Pima Air & Space Museum

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OK, if you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m trying to get caught up again so expect a number of blog entries over the next several hours.



Monday, Sept 24^th we devoted the whole day to the main reason for the trip, the Davis-Montham AFB boneyard and the Pima Air & Space Museum.



Fair warning; from here on its all airplanes.



The first activity of the day was a bus tour around the “boneyard”. Officially it is the aircraft storage facility operated by the 309^th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group. The main missions are store surplus aircraft for all branches of the US Military and to recycle material from those aircraft back to current users. For example, if the altimeter from an F-4 Phantom is the same as is used in an F-15, why buy a new one if you need a replacement. They say is one of the few units that generates a profit, although most of it comes from charging the receiving unit a price for the parts they get. However I think there is still a real economic benefit to US taxpayers. Somewhat surprisingly, although they do sell complete aircraft to friendly nations, they won’t sell to individuals. OK, that makes sense for B-52s and F-15s, but there are hundreds of C-130 transports and T-34C trainers that would have real value in the civilian market. Gone are the day’s when you could buy a surplus plane for the cost of the gas in its tanks.



Part of the bus tour (it’s way too big to just let folks wander around on foot) is a couple rows with one each of almost every aircraft that’s passed through since the ‘60s. Then row after row of stored aircraft. Since they are mostly stored by type this means a half mile long line with an array of the markings on recent aircraft. They also took us by the areas where the service aircraft both when they arrive and where they are returned to service if required. Finally there was the disassembly area where the aircraft are disassembled and scrapped.



Just across the road from the boneyard is the Pima Air & Space Museum comprising six public buildings and a large outside display on an 80 acre site. Their collection of about 300 aircraft is one of the largest in the US and includes several unique aircraft including the only remaining F-107, three B-52s and several ex-Presidential aircraft. Otherwise, I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

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Photos

B-47 at Pima
I'm a bit biased, but this is one of the best pictures I've ever taken.

Boeing 747 Rolls Royce Test at Tucson
I think this was an engine text aircraft based at Tucson International