In March 2011 I visited a place that should be on every aviation enthusiasts must see list for North America: the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center (AMARG) at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, South of Tucson, Arizona. What on earth is that? Well it is better known as the “Boneyard“.
After WW2 the US Air Force established an open air storage facility for Boeing B-29 Superfortress and Douglas C-47 Dakota aircraft at the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base (1946). The base is out in the desert where the dry conditions make it a perfect place for storing aircraft outside indefinitely with minimum deterioration and corrosion – basically preserving the airframes for use as spares, ready-reserve aircraft, regeneration of old airframes to flying status etc. for both the US military and their allies (this saves an enormous amount of money in comparison to building new aircraft). This is still the purpose of AMARG today with over 4000 aircraft (plus some aerospace vehicles – rockets/intercontinental Ballistic Missiles) out there from the Air Force (US and some European allies i.e. Norway), Navy, Marine Corps, Army, Coast Guard and federal agencies including NASA.
Now I am a self-confessed aircraft nerd and I had seen many images and documentaries on the “Boneyard” over the years. It was a place I had wanted to go to since I was a kid, so I was very excited to board the tour bus at the nearby PIMA Air and Space Museum who run tours to the “Boneyard” on a first come first serve basis (at just under 2 hours and less than $10 it’s a bargain).
Because you are entering an active airbase (they fly various combat and transport aircraft out of there along with missile target drone aircraft) you are not allowed to leave the bus which travels around a relatively small circuit of the vast storage area (you still see plenty of the base though and can manage some reasonable photos if you get a window seat). There are also numerous security rules that must be followed before you are allowed on the bus: The Air Force prohibits the carrying of firearms, weapons, illegal substances, backpacks, camera cases, and other non-essential items on the AMARG tour. You can take a small camera without the case, a small purse or belt pack and that’s about it! The guides inspect for these things and if you are 16 years old or over photo identification is required (driver’s license, military ID or passport).
The heyday of the base would have been after WW2 and during the Cold War (1945-1991) when all sorts of historic aircraft were stored there. Although they are mostly all gone today, the metal and parts long used for other purposes, it is still an impressive sight to see vast numbers of more modern aircraft of all sizes spread out across the desert.
Of the more modern military aircraft that are in storage, a number are cocooned in special materials in case the aircraft/helicopters needs to be put back into service, but most are just in open storage. These include:
Bombers: General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark (affectionately known as “The Pig” in Australia), Rockwell B-1 Lancer and Boeing B-52 Stratofortress (due to the SALT treaties with the Soviet Union hundreds of these were chopped into pieces by a huge guillotine, then piled up neatly to allow Soviet satellites to verify the destruction of these strategic bombers!);
Fighters: General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon, McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet and the legendary McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II;
Ground Attack: Vought A-6 Corsair II and Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II (aka “The Warthog“);
Maritime Patrol: Lockheed P-3 Orion;
Air to Air Refuelling: Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker;
Transports: Lockheed C-130 Hercules, Lockheed C-141 Starlifter and Lockheed C-5 Galaxy;
Trainers: Cessna T-37 Tweet, Northrop T-38 Talon and Rockwell T-2 Buckeye;
Helicopters: Bell AH-1 Cobra, Sikorsky CH-53 Super Stallion, Hughes OH-6 Cayuse, Bell OH-58 Kiowa and Boeing CH-46 Sea Knight.
They also have a number of one off aircraft preserved along museum row to show off historic aircraft that were once stored there in larger numbers. One that made me laugh was the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk Stealth Fighter, the “invisible aircraft“….it was actually just an empty space apart from a couple of wheels with a sign….aircraft humour folks!
If you find your way down South in Arizona do not miss the “Boneyard“. Although it’s kind of sad to see so many aircraft awaiting their demise it’s an impressive place to see (even if you are not totally into aviation)! Luckily many aircraft from AMARG have also ended up in museums over the years and the nearby PIMA museum is a classic example of that (to see photos from my visit there please click here). 🙂
Oh and not that far away, just North of Tucson is another open air storage facility Pinal Airpark which is used for commercial airliners and transport aircraft. You cannot tour this facility, but you can see it quite clearly from the nearby interstate highway. I have read that it was a former Central Intelligence Agency airfield used as a headquarters for CIA covert air cargo operations during the Cold War and the Vietnam War i.e. “Air America“.
Deano In America 
O_O wow ~ That is a lot of aircraft, and yes I was about to ask if you are an aircraft enthusiast or in the military because I noticed you have a lot of posts about airplanes. I almost joined Air Force actually at one point XDD.
It is a huge place! Yeah been interested in aviation since I was a kid, although I am not a pilot. Taiwanese Air Force?
Nope, USA Air Force, I rather pledge my royalty to where I am living now. XD
🙂
Reblogged this on Aces Flying High.
Deano,
I spent two years assigned to the 355th Tactical Training Wing at Davis-Monthan in the late 1970s, transitioning from the A-7D Corsair II to the A-10A. If you would like an ID of all of the aircraft in the photos, just let me know—and e-mail me a larger version of each. I can give you a general breakout of each from the existing photos but need the closer views for some of the more complete read-outs.
Some really rare and special aircraft here. In one case, you have a photo of a Boeing YC-14 transport, Only two of those were ever made, in competition with the two copies of the McDonnell Douglas YC-15, for s STOL transport in the Advanced Medium STOL Transport (AMST) program in the mid-1970s. The other YC-14 and one of the YC-15s—is still housed at the neighboring Pima Air Museum Next door to AMARG
Hi Ron,
Thanks for taking a look at my blog. The YC-14 was interesting to see (saw the one at PIMA too), but the YC-15 and later C-17 was the best option to choose by the looks of it. You must have had a fascinating time being based there back in the 1970’s (my favourite era of modern jet aircraft)? The A-10 is an incredible machine – flying cannon! What was it like to fly?
I do have a list of all the aircraft, but appreciate your offer (I think all – will take a look and let you know – thanks). I didnt include the names in the blog as I just wanted to give people an idea of the scale of the place. If you would like a larger version of any photos let me know, happy to email them. Do you have any photos from your time at the base that you could share?
It was a bit sad for me seeing all those F-111’s which were there to support the RAAF’s operational ones, especially as now my country has retired them all and most have been destroyed except for a few now in museums in Australia.
Regards
Deano
Hi, Deano,
Thanks for the kind offer on the pics. My photos from that period are buried among tons of photos from the 1970s and 1980s—many of them slides that need to be scanned as time permits, but will be happy to share the photos and stories behind them when I can excavate them from the half-buried time machine. I really DO need to get those photos, negatives and slides organized. In many cases, I shot hundreds of photos that I never printed—just had developed and left as negatives. Huge amount.
The A-10 is awesome but I never flew it, as I was an Armament Systems Specialist then, working the gun and the weapons release systems (bomb racks, rocket pods, missile launchers, etc). Some very unique and interesting aspects of that gun, which are little-known even after all of these years because most people focus on the size, number of rounds and rate of fire. Much more to it.
That period was fascinating, with many post-Vietam era transitions, such as the A-7D to the A-10A and the F-4 to the F-15 and F-16. The B-1 was in development and the YC-14 and YC-15 were being tested in a competition. Fascinating story. In fact, I did an article on the two planes and their ultimate role in the development of the C-17 but I didn’t want to plug that article here. If you would like to know more about it or where it can be find, go ahead and since me an e-mail offline and I’ll be happy to tell you where it can be found. It was published in the UK and arrived here in the US a couple of weeks back. I would imagine Australia would get it about the same time or perhaps a bit later, so you might still be able to find it.
Interesting that you should mention how the YC-15 led to the C-17 but that was one of the most fascinating aspects of the story as I investigated it. It turns out that both the YC-14 and -15 had a major influence on the C-17 and the externally blown flaps (EBF) method of STOL on the YC-15 was the method used on the C-17 for STOL, but there was no declared winner in the competition and, in many respects, the YC-14 had many things over the YC-15. Externally, yes, the C-17 looks more like the layout of the YC-15, but both aircraft were instrumental in the development of the later C-17.
I need to get down to Pima and take close-up photos of both the YC-14 and YC-15 and I kick myself that I didn’t do more of than when I was there in the late 1970s and then again, while traveling through in the mid-1980s. The other YC-15 was put back into flight status in the early 1990s and just when it got over Edwards AFB to begin its new role as flight test aircraft for the C-17 program, it blew an engine, made an emergency landing, was written off and signed over to the Edwards museum. It now sits on a lonely stretch of Route 66 leading out to the base. No two of those four aircraft are exactly alike.
I helped transition D-M from A-7D to A-10A aircraft, then went to Kadena AB, Okinawa, to transition from F-4Ds to the F-15C/D, and work on the RF-4C. After that, I cross-trained into imagery interpretation, where I now worked on film from the RF-4C for both the USAF and, later, the Air National Guard. As for your F-111s, yes, very sad. I saw a few of them, first-hand, at the first Reconnaissance Air Meet (RAM) at Bergstrom AFB, in 1986, and should have photos of the RAAF RF-111C, USAF RF-4Cs, USN F-14 TARPS and Navy Reserve RF-8G that all participated at that first RAM meet.
Among some of the coolest things at Davis-Monthan included the very last flight of a B-47 Stratojet. They had taken it out of AMARG (what we then called the Military Aircraft Storage and Disposition Center, or MASDC), refurbished it, recruited former B-47 crew members, got them re-certified, and then the aircraft to fly it up to Pueblo, Colorado, for the museum there. I should have some pictures of it, both in AMARG and later, at Pueblo, in my files somewhere. That plane ate up a huge amount of runway when taking off, and smoked like a fouled chimney. It took so long to get up that one of our guys watching it said “I hope they fed the squirrels on the treadmills enough nuts!” She was really struggling to cut gravity.
Lots more to the story of MASDC/AMARG, and that is one reason why they changed the name a couple of times, to try to better describe just all of the things they really do. Guys who work there really hate the term “boneyard,” by the way, because it makes it sound like all they do is trash junk airplanes. Lots more goes on. Let me know if you’re interested in some of the more interesting ones. I never worked there but know quite a bit about what they do—and have done.
Anyway, enough prattling…
That kind of prattling I enjoy Ron! Wow some amazing info there, especially the B-47. I have seen a few of them (there is one here in Seattle) but never one flying. I will email you as I am interested in reading your article (I don’t mind if you plug it here either by the way).
I have seen RF-111Cs and RF-4Cs flying a few times back home. The Phantom is one of my favourite aircraft (“Phabulous Phantom”). Took quite a few aircraft to replace that machine and it could do it all (interceptor, fighter bomber, recon, “Wild Weasel”) – I noticed a few drone F-4’s still operational at Davis Monthan. I got to see some fly in Germany in 2010 (still in use by many Air Forces) and the Heritage Flight F-4 in full afterburner at “Thunder Over Louisville” last year was fantastic! Australia acutally had 24 F-4E’s on lease for a couple of years in lieu of our F-111’s being delivered late (there is one on display at the RAAF museum in Point Cook Australia). Funnily enough we have done the same with 24 F/A-18E Super Hornets to cover the retirement of the F-111 and the planned introduction of the F-35 JSF.
I tried to explain the basic roles of AMARG and I can understand their frustration with the “boneyard” term. Only part of the services that actually makes money really. Any futher info would be greatly received.
Hi, Deano,
First off, you did a great job of giving the overall impression of what goes on at AMARG and how massive it is.
Two things that you and your readers may not know, and find of keen interest, is that AMARG is also where a lot of A-10 re-work, mod and wing replacement is done in what is essentially depot-level repair. Fairchild-Republic was the designer and original builder but Northrop Grumman now owns the design and manages its maintenance and modification
I just thought I would mention that the “boneyard” description more aptly fits their original role many, many years ago.
Most people think that when the planes (and choppers) are parked out there, it is a death sentence and they go there to “die.” That is where the boneyard term comes from, as in elephant boneyard, a graveyard. In fact, many of these aircraft are held for years, to preserve them and keep them as spares. When a Navy carrier goes in for major overhaul for a few years, for instance, the planes designed to operate from carriers have no base to operate from, so they are put in reserve to preserve them and extend their life, rather than letting them decay in poor environments and get robbed for parts at some shore station. It does not take long, at all, for a good aircraft to develop problems when you let it sit. Seals dry out, gaskets fail, lines clog up, and leaks develop. You can fly a plane for days on end and have few maintenance gripes with it but if you let it sit for a few days and not move it, you’ll often see a spike in problems. They just don’t like to stay on the ground or on deck.
In one famous case, F-16A model aircraft destined for Pakistan were put on hold when they detonated a nuclear weapon. The entire lot of planes (28, if memory serves me correctly), were embargoed. As time went on, the planes were put into preservation mode at what is now AMARG and sat there for almost two decades or more. When Pakistan became a key “ally” in the war on terror, the money for the planes was returned but the planes were no longer of real use, being fairly outdated. As it turned out, the Navy’ ‘Aggressor’ squadrons had worn out their F-16N aircraft and many F-5s, while also retiring their last TA-4Js, so it was decided that the planes would be taken out of mothballs and handed over to the USN/USMC for their aggressor training units and they are now back on flight status with the US military. Other aircraft are kept in different level of readiness. Many are outdated or outmoded but if we got into a major war that required their use, they could be put back into service probably faster than their crews could be trained to fly them!
Some of the airframes at AMARG do go to museums but many of them are sold as surplus to allied or friendly countries, while others are used as sources for parts that are no longer made or available. The current B-52 fleet is STILL flying almost 70 years after their first flight, and the source for some of their unique and rare parts is AMARG. Same with other types of aircraft.
There are actually several distinct levels of preservation applied to aircraft, depending upon what the expected future plans are. The planes are not just dumped there and left in desert conditions. Fuel, oil, and other chemicals are removed, flushed, cleaned, and coated with preservative agents and fluids to prevent things from corroding or drying out, and then everything is sealed to prevent dust, dirt, and water and animal/bird/insect infestation.
The bodies are not simply coated with a layer of white “Spraylat” latex. There is actually an undercoat of black-colored sealant and strands of fiber are embedded in it. An overcoat of white spray latex is then applied over the black to help prevent sunlight from being absorbed and over-heating the interior. Whenever an aircraft is taken out of preservation, the ends of those embedded fibers is pulled up through the black and white layers, cutting through it and allowing it to be peeled back with minimal damage to surfaces and the paint.
One other unique role of AMARG is in the Strategic Arms Limitation Talk (SALT) and STrategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) agreements. Many of the B-52s in US service were designed as nuclear bombers and counted as nuclear delivery systems. When negotiations with the Soviets/Russians were being hammered out, deals were cut to chop up so many Russian and American bombers. In order to verify that this had been done and that the planes had not been re-assembled, witnesses verified the destruction and the chopped-up wings and fuselage were left in place once the job was finished. They had to be left in precisely those same locations for a set number of months, or years, so that spy satellites could make regular orbits and verify that the pieces were still where they had been originally photographed and verified. I suspect most of those planes have long since been scrapped and the area cleaned up but, at one time, there were large numbers of huge B-52s that had been chopped up and sprawled on the ground like junk. They didn’t leave them there just to clutter up the place or due to neglect—they were meant to be left there, as is.
Like I said, some really, really cool stuff.
Ron
Thanks Ron, it is great to get an “insiders” view on this. In the satellite and aerial pic you can still see some “chopped” B-52’s. I have never seen photos from the “other side” though of “chopped” TU-16’s, TU-22’s etc in Russia!
Deano,
yeah, good point. I think we’re just a tad more open about things like than they are. The true inside story on that is fascinating but I’ll have to check if I am still prevented from revealing it. Historians are going to have a field down over the Cold War when more things get declassified.
I can understand that. Best to play it safe. The political intrigue is always interesting. I have spent a bit of time in Eastern Europe. The Communist period and Cold War fascinates me
I lived it and it truly was a fascinating experience. So often, I find myself reading something and going, boy is that wrong, or that doesn’t even begin to tell the whole story, and I suddenly realize that, nope, still may be limited in what I can say. Argh.
Ron
Better to play it safe Ron! You don’t need that heat. I have been really busy the past couple of days and haven’t had a chance to search out your article but will do so asap 🙂
Deano,
No worries. As far as heat, yeah, gotten enough of that for reviews on Amazon. Amazing how lousy many books are, yet people continually give pure garbage 5-star ratings, when I know the books are trash because I have worked the planes, the weapons, and researched heavily even the stuff that I didn’r personally work on. Doesn’t matter. Nobody cares about history, much less historical accuracy. Since we last communicated, had been put in touch with an artist doing a painting for a USAF unit. His clients were two former pilots. They had no clue and the painting mixed details from different versions. The artist cared about the details and wanted the input but he made the mistake of including these two boneheads in the e-mail. One of them said the discussion of details was “getting silly.” I immediately bailed from the project. If spending hours of time–whtout any compensation even expected, much less arked for–and providing documentation for specific models of aircraft is “silly,” then, fine, screw these guys. I tried to help honor their service and this was the payback. Never again. They couldn’t pay me to whiz on this painting. Far too many books, magazines, paintings and other stuff rake in billions of dollars in an industry that makes a big deal about accuracy, history, etc. When you point out mistakes and try to get them corrected, nobody cares. They never careed, to begin with. This stuff is not down to honor the sacrifice, but to line pockets. Sickeningly sad. I no longer buy any books because I can’t trust them, and I have been cutting back magazines more and more. Just pure junk in most, and neither the editors nor the authors care, so long as they can con people out of their money.
The biggest flaw in most books and magazines is that people always want to interview pilots. These guys are the last ones to know anything outside of the cockpit. Due respect for their skills as pilots, but they are lousy at telling you anything outside of the samll space. In one case, book on tactical recon included interviews with pilots. These guys were spinning some nonsense because it is not their job to process and interpret the film. Ask them about their flights, fine, but ask the processors and interpreters about the film and photos. Apparently, this author only asked pilots and they had no clue. I read a magazine article on the same subject, by the same author, and this guy was totally clueless. No way I would waste $50 on a book by him. Try to tell people, though, and they have no interest in listening. Never mind all of the time I spent as an interpreter, trainer and more. Facts don’t matter.
Ron
I wrote a long response Ron and somehow lost it!!!! Oh well, anyone the basic theme was that I think often those reviews are written by the publishers staff!
I am currently putting together something on a distant relative who was an air ace in Europe flying Mosquito’s in WW2, getting accurate info on his victories has been difficult, but it has been interesting reading old acrchived newspaper articles on him, he was mentioned all over Australia, in London and even Pittsburgh back in 1944! But I want it to be historical and statistically correct, tricky to get the info for the same reasons you mention (plus most of the people involved are no longer with us). Record it correctly the first time for historical and respectful purposes please!
Deano,
“Record it correctly the first time for historical and respectful purposes please!.” Excellent point. You would not believe the number of pure myths and garbage out there in print as fact, simply because somebody got the original facts wrong and all those who copied it were either too lazy or incompetent to adequately fact-check and research the “original” material. There is a four-volume series on the Pacific War. It is endorsed by some supposed military writer’s group and has all kinds of kudos. What it says about the TBF Avenger at Midway Island is absolutely wrong. It says that four Marine Avengers were based at Midway and six Army B-26s. The numbers are backwards and, worse, the Marines didn’t even have Avengers at the time–only the Navy. When I advised the author, he blustered that he got his matetial from original source materail found in file cabinets at Midway. Really? Well, that might be, but it is dead wrong. The account in those reports came from a young crew member of a B-26 who saw his first Avengers come off of Midway Island and assumed that since, in his mind, Navy planes flew from carriers and Marines are land-based, those must have been Marine planes. Even the name of the Avenger and how it came to be is constantly distorted. Books get it wrong and a world-famous museum, whiie talking about the Grumman Hellcat, had its historian come out and pop off about how Grumman was asked to shift its production of other planes to General Motors so they could concentrate on production of Hellcats. And, oh , yeah, the Avenger was named in response to Pearl Harbor. When they refused to admit the error and correct it, I cancelled my membership and have never been back. I have the documents to prove otherwise. They had no interest in seeing them. Sadly, I have less and less faith in museums because most are in it just for the money and they don’t give a damn about history.
And the government says I should recycle the can my corn comes in? All this metal to rot in the desert? Isn’t that a hoot! Love the pix.
Ha yes very true! Its an amazing place. Saddens me to know that all those beautiful F-111 are now gone and scrapped since Australia retired their last one. I grew up seeing these gracing the skies in my homeland and I wish they still were!
Hi there Deano
I am a British model maker who is just finishing a diorama of an F-16 at Davis Montham complete with the the white latex cover. I was browsing the web trying to find images that I could possibly use as a backdrop to this build when I cam across your page. You have a few images that I would very much be interested in using as the backdrop. The image would be used to enhance the build for photography purposes only. It would be my intention then to place the images that I took of the build and possibly your image as the backdrop on two modelling websites. If you were to give permission for the use of an image all credit for the backdrop would of course be given to you and I could post a link if required to this page.
Hi Terry,
That sounds fine. Which images were you interested in using?
Hi Deano
The image I have settled on Is of the F-16’S lined up as it fits with the build. If it is ok I will need to crop the bottom of the image so the airframes appear to be at ground level behind the F-16 I have built.
Sounds fine Terry
Look forward to seeing what you come up with
Hi Deano
here is the build thread for the above I will add another link once it is posted as finished many thanks again.
http://www.scale-models.co.uk/community/threads/f-16-for-parts-reclamation.27598/
Here is the finished build Deano hope you enjoy.
http://www.scale-models.co.uk/community/threads/amarc-f-16.28410/
Looks great Terry. Well done!
Thanks Deano and thanks once again for the use of the image it was very much appreciated.
I truly delight in reading your article The Boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force
Base | Deano In America.
The number one problem with the Treaty is that there is no satellites . so bingo they go by trust . pfft no space . we live on a FLAT EaRth SUn and moon 4k away and 50 miles wide.
I like how you mention that while these kinds of ‘boneyards’ aren’t typically accessible by foot, aircraft ‘boneyards’ can clearly be seen from the air should you choose to fly with a touring service. Another advantage of having to see these aircraft is that you can literally take in the history of the craft that is stored there–seeing various warplanes stored alongside transport and personal, retired one-off aircraft is a sight to behold. To be honest, I’ve been curious about what the older fighter jets of before looked like and I like that there’s a place that people can visit in order to learn more about them in the future.