During WWII, the US became very efficient at building aircraft for the war effort. All those Rosie the Riveters rose to the occasion and did a damn fine job. But more were produced than needed, as we can see from this May 22, 1946 aerial shot of the warplane dismantling operation set up near what is now known as Chino Airport but what was back then known as the Chino Army Airfield. I tried to count how many aircraft we can see in this photo, but gave up after 100.
They’re lucky they had the room for it back then. Chino is around 35 miles east of LA and these days is far more developed, as we can see in this May 2019 satellite photo.
This facility was the location for the concluding “epiphany” scene with Dana Andrews inside the nose of a scrapped B-17 bomber in the 1946 film THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES.
Well now we can understand why War Of The Worlds had the aliens first touching down in Carbon Canyon. They probably scouted out the base with a “weather balloon” to get some recon before sending the invading forces close enough to do some serious dismantling work.