Others are used for spare parts, with the components sitting in the aircraft until they’re needed. As part of strategic arms limitation treaties with the Soviet Union, the B-52s were stored with their wings removed and placed next to the plane – allowing Soviet satellites to verify that the bombers had been taken out of service.

Some of the aircraft stored at Davis-Monthan include retired B-52 bombers, aircraft capable of carrying nuclear weapons. Then, any ducts or inlets are covered with aluminium tape and the aircraft are painted over with a special easily strippable paint – two coats of black, and a final white layer to help deflect the fierce desert sun and keep the aircraft relatively cool.Īircraft are kept at various levels of restoration – some are kept in as close-to-working order as possible if they are deemed to be needed to fly at a later date, while others are partially dismantled. Then they must have any explosive devices – such as the charges that activate ejection seats – safely removed. All aircraft have their fuel tanks and fuel lines drained, and flushed with a light, viscous oil similar to that used in sewing machines to ensure all the moving parts are lubricated.

Any planes that have served on aircraft carriers have to be thoroughly washed to get rid of corroding salt. The Boneyard’s workers have an exhaustive checklist. Many of the aircraft are considered inactive, but have to be able to be brought back into service if need be. That’s the reason why many of the world’s biggest aircraft boneyards are found in the dry deserts of the south-western US.īut it’s not simply a case of landing a plane at Davis-Monthan, parking it in one of the rows and handing someone the keys. It’s much cheaper to store them in the kind of conditions found in Tucson. But it takes a lot of room – and a lot of money – to store these unused planes in the kind of hangars needed to keep them warm and dry. Planes are expensive things to build and maintain, but even at the end of their flying lives they still have their uses. This extremely hard subsoil allows the planes to be parked in the desert without the need to construct expensive new parking ramps, according to the 309 AMARG. What’s more, underneath the top six inches of dirt topsoil is a clay-like sub layer called caliche. The climatic conditions in Arizona – dry heat, low humidity, little rain – mean aircraft take a lot longer to rust and degrade. They call it The Boneyard.ĭavis-Monthan is not the only aircraft boneyard in the world, but it is by far the biggest. To those who work here, Davis-Monthan is known by a far less prosaic name, one more in keeping with the Wild West folklore from Arizona’s earlier days. Inside the facilities' hangars, other planes have been reduced to crates of spare parts, waiting to be sent out to other bases in the US or across the world to help other aircraft take to the air again.

Some look like they were parked only a few hours ago, others are swathed in protective coverings to keep out the sand and dust.

It’s home to some 4,400 aircraft, arranged over nearly 2,600 acres (10.5 sq km). This is Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, run by the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (309 AMARG). On and on, everything from enormous cargo lifters to lumbering bombers, Hercules freighters and the F-14 Tomcat fighters made famous in Top Gun. If you find yourself driving down South Kolb Road in the Arizona city of Tucson, you’ll find the houses give way to a much more unusual view rows of military aircraft, still and silent, spread out under the baking desert sun.

Airplane graveyard tucson