The Mojave Desert's Airplane Graveyard

http://blogs.static.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/33186.html

by ColinWright • 15 years ago

10 5 15 years ago

blogs.static.mentalfloss.com

[Pointing it out because it's way towards the end]: Second-to-last image hints at the Virgin Galactic planes being in the same area - great contrast between past and future parts.

tome• 15 years ago

Lovely pictures, but I was disappointed not to see huge panoramas of hundreds of the same model of plane lined up in a row!

Loic• 15 years ago

Here you have: http://www.michaeljohngrist.com/2009/10/airplane-boneyard-in...

NakedRobot• 15 years ago

I made some panoramas at a private boneyard in Tucson in 2009. Here are my favorites:

outside a fuselage/shed http://www.360cities.net/image/national-aircraft-inc-airplan...

Inside a half-scavenged cockpit http://www.360cities.net/image/national-aircraft-inc-airplan...

an army airplane http://www.360cities.net/image/national-aircraft-inc-airplan...

some bombs http://www.360cities.net/image/national-aircraft-inc-airplan...

Here is Bob (on the right, in the golf cart), who works there. Bob has half of a finger missing. There are a lot of sharp things there, you see. http://www.360cities.net/image/national-aircraft-inc-airplan...

More general scraps, and two fuselages http://www.360cities.net/image/national-aircraft-inc-airplan...

These were shot at one of the few commercial boneyards, these guys bought the retired airplanes from the base across the street, and sold the parts.

Bob informed us that these places have stopped buying 'new' airplanes from the air force base - because of 'security measures', junked airplanes now have to be cut into pieces no larger than about 12 inches square. This, as you can imagine, renders most parts of the airplane no longer very useful ;-)

The "real boneyard", across the street from this junkyard, you can see on our world map page: http://www.360cities.net/map#lat=32.16896&lng=-110.84235... The aerial/satellite map itself is really a feast for the eyes. By the way, there are some very threatening signs along the perimeter of this base forbidding photography, and I have heard of photographers getting confronted by fleets of military police cars. So the guy who got inside this place really was very lucky indeed.

There is an open-air airplane museum also nearby, which is a lot of fun. You can't go inside the airplanes, which is very disappointing. You can see lots of wonderful airplane panoramas from the Pima Air & Space Museum here: http://www.360cities.net/image/pima-air-museum-convair-b-36j... (scroll down below the panorama for 'nearby' images)

wglb• 15 years ago

Here is another one near Tucson: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=marana+air+park,+arizona&h...

The Mojave Desert's Airplane Graveyard

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