Aviation Archaeology - As A Profession

As A Profession

In America aviation archaeologists, crosstrained in other areas of study, are found in the employ of Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), traveling to former war zones throughout the world, to search for the remains of American servicemen and women that have been lost. Many of these losses involve aircraft mishaps in remote and difficult to reach areas. A group of volunteers, under the banner of "The BentProp Project", have pursued American military wreck sites and remains without disturbing them; their findings are forwarded to JPAC. In Australia and in some other parts of the world, where there are human remains involved, a tendency has been for the armed forces to secure the services of forensic anthropologists and crash investigators.

Professional aviation archaeologists may also be involved in the recovery of near-complete examples of wrecked or abandoned aircraft for profit. The clients of these professionals range from private individuals and aviation museums, to government agencies. Often these aircraft are in remote areas, which aids wreckage preservation. Examples include Glacier Girl, a Lockheed P-38 that was successfully recovered from below the Greenland ice cap, and restored to airworthy condition, and Kee Bird, a B-29 Superfortress also abandoned on the Greenland ice cap, but severely damaged by recovery efforts.

In June 2009, the Wreckchasing/Aviation Archaeology Symposium, on the topic of wreckchasing and aviation archaeology was held in northern California at Moffett Field near Mountain View.