Most people have probably heard of the Airplane Boneyard in the Arizona desert, a place where the US military keeps retired or damaged aircraft.  I had seen it on TV or in pictures a number of times, but had never realized that it was open — or at least partially open — to the public.  In fact, the tour is run by the Pima Air and Space Museum, which I think is even more interesting than the Boneyard itself!  I first visited the museum’s indoor displays, then took the Boneyard tour, then came back to the museum’s outdoor displays, so that’s the way the pictures below are organized.  A list of some of the aircraft currently on display at the museum can be found here (http://www.pimaair.org/visit/new-aircraft-list), but I think there are a lot more there than are listed!  There are also virtual tours on the web site.

Now I’ve never considered myself much of an expert on airplanes, and this experience proved my ignorance pretty emphatically.  I recognized quite a few… but had never even heard of many others.  And as for their characteristics and capabilities, I’m pretty much in the dark about all of them.  Still, being a fan of big machinery and creative engineering, I had a great time!  But I’m not going to display my ignorance by trying to provide you with too much information about the planes I saw.  The pictures below are just a collection of planes that I personaly found interesting, along with occasionally some small information that I gleaned.

SR-71A Blackbird, reconnaissance aircraft built by Lockheed Skunk Works.  Made of titanium, can reach mach 3+, and pretty much needs to refuel every hour and a half.

A-10A Thunderbolt, also known as the Warthog, highly efficient tank killer with a 30 mm rotary cannon.

AH-15 Cobra.

Seasprite, tucked up and ready for transport.

F-107A

Cyclone 14 rotary engine, 14 cylinder, 1,700 HP.

Polish MiG-15UTI turbojet.

Having played with the Thunderbirds in the past when I worked for the USAF, I love these.  They had a Blue Angel too.

The Boneyard tour was a bus trip to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.  The correct name for the facility is the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG), and it currently holds over 4,000 planes, with the number growing yearly.  There are a number of reasons why Tucson Arizona makes a good location for storage, including the dry desert climate, and also the hard soil, which makes additional support for the planes unnecessary.  There are two sections at the site, one for aircraft that could potentially be used again, and the other for planes that can only be used for spare parts.  And if you’re wondering why the government would bother with the expense of keeping this facility and all these planes, the tour guide told us that for every $1 spent on the facility, there’s an estimated savings of $8-$9 to the government.

After entering the base, the tour bus first travels down “Celebrity Row,” which the tour guide narrates by giving a plane-by-plane account of what they were used for, their strengths and weaknesses.  Unfortunately, the row is only travelled one way, so I didn’t get a clear view of some of the bigger planes on the other side.  Still, it was pretty awesome, like having this C-5 looking in the window.

Once again, there were many many many planes there, so these are just a smattering of the ones I personally found most interesting.

The P-3 Orion.

F-117 Stealth Fighter.  Hee hee hee.  We were told that, jokes aside, the real reason it’s not on display is that the heat and UV would break down the stealth coating, so it’s kept in a hanger somewhere.

And somewhere along Celebrity Row I realized that I didn’t have a clue what I was looking at, so here are some pretty pictures….

A fleet of C-130s.

Apparently about a third of the C-5 fleet has been retired, and there were several areas where they were stored.

I have no idea what this is, but I thought is was cool, so here it is.

More C-5s.

There were a few commercial 707 airplanes there, also collected and kept for spare parts.  We were told that, even if the US no longer uses an aircraft, and so has no need for the spare parts, they will be kept as long as allies are still using them, like the C-4.

In some places we could see parts being taken from the planes.

Bunch of A-10s.

There was also an area containing other equipment and vehicles, that the military would be selling as surplus.  If you ever wanted to buy an ex-military hummer, you can check out the stock at http://www.govliquidation.com/.

Back at the Pima Museum, I explored the outdoor exhibits, and found some interesting planes.  Like this Banshee photo reconnaissance plane.

And they had three Harrier jump jets in different configurations!

I had heard of the Peacemaker B-36 bomber, but it’s absolutely MASSIVE in person!

Here’s me next to the wheel for scale.

There was also a section for Airborne Early Warning (AEW) aircraft.  The first half of my career was spent in this field, particularly working on Joint STARS and AWACS improvements, but unfortunately they didn’t have either of those planes… aww.  But this Avro Shackleton was cool.

Oh look, a Fairey…

This Stratofreighter tanker was pretty massive too.

It doesn’t get much weirder than the Super Guppy, five stories high, and used for carrying outsize cargo such as the lunar module!

As I was catching some shade under the wing of the a Navy plane, I saw this one nearby, and couldn’t help but wonder what stories it could tell, and who it might have transported.

There were so many more planes, some huge, some sleek, some just plain weird.  But I think I’ll stop here and just say that if you’re a plane fan… you need to go here!  I enjoyed it immensely, even with my limited knowledge.  A true plane connoisseur could live here..