He estimates that as many as 90 percent of those planes will go back into service again.

Don't hold your breath, buddy.

The military (pops and scroll down) has been doing this since the end of WWII. Commercial aviation soon followed. Still cool!

Boneyards!

Too bad the airline's problems won't fit in the trunk of a Cadillac.

Saw one of these yards heading into Roswell, NM. Thought it was an alien sighting. I was wrong.

© It was a streetlamp

"make my way back home when I learn to fly..."

The desert? I thought it was the Hudson River?

I thought this was going to be about blue ice.

/Frozen poop thread

That would be an interesting archaeological find several millenia from now.

this was a feature story on Yahoo yesterday, word for word, with Ap byline.

So, is all news now going to be exactly the same? Hell, if AP wants to, they could cut out all the middlemen, and take over all the adblocked ad revenue for themselves...

On Google maps (new window)

Fear_and_Loathing: The military (pops and scroll down) has been doing this since the end of WWII.

One reason for the military bone yards is so that soviet satellites could see that we were destroying the number of planes we agreed to destroy when we signed the strategic arms limitation treaty (SALT).

"A lot of holes in the desert, and a lot of problems are buried in those holes...But you gotta do it right. I mean, you gotta have the hole already dug before you show up with a package in the trunk. Otherwise, you're talking about a half-hour to forty-five minutes worth of digging. And who knows who's gonna come along in that time? Pretty soon, you gotta dig a few more holes. You could be there all farkin' night..."

Tofu: One reason for the military bone yards is so that soviet satellites could see that we were destroying the number of planes we agreed to destroy when we signed the strategic arms limitation treaty (SALT).

Yup, if you look on Google Maps (new window) you can see some B-52s that have been guillotined for the purpose. They basically drop a big steel cutting blade from a crane, and hack off the wings, tail, and cockpit and leave them there for 90 days so the Russians can photograph them.

A fun exercise for me is going through these satellite photos and seeing how many aircraft I can identify, including finding stuff that's long out of service but for some reason not scrapped yet.

Tofu: Fear_and_Loathing: The military (pops and scroll down) has been doing this since the end of WWII.

One reason for the military bone yards is so that soviet satellites could see that we were destroying the number of planes we agreed to destroy when we signed the strategic arms limitation treaty (SALT).

David-Mothan was storing aircraft long before they used it to destroy b-52s. It is a use, not a reason.

Fear_and_Loathing: The military (pops and scroll down) has been doing this since the end of WWII. Commercial aviation soon followed. Still cool!

Boneyards!

Davis-Mothan is not a boneyard. All planes stored there (except for some unfortunate b-52s) are preserved so that they can fly again if needed. It takes less than a week to get them back in the air.

I'd fly more if it WASN'T SO F*CKING MISERABLE!

/like, duh, n' stuff.

nicksteel: Davis-Mothan is not a boneyard. All planes stored there (except for some unfortunate b-52s) are preserved so that they can fly again if needed. It takes less than a week to get them back in the air.

You mean like this lineup (new window)?

From left to right:

F-111
TR-1
B-57 Canberra
F-16 (prob. an A model)
F-8 Crusader
F-105
RF-101
T-37
Not sure
F-14

Maybe that's some sort of "Museum Row". They do some scrapping at AMARC- they disassemble a lot of airframes and stash their parts as well.

One thing that's striking is how many F-4s there are (still in service with friendly air forces, good source for spare parts). F-14s are also showing up there, and they're all going to be broken up for scrap as the DoD doesn't want any of their spares entering the arms market (because Iran would love to get more of theirs flyable).

I also spotted some S-2 Trackers, which a few foreign naval air forces are using, and are popular water bombers as well. Lots of P-3 Orions too.

I live a few miles from O'Hare airport and am watching one of United's soon to be scrapped 737s fly by right now so I'm really getting....

ctobio: nicksteel: Davis-Mothan is not a boneyard. All planes stored there (except for some unfortunate b-52s) are preserved so that they can fly again if needed. It takes less than a week to get them back in the air.

You mean like this lineup (new window)?

From left to right:

F-111
TR-1
B-57 Canberra
F-16 (prob. an A model)
F-8 Crusader
F-105
RF-101
T-37
Not sure
F-14

Maybe that's some sort of "Museum Row". They do some scrapping at AMARC- they disassemble a lot of airframes and stash their parts as well.

One thing that's striking is how many F-4s there are (still in service with friendly air forces, good source for spare parts). F-14s are also showing up there, and they're all going to be broken up for scrap as the DoD doesn't want any of their spares entering the arms market (because Iran would love to get more of theirs flyable).

I also spotted some S-2 Trackers, which a few foreign naval air forces are using, and are popular water bombers as well. Lots of P-3 Orions too.

Having actually been to Davis-Mothan, as opposed to a overhead shot from Google, I can tell you that the planes you see in storage are all flyable within a week.

I'd imagine these guys would be rather excited to have more materials available

ctobio: You mean like this lineup (new window)?

That is awesome. A lot of decommissioned F-111's. I am suprised at the number of B-57 Canberra's there. I didn't think there were that many left.

Goodyear Arizona for the win!

I figured this was going to be about Marana.

ctobio: Tofu: One reason for the military bone yards is so that soviet satellites could see that we were destroying the number of planes we agreed to destroy when we signed the strategic arms limitation treaty (SALT).

Yup, if you look on Google Maps (new window) you can see some B-52s that have been guillotined for the purpose. They basically drop a big steel cutting blade from a crane, and hack off the wings, tail, and cockpit and leave them there for 90 days so the Russians can photograph them.

A fun exercise for me is going through these satellite photos and seeing how many aircraft I can identify, including finding stuff that's long out of service but for some reason not scrapped yet.

When I was at Arizona in the early 90s, a B-52 would fly low and slow over campus (the approach pattern for DM on most days) once or twice a week for a while. You knew it was its final flight. Cool to get to see them and know they were no longer needed, but a little sad at the same time; like watching an old samurai going off to commit seppuku.

It was also cool driving out along Kolb and Golf Links to see the boneyard. Although in theory they were supposed to be able to refurbish them for duty, you knew those F-4s were never going to leave the ground again.

ctobio: T-37
Not sure
F-14

I'd guess it's a Mig, probably 17.

ctobio

From left to right:
TR-1 That's a WB-57(new window), a B-57 derivative. The wing is too fat to be a U2/TR-1.

Not sure F-100

Greenville: The desert? I thought it was the Hudson River?

Used to be Toms River, NJ until I-80 was completed; then it moved out to the bridge over the river at White Haven, PA.

ctobio: nicksteel: Davis-Mothan is not a boneyard. All planes stored there (except for some unfortunate b-52s) are preserved so that they can fly again if needed. It takes less than a week to get them back in the air.

You mean like this lineup (new window)?

From left to right:

F-111
TR-1
B-57 Canberra
F-16 (prob. an A model)
F-8 Crusader
F-105
RF-101
T-37
Not sure
F-14

Maybe that's some sort of "Museum Row". They do some scrapping at AMARC- they disassemble a lot of airframes and stash their parts as well.

One thing that's striking is how many F-4s there are (still in service with friendly air forces, good source for spare parts). F-14s are also showing up there, and they're all going to be broken up for scrap as the DoD doesn't want any of their spares entering the arms market (because Iran would love to get more of theirs flyable).

I also spotted some S-2 Trackers, which a few foreign naval air forces are using, and are popular water bombers as well. Lots of P-3 Orions too.

holy crap! Are any of those servicable? That's bigger than most nation's air forces. By far.

Phantom's (F-4) - are taken out of the desert on a regular basis to be used as drones for target practice by either the Army or the Air Force.

http://www.airspacemag.com/military-aviation/Where-Have-All-the-Phantoms-Gone.h t ml

Returned to service - some aircraft that have been 'bagged' - could be back in service in a week. But most of the aircraft that are basically shrink wrapped - would take longer (a month).

Looking to the sky to save me...

Organized crime and the airline industry?

How about Uncle Sam?

The Deseret Chemical Depot is a U.S. Army chemical weapon storage area located in Utah, 60 miles (100 km) southwest of Salt Lake City. It is related to the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility. (new window)

Yucca Mountain is a mountain in Nevada. It was the proposed site for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository from 1987 to 2009. (new window)

The Hawthorne Army Depot is a huge U.S. Army ammunition storage site located near the town of Hawthorne in western Nevada in the United States. (new window)

The state has begun testing at the Boardman Bombing Range [Oregon] south of town to check for potentially dangerous chemicals in the ground water. (new window)

White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) is a rocket range of almost 3,200 square miles (8,300 km2) in area, the largest military installation in the United States. WSMR includes the Oscura Range and the WSMR Otera Mesa bombing range.[4] (new window)

The Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range (formerly Luke Air Force Range) is a bombing range in the U.S. state of Arizona that runs along the Mexican border. (new window)

DENVER - The chairman of the House Oversight Committee has asked the Army to explain why it targeted 49 square miles to add to a southeast Colorado training site [Pinyon Canyon] and whether it plans to lease the land instead of buy it. (new window)

Francis E. Warren Air Force Base (IATA: FEW, ICAO: KFEW, FAA LID: FEW) is a United States Air Force base located two miles (3 km) west of the central business district of Cheyenne, in Laramie County, Wyoming, United States.[2] It was named in honor of Francis E. Warren, Wyoming's first state governor. The host wing is the 90th Missile Wing, which operates the LGM-30 Minuteman ICBM, with silos in Southeast Wyoming, Western Nebraska, and Northern Colorado. (new window)



And so on.

Wiring, salvage depends upon the type of insulation on their wiring.

What do the airline industry and organized crime have in common? They both prefer to forget about their "problems" in the desert
or corn fields...

Weaps: ctobio: T-37
Not sure
F-14

I'd guess it's a Mig, probably 17.

wmac152: ctobio

From left to right:
TR-1 That's a WB-57(new window), a B-57 derivative. The wing is too fat to be a U2/TR-1.

Not sure F-100



I don't think the "not sure" plane is a MiG-17 or an F-100. Look at where the leading edge of the wings meet the fuselage relative to the canopy. On the MiG, the junction is right under the middle of the canopy. On the F-100, the junction is at the rear edge of the canopy. In whatever plane is pictured in the Google Earth picture, there's a LOT of fuselage forward of the leading edge of the wings, and the canopy is well forward of the wing edge/fuselage junction.

I think the "not sure" plane is actually some variant of the F-8 "Crusader":

ctobio: nicksteel: Davis-Mothan is not a boneyard. All planes stored there (except for some unfortunate b-52s) are preserved so that they can fly again if needed. It takes less than a week to get them back in the air.

You mean like this lineup (new window)?

From left to right:

F-111
TR-1
B-57 Canberra
F-16 (prob. an A model)
F-8 Crusader
F-105
RF-101
T-37
Not sure
F-14

Maybe that's some sort of "Museum Row". They do some scrapping at AMARC- they disassemble a lot of airframes and stash their parts as well.

One thing that's striking is how many F-4s there are (still in service with friendly air forces, good source for spare parts). F-14s are also showing up there, and they're all going to be broken up for scrap as the DoD doesn't want any of their spares entering the arms market (because Iran would love to get more of theirs flyable).

I also spotted some S-2 Trackers, which a few foreign naval air forces are using, and are popular water bombers as well. Lots of P-3 Orions too.

That line up IS a sort of collection of one of everything they have had. You can get a special bus tour of DM's boneyard, you sign up at the Pima Air Museum just south of the base.

Kind of depressing when you consider what those T-34's would be like to fly, or some of those other fun ones - one in that row was an early variant of spy plane and they still use a couple of them for Shuttle flights...because they have special high altitude cameras.

There's enough C-130's parked there to start a major airline..jetprop of course.

nicksteel:
Having actually been to Davis-Mothan, as opposed to a overhead shot from Google, I can tell you that the planes you see in storage are all flyable within a week.


"Flyable", I'll grant you. But after seeing what it took in my last air wing to get a plane back in regular rotation after being a "hangar queen" for only 6-9 months, I'd bet that most of those planes wouldn't be ready in a week for anything more than target drone duty. Getting any of them FMC (fully mission-capable) would take much longer than a week, if it could be reasonably done at all.

I believe the plane that people haven't been able to identify is the F-105 Thunderchief.

Does it still count if your starboard hanger is a boneyard?

VibeRader: I believe the plane that people haven't been able to identify is the F-105 Thunderchief.


Nah - the F-105 has much more space between the wings and the horizontal stabilizers, a much more pointed nose, and the canopy is further away from the tip of the nose. Plus, it has the air inlet "spikes" where the leading edges of the wings join the fuselage:

ScottRiqui: VibeRader: I believe the plane that people haven't been able to identify is the F-105 Thunderchief.


Nah - the F-105 has much more space between the wings and the horizontal stabilizers, a much more pointed nose, and the canopy is further away from the tip of the nose. Plus, it has the air inlet "spikes" where the leading edges of the wings join the fuselage:

You are correct, sir. And if I had looked just three planes to the left, voila, the F-105.

Duh - I missed that as well. And rather than worrying about things like the nose & wings, I should have known the mystery plane couldn't have been an F-105 because if were, it would be longer than the F-14 parked next to it.

There plenty of cars out there dumped out in the desert near there too. You can see prime examples of 80s and 90s electric cars for instance that the big three domestic car manufacturers took back of everyone and left to rust in the desert.

I don't think the "not sure" plane is a MiG-17 or an F-100. ...In whatever plane is pictured in the Google Earth picture, there's a LOT of fuselage forward of the leading edge of the wings, and the canopy is well forward of the wing edge/fuselage junction.

Look at the shadow of the nose - F100, probably a 2 seat F. Where else do you see an nose intake as wide as a Hun?

I don't think the "not sure" plane is a MiG-17 or an F-100. ...In whatever plane is pictured in the Google Earth picture, there's a LOT of fuselage forward of the leading edge of the wings, and the canopy is well forward of the wing edge/fuselage junction.



It's an F-100. Compare wing position & shape & elevator shape, couple that w/ a blunt nose and I think it's a done deal.

Look at where the wings hit the fuselage relative to the canopy. The "mystery plane" has way too much fuselage forward of the wings to be an F-100.

F-100:


F-8:


It does look like the nose-tip has been taken off, though.

Actually, looking at the shadow of the front part of the fuselage rather than the fuselage itself, what I took to be the canopy bulge near the very front must be something else. The shadow of the bulge obviously places it further back than I thought, closer to the leading edges of the wings.


I agree that it's an F-100.

ScottRiqui: nicksteel:
Having actually been to Davis-Mothan, as opposed to a overhead shot from Google, I can tell you that the planes you see in storage are all flyable within a week.


"Flyable", I'll grant you. But after seeing what it took in my last air wing to get a plane back in regular rotation after being a "hangar queen" for only 6-9 months, I'd bet that most of those planes wouldn't be ready in a week for anything more than target drone duty. Getting any of them FMC (fully mission-capable) would take much longer than a week, if it could be reasonably done at all.

I'd take that bet. For one thing, YOU have no idea what condition the planes are in. They are not hangar queens. They were all prepped before they went into storage to insure that getting them back in service would not take long.

Looking at the Davis-Mothan boneyard is always entertaining... but am I seeing things, or did someone draw 'HI MOM' (upside down from the satellite's perspective) with some sort of tracked vehicle in the ground?


Link to Google Map 'HI MOM'

Dorkas: Looking at the Davis-Mothan boneyard is always entertaining... but am I seeing things, or did someone draw 'HI MOM' (upside down from the satellite's perspective) with some sort of tracked vehicle in the ground?


Link to Google Map 'HI MOM'

No, it says

WOW
IH

I think it's Yiddish.