I had a doctor in Grapevine, Texas tell me when he was a kid, his father and he visited the WWII aircraft boneyard where you could purchase any single-engine aircraft for $300-$500.
And B-17’s for $ 3, 000 or so.
I saw a show on “The Military Channel” a week or so back about the P-40.
I remember they said the Army approved the purchase of the first batch, I can’t recall how many but it was a substantial number.
What really surprised me was the total cost was in the several hundred thousand dollar range. Talk about inflation, they bought an entire fleet of fighters for much less than even a single jet trainer would cost now.