Airplane Graveyard

I found a story, not a unique story, but one that is revised and updated periodically, about surplus airplanes and a facility in Marana, Arizona, northwest of Tucson, that is a storage yard and recycling point for commercial planes. The story recounted that the operators of the business stressed that they are not an airplane graveyard, that they are a responsible for maintaining surplus aircraft in operating condition until they are returned to service.

So I decided to go off in search of an airplane graveyard.

Here's a link http://www.satellite-sightseer.com/id/1426 to an aerial view of Davis Monthan Air Force Base, Tucson, Arizona. Davis Monthan is sort of a graveyard for airplanes that are U.S. Government property. The images at the link will give some incredible detail to the photo at the right. Take a few minutes to zoom in and out, and grab the page surface to move the vantage point. I found the images amazing.

Davis Monthan is the home to, among many other units, 309 AMARG, the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group, the people that are in charge of these surplus aircraft.. More about them on Monday. I'll also share an incredible airplane story I found that challenges the recent Hudson River landing.