Absolutely STUNNING film of the boneyard

[NutLoose]

They really have caught the essence of the place..

Film

Boneyard on Vimeo

Still series also here

https://www.flickr.com/photos/airmanmagazine/sets/72157632591613825/show/

[WASALOADIE]

Appaled to see a C17 there already!

[tdracer]

Appaled to see a C17 there already!

Didn't see any C17s, I think you may have misidentified a C-141, or perhaps a C-5?

[Willard Whyte]

Pretty sure it's a Galaxy.

[Boudreaux Bob]

Twas a C-5 Galaxy.

[Tashengurt]

I think one or two of the prototypes/ development a/c are there.


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[Rhino power]

No C-17's at DM yet, although as Tashengurt alluded to, the Boeing YC-14A is there...

-RP

[Melchett01]

Wow, that was definitely a couple of minutes well spent. And whilst the images were beautiful and the ex-pilots' stories fascinating, for me, it was the RT messages playing in the background that really brought home the fact that if only aeroplanes could talk. The RT clip of one mate giving the order to bale out was something else... I thought I'd had a pretty lousy day today, I guess not in the grand scheme of things.

It reminded me of the time I went to Duxford and got talking to one of the stewards as I was looking at the Lancaster. As we were talking, the fact that I was serving cropped up and 5 minutes later I was clambering up the steps into the Lancaster. It's rare that I'm lost for words but that was a special moment. And who says machines don't have a personality or a soul.

[Willard Whyte]

No C-17's at DM yet, although as Tashengurt alluded to, the Boeing YC-14A is there...

Pima Air Museum, just over the road from The Boneyard, is always worth a visit if one's in that neck of the woods. The '14 was there a few years back. Recommend the Titan Missile Museum too, a short (by US standards) drive South of Phoenix (and even shorter from Tucson).

[tartare]

Thanks for posting that Nutty - great film - and agree with Melchett, find RT audio very evocative.
For some reason the sound of NDB morse identifiers in a headset always unsettles me a little.
It has connotations of being lost, alone, rain beating on perspex and nothing but grey all around :sad:

[Roadster280]

What's the reason for keeping hundreds of F4s? I understand some are used in crash testing etc, but that's an awful lot of F4s there. Why keep F-86s at all?

A10s, F15, F16, T38s, C5s, I see the point. But why quite so many of the obsolete types? Trying to hold up the value of scrap aircraft metals?

[NutLoose]

The F4 is actively converted to drones, one should imagine those not slated for conversion provide spares for those in use.

[RAFEngO74to09]

Nutloose,

I fact the last QF-4 was delivered in Nov 13. Boeing are now converting F-16s to QF-16s.

Boeing: On target: F-16 flies with an empty cockpit (http://www.boeing.com/boeing/Features/2013/09/bds_qf16_09_23_13.page)

[tdracer]

I'm a bit confused about the C-5s parked there (I noted at least two, might have been more). I thought all the early vintage C-5As were being structurally updated and retrofit with new avionics and CF6-80C2 FADEC engines. Were some of the early ones too far gone? They didn't build that many (50 C-5A IIRC, and a few of those were lost)?


BTW, listening to the voice recordings brought back an interesting old memory. Back during my college days, I was hanging out with some high school buddies during the summer. One kid's old man had been a B-52 pilot during the Viet Nam war. He'd snuck a cassette recorder along on a mission over Hanoi - 40 year old memory says it was during Nixon's Christmas bombing campaign (1972?). Anyway, the North was prepared and waiting - they lost 3 B-52s that day :uhoh:. At the end of the tape, one of the pilots said something like 'God I hope I never have to go through that again'. :eek:
Listening to that recording was one of the most sobering events of my then young life. A few years earlier, I'd been accepted into an Air Force ROTC scholarship and pilots training, then got kicked out at the last minute due to a mysterious heart anomaly they apparently noticed during my physical (that never showed up in any other physical before or after :rolleyes:). Anyway, listening to that tape was the first time in occurred to me that maybe, just maybe, it wasn't such a bad thing that I hadn't made it as an Air Force pilot :sad:

[ORAC]

I thought all the early vintage C-5As were being structurally updated and retrofit with new avionics and CF6-80C2 FADEC engines. Were some of the early ones too far gone?

9 crashed/written off, 39 stored (http://www.planespotters.net/Airline/USAF-United-States-Air-Force). Stored aircraft used as source of spare parts to keep the remaining fleet flying (http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/c-5-serv.htm)...

.......In FY04, the Air Force determined that 14 C-5A aircraft would be retired during FY04 and FY05. The eight aircraft retired in FY04 were T/N: 69-0004, 70-0458, 66-8307, 66-8306, 70-0450, 66-8304, 67-0171, and 67-0170. Aircraft 69-0004 was the first aircraft to be retired from the C-5 fleet and was delivered to Robins AFB on 21 October 2003 for an engineering teardown analysis with the remaining aircraft placed in excess status and stored at Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center (AMARC) at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona. The Air Force determined that aircraft 70-0458 would be the first aircraft delivered to AMARC on 4 November 2003, with the remaining aircraft scheduled for input to AMARC at a rate of two per quarter.

The Air Force placed these aircraft in excess status at Davis-Monthan allowing the SPO to reclaim parts. Heavy use in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq caused the transport aircraft to edge close to a severe parts shortage situation. Retired aircraft provided the SPO with a unique opportunity to reclaim parts and return them to Air Force supply inventory or direct ship parts to customers to fill MICAP requirement. The Air Force established a save list of 488 line items, thus over one thousand parts, valued at over $20M, could then be returned to AF inventory.

Aircraft stored at AMARC enabled the C-5 supply chain managers an exceptional opportunity to satisfy the war fighter's needs when no other source of supply proved available. When needed to support immediate needs for C-5 aircraft, WR-ALC materiel managers could request a priority parts removal from AMARC. During FY04, managers requested 136 priority removals to support the field units. Of these aircraft parts, 131 (96 percent) were directly shipped to field units to support OEF and OIF aircraft; the other five (four percent) were shipped to sources of repair for inspection, test, or overhaul prior to being shipped to the field. Technicians at AMARC removed 2059 parts from C-5s during FY04 and returned to the appropriate source of supply. The Air Force shipped 1058 parts directly to C-5 field units filling MICAP requisitions.

In FY04, the continuing need for C-5 aircraft in support of OEF and OIF required using all available parts resources. Using AMARC as a source of supply ensured C-5 availability during the largest troop movement seen since WWII. With these efforts, WR-ALC continued to provide support for the C-5 Galaxy and assist in meeting the mission goals of the USAF.......

[ORAC]

Above list slightly out of date, see the AMARC inventory database (http://www.amarcexperience.com/ui/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=30&catid=16&).

47 delivered into storage of which 11 have been broken up for scrap, leaving 36 in storage (http://www.amarcexperience.com/ui/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5&catid=16&dbsource=typelist&dbtype=C005A&dbpage=1&dbletter=L).

[Willard Whyte]

Couple of Tornados in there too(!), one at the Pima Air Museum.

Going to have to go out there for a tour someday. The kids'll love it, not sure about Mrs WW...

[Saintsman]

I thought that there was supposed to be money in scrap metal?

A lot of those aircraft are never going to be used again or are beyond repair. With defence budgets supposedly tight, isn't it an opportunity to salvage some funds? Plus it creates a few jobs along the way.

[NutLoose]

Thanks RAFEng

[West Coast]

Other than to say its a good area to store aircraft, why are there Tornadoes at DMA?

[RAFEngO74to09]

The Tornado IDS at Davis-Monthan are from the German AF. I imagine they were withdrawn from use at the German AF unit at Holloman AFB - either due to downsizing and/or damage - and sent to Davis-Monthan for storage as a spares source.

[Willard Whyte]

Ex-GAF frames, for the museum(!)

http://www.amarcexperience.com/ui/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5&catid=16&dbsource=typelist&dbtype=F003B&dbpage=1&dbletter=P

D'oh, beaten to it.

[NutLoose]

West coast see

PIMA Tornado - Warbirdz Forum (http://www.warbirdz.net/forum/showthread.php?t=749)

Ha ha ha..we all answered at once, my link has piccies of them :)

[West Coast]

Thanks all, makes sense to part them out there rather than to fly them back to Germany for the same fate.

[Firestreak]

It's well worth going to Tuscon for both Pima and D-M but leave yourself 2 days to do the thing justice. Pima is pretty vast outside with lots of displays inside and of course you have to go there to book/catch the bus for the Boneyard tour. Take plenty of water, it's hot!

[porch monkey]

As Willard pointed out, if, you're going to go to Pima/DM, take the time to also visit the Titan base. You won't regret it.