Airplane Graveyard

The fabled graveyard where those pachyderms of the sky amble off to die with one last bellow and a final feeble musth. Click the link for an awesomely zoomable Google Map.

Airplane Graveyard [Satellite Sightseer]

1. [Bob Doles Communist Doppelganger]

   I think a lot of those planes are actually in a state of preservation. In case some sort of non-nuclear third world war erupts or something and all of our new shiny planes get blown up.

   Interesting fact: the air force has extended the service lifetime of the B-52 bomber until at least 2050. So in 41 years, there’s going to be people flying around in hundred year old planes.

2. [dculberson]

   Ahh, timely! I wonder how much they want for the carcass of a C5 galaxy? I have an empty side yard to fill.

3. [nixiebunny]

   This is in my hometown, so I get to fly over it now and then or drive past it whenever I feel like going to that side of town.

   The planes are mostly mothballed, with some white plastic stuff over the windows and orifices. They can be resurrected, although I would hate to have to make one function properly. The hot, dry Tucson air renders all rubber stuff into a material resembling concrete after a couple decades.

   There are several surplus yards ringing the facility. They dismantle the planes and sell pieces. Southwest Liquidators is one, and they have an eBay presence. They charge too much, though.

   The Pima Air museum is right next door also, with a fantastic collection of old planes to crawl around and stare at up close.

4. [gewurztraminer]

   Fans of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas should immediately recognize this location.

5. [SuperMario__Galaxy]

   Hey, 2005 called – they want their news items back.

6. [David Carroll]

   This is an excellent excuse to re-post a link to some of Troy Paiva’s fantastic airplane carcass photos:

   http://www.flickr.com/photos/lostamerica/sets/72157594233060737/

7. [cabbotage]

   I toured this place (and if not this exact location than one exactly like it) several years ago. It was a little ~30 minute guided bus tour that drove you all around the grounds. It slowed down at a couple points, but you weren’t able to get out. most of the planes are indeed being stored, not scrapped.

   The surrounding plane surplus yards (that Nixiebunny mentions) are awesome, but the owners weren’t at all interested in letting us on the grounds to take photographs (though we tried to be very professional and ask for permission through the office). It is the equivalent of a scrap yard and they probably don’t want people wandering around. Regardless there are rows of 747s and the like that have had their cockpits removed via giant guillotine-like device (or so we were told). It’s awesome.

8. [Anonymous]

   #3 Yes, although some of those, center bottom, look like B52s with their wings cut off, presumably to comply with arms control agreements.

9. [bbonyx]

   @#5 – Shit, *1979* called and wants it’s zeitgeist back. (That’s when I moved to Tucson and made my first trip across town to Davis Monthan, anyway). In reality, I’m sure the graveyard had been there for 20 years before I showed up.

10. [dculberson]

    I did find some surplus C-141 Starlifters for sale locally from the Air Force. However, they were “demil only” meaning they could only be processed and sold as scrap. They had already cut the wings and tail off, and sausage-cut the fuselage. It was awesome and sad to look at.

    Unfortunately 141,000 pounds is a little much to deal with for even an ambitious DIYer to deal with. And I’m not sure if they would smile upon keeping the oddball piece intact for use as architectural accents. Numerous companies have had their contracts canceled for trying to sell components out of the scrap stream. I wanted a tail wing as an awning over my garage door. Sigh.

11. [chdunk]

    cool. must be crazy to live in the subdivision next door. for the boat version, point your google earth over to chittagong, bangladesh

12. [Anonymous]

    This guy has a great flickr set from one of these areas, and has used some plane parts for his house decor…

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/telstar/sets/32971/

13. [oldmanfury]

    Fun to look at with maps.live.com birdseye view… something I’m pretty sure most people haven’t stumbled upon yet.

    Just search for “avis-Monthan Air Force Base” and switch to the birds-eye view. Amazing (~1m res) perspective views.

14. [Anonymous]

    Here is a link to a Google maps satellite image of the commercial airplane graveyard outside Mojave, CA. It’s been there as long as I can remember… my family used to drive past it almost every summer in the 1970s to catch State 14 on the way to the Sierras.

    http://tinyurl.com/b4tpvg

15. [trickpony]

    Can we the creative common people turn these into awesome low-income housing communities?

16. [MichaelRN]

    Dead center of the picture to center-top looks like a row of F-111s. Swingwings!