had not been paying rent.

Thur said the auction was arranged once the Wyoming Supreme Court gave the go-ahead. 

"We're just cleaning up the property," he said. "We would like to recover some legal fees and unpaid lease amounts, but at the end of the day, times are tough with the county, and anything helps."

When the auction ended, 12 items — 11 aircraft and a tanker — had met their reserve prices and were sold. Five aircraft didn't meet their reserve price by the auction's end, and several other items were pulled before it ended. 

Thur admitted that the $53,660 total was shy of the $58,000 the county was hoping for, but they can still bridge that gap. The five remaining aircraft and other items pulled from the auction will be put up for auction again sometime in 2026.

"The idea is to re-auction those items when the dust settles from everybody removing the items they've won," Thur said. 

That accounts for "less than half" of the aircraft residing at the Boneyard. The rest are owned by B&G Industries, an aircraft repair and fabrication company, and other entities that are still utilizing the planes and the property.

"That's around 60% of the Boneyard, as far as I know, that isn't going anywhere," Thur said.

Meanwhile, the aircraft sitting alongside U.S. Highway 14 are owned by the Museum of Flight and Aerial Firefighting. It already owned one example of each aircraft that was auctioned off, and those aren't going anywhere, either.

Could Be Quality

Gino Lucci, the owner of Round Engine Aero in Nashville, Michigan, was one of the six buyers. He recently visited Greybull to see the Lockheed P-2 Neptune he purchased. 

"We wanted to find out what kind of shape it was really in, since we bought it sight unseen," he said. "You can see pictures and videos on the auction site, but we wanted to see what's there. Can it be made flyable again? Is it museum quality, or are we going to find something else to do with it?" 

Lucci founded Round Engine Aero in 1996, specializing in the restoration of pre-1970 aircraft, for flying or display, and supplying parts to the antique aircraft community. His customers have ranged from amateur pilots to the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

One of Lucci's most ambitious projects is the "Fabulous Flamingo," a motorhome he made from the fuselage of a World War II-era Douglas R4D. He drove it to Greybull after acquiring the P-2 Neptune. 

"We're kind of nuts," Lucci said. "We know a fair amount of the guys in the business, and most of them don't have the desire to do that sort of thing."

Lucci's assessment of his P-2 Neptune is that it "can be museum-quality." He won't know for sure until it's disassembled and transported back to Michigan, where he can tinker with it and see what's possible. 

"When I say museum quality, that doesn't mean it's going to look like it is when it's done in a museum," he said. "The P-2 Neptune was an electronic warfare airplane, so we wanted to see if the key components, like seats and radio rack sets, were intact, and all that stuff's in there." 

Lucci said, at the very least, they'll be able to save the front half of the P-2 Neptune. That's the "business end" of any airplane, and what people find most appealing. 

"Anybody can go out there and just cut stuff, but we take them apart with the idea of somebody's going to fly this again, even if it'll never fly again," he said. "If there isn't enough stuff for a museum, we can make another vehicle out of it, at least." 

Trash And Treasure

There’s always an appetite for vintage aviation artifacts in “the warbird community,” as Lucci described it. Many of the buyers have made some money by selling pieces and parts.

Thur said most vintage aviation enthusiasts don’t have the room for a Boeing KC-97 Stratofreighter, but they'll eagerly buy a window or two.

"I've connected the buyers with people who've called about windows, doors, and other pieces and parts that they're selling," he said. "I'm not the middleman in those dealings anymore, but even some pieces from the scrapped aircraft will live on." 

Lucci got some sweet swag when he swung by the Boneyard while the scrappers were working. Their trash was his treasure.

"We bought an old 'Cigarettes Only in the Aircraft' sign from someone who was tearing up one of the airplanes we didn't buy," he said. "We'll put that in the Fabulous Flamingo when we do some upgrades this winter." 

Everywhere And Nowhere

According to Thur, two of the buyers have already picked up and taken off with the aircraft they acquired. The two scrappers should be finished within the next month, and Lucci and "the artist" have signed extensions giving them another year to get their acquisitions off-site. 

"They'll have until January 2027 to move their stuff," he said. 

Lucci said he'll be bringing his own team and equipment to move the P-2 Neptune, piece by piece, back to Michigan. Since its interior is surprisingly intact, he wants to be very deliberate about how the aircraft is disassembled. 

"A big part of our business is how to take the aircraft apart in a way that it can be put back together," he said. "There's quite a bit that goes into it, and there's really no place in Greybull where you can rent the equipment we need to disassemble it, so we'll take it apart on-site and truck it back over the course of next year."  

When Big Horn County sells the remaining five aircraft, that’ll be it for the aircraft auction. Everything else in the Boneyard is still being used for parts and restorations, and Thur said they're not going anywhere.  

"Less than half of the Boneyard is going away," he said. "And most of what we sold is going to be saved, reassembled, and displayed somewhere where the public can see it." 

Lucci admitted he didn't need a P-2 Neptune, but he's thrilled to have acquired the vintage aircraft, especially as it's in museum-quality condition. The opportunity was too good to pass up.

"We have more than enough stuff at home," he said. "This was an opportunity, and opportunities like this don't come by all the time. When it happens, you have to jump." 

Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.