I mentioned a couple posts ago about visiting "the boneyard" at Davis Monthan AFB. I think it deserves a little more attention. The formal name is Aerospace Maintenance And Regeneration Group and it is located on 2,600 acres. It was started in 1946 to store excess Air Force aircraft but was later reconfigured to store excess inventory for all the armed services and the Coast Guard. Tucson was selected because of the low humidity, infrequent rain, and alkaline/hard soil which makes it possible to move and store the aircraft without having to put pavement down.
The facility breaks down into the following functions--long term storage, part's reclamation, short term storage, and sales of excess parts and/or whole aircraft. One source states that there are over 4000 aircraft in storage. I know it's quite impressive to drive by and see row after row of the planes.
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Be careful when you use the term 'boneyard', the employees at AMARC are rather touchy about that term. We have a friend that works there. She handles the payment and delivery of the aircraft to our armed forces, as well as foreign governments. We have walked through it a number of times as part of a 10 Km walk sponsored on base. Very impressive.
That is definitely on the "visit" list when Guitar and I come down!!
My name is on a couple of the planes out there. Some of my old F-111's are taking up some space along Kolb and Irvington.
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