My favorite type of airplane: on the ground!
I may hate to fly, but I do love airplanes. So while we were in Arizona, we took a short side-trip to
Tucson, home of the Pima Air & Space Museum and Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center (AMARG). The museum is great: 300 old airplanes and helicopters from the past 100 years
of aviation history.
Vietnam War era helicopter—the famous Robert Duvall
beach scene from Apocalypse Now was on continuous
loop nearby—"Ride of the Valkyries," anyone?
Lockheed Electra—similar to the one Amelia Earhart
was flying when she disappeared
Various WWII aircraft
But it’s the some 4000
mothballed military planes, jets, etc., that really caught my imagination.
Housed on the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, AMARG uses the planes to replace parts on active aircraft—saving
the military about $400 million a year in replacement costs. Since the planes
are on the base, access to the “boneyard” is via tour bus only, offered through
the Pima museum.
Bus tour through the boneyard
Tim was less enthused than I was about spending an entire
morning looking at rusty old warplanes. He perked up considerably, though, when
he noticed not one but three B-52
bombers parked in the back of the museum. Even we liberal anti-war pacifists were
thrilled to see such magnificent aircraft.
Enormous B-52
NASA cargo plane
Another B-52
Three-fin tail of a TWA Constellation
We highly recommend
visiting the museum, as well as the boneyard, the next time you’re in Tucson.
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