Where old planes go when they "die"

[nfo2b]

As some of you may already know, there is a huge airplane "graveyard" here at Davis-Monthan AFB. So in my travels around the base, I've snapped a few pics that may be of interest to some here. The pics are of some of the many P-3's and A-6's that now permanently reside here. I haven't counted, but I'd say that there's at least over a hundred P-3's here. (These pics don't even begin to exhibit the sheer number of P-3's and all of the other aircraft here--use the google map linked below to check it out) I didn't get any pics of any other Naval aircraft, b/c the P-3's are the most accessible a/c, and I'd have to do something dangerous and/or illegal to get pics of anything else of interest. Not that I'm too averse to doing so--just make requests if you're interested. I'll be taking some more and posting them up.
Anyways, detailed info on AMARC (the official name of this place) can be found here, and the really interesting parts of their site are the Flash tour and the aerial photo gallery. But for even more fun, use Google Maps to peruse the entire collection from space! Really interesting stuff.
By the way, according to the Flash presentation (linked above), they regularly return many planes here to service for use as drones, sale to foreign militaries, etc.
There's even a "last-gen" AF-1 here (pre-747 version), some B-1's, lot's of B-52's (one of my favs), and even a "Naval Research Laboratory" P-3. (Someone please tell me what this one is used for.)
Don't know about you guys, but I think it's interesting.
Finally, I just want to point out that this is my 100th post! :icon_smil There will be a celebratory kegger at my house this weekend, and you're all invited. Seriously. If you use the Google map linked above, my house is 3 clicks north and 5 clicks west of the area in the photo. See y'all here! :icon_zbee

 

[Grant]

This is a great thread, I actually wanted to start a thread about this. So all of these planes are held in "war reserve", right? If the "Mother of all Battles" were to actually break out, who would pilot the war reverve planes? Would they train a bunch of new pilots to fly the new, dare I say "easier" planes while putting the experienced pilots into the more difficult older planes? Or would they drag guys like A4s out of the airlines and the relative peace of their lives to jump back into their old rides? Is there even a plan for this?

If the situation was bad enough that we had to pull significant numbers of aircraft out of AMARC, that the pilot issue would be "both" of the above options, I'd have to guess. If it were a World War III type conflict, we'd probably need all the men we can get.

My question is... even if they did pull a bunch of aircraft out, how many of them would have an adequate service life left in them? In the service life projections, is there a fudge factor, for this sort of reactivation of the war reserve?

 

[Schnugg]

We used to go to Davis-Mothan on XCs from Miramar. Best visit involved a guide tour of the AMARC facility by a Senior Chief retiring in 38 day.."but who's counting." Every jet flown to the boneyard, has to be an up jet that's done a Pro A, with all avionics boxes in it, etc. Then they do a preservation on it that replaces all fluids and seals the thing up tight as a drum. A plane can be put back in service in about 30-45 days. It sucked when we had to fly a jet out there with good parts we badly needed in our squadron jets at the same time.

As long as we stayed safe, he let us climb up, on and inside anything we wanted.

I saw a few Tomcats there that I flew. One had the name of the guy I went to Topgun with still on the canopy. Got some great pics inside a B-52 and up on the fuselage. They were chopping the B-52s up to coply with a treaty, so they're probably all chopped up these days.

Lots of cool stuff there. Also a great aviation musueam adjacent to it as well.

Worth a visit.
r/
G

 

[Gatordev]

Haven't made it here yet in my travels, but I've always wanted to. Thanks for the pics. And that NRL bird...sheesh. Did you see the BUNO? 149670. That's older than the H-3s at Kuaui! And looks like it had a side scanning radar of some kind. Zab, any thoughts?

 

[zab1001]

Um...NRL...the easiest way to explain what they do...think of it as a "P-3 for hire". Airborned testbed. Shore tour option for VP types. Not bad work, if you don't mind Pax River. My married buds love it, my single buds can't stand it (go figure).

Ah, I remember back in the "old days" (tongue firmly in cheek, late 90s, my balls aren't THAT old) seeing orange and white P-3s on the ramp in Corpus while sitting in the VT-31 radio shack, thinking "WTF?".

Sidenote: Right before I left my Fleet squadron, we sent a plane to the boneyard. Skipper called dibs on that one and I can't blame him. The entire crew had their names stenciled on for the plane's "last flight". If you get that kind of opportunity, grab it.

http://www.nrl.navy.mil/content.php?P=FSD

From: http://www.dcmilitary.com/navy/tester/10_06/local_news/33276-1.html
"The squadron is responsible for the maintenance and security of four uniquely configured P-3 Orion turboprop research aircraft. It conducts numerous single-aircraft deployments around the world in support of a wide range of scientific research projects. "


From: http://www.knowledgerush.com/kr/encyclopedia/US_Naval_Research_Laboratory
"The US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is the corporate research laboratory for the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps and conducts a broad program of scientific research and advanced development. NRL has been in existence since the 1920s "

 

[nfo2b]

They were chopping the B-52s up to coply with a treaty, so they're probably all chopped up these days...Also a great aviation musueam adjacent to it as well.

No, there are still several dozen B-52's out here. It's really quite a sight to behold. If you look at the google map I linked to, and scroll south east, across the main road (switch to hybrid map mode, and look at the area at the southeast corner of Kolb and Irvington Rd.), you'll see a bunch of 'em. These satellite pics must be a couple years old though--the pics I took were from Irvington Rd.--and there are less than a handfull of P-3's on that fenceline in the satellite pics. Someone count the P-3's in the area of the map that I linked to--it hurts my eyes, so I haven't done it yet.

...seeing orange and white P-3s...

Yeah, there's a few of those here too. What's with the paint job?

 

[gregsivers]

I went out there with my dad a number of years ago and got a private tour like Schnug mentioned. It was great, some First Class Petty Officer drove us around the whole place and showed us so much stuff it was insane. My dad had flown an F-4 out there once and this guy said that if he'd had the BUNO he would've taken us right to it so my dad could write his name on it and whatnot. Certainly a valuable trip to take if you ever get the chance.

 

[zab1001]

What's with the paint job?

Theory of "chroma-kinetics". Based on the idea that orange colored objects are able to travel faster. Something to do with light refraction.

That's a joke BTW. No clue. High vis either for safety reasons (possibly a range bird?) or just to differentiate the aircraft for purpose of mission, I guess.

 

[SoICanBeFree]

Orange (maybe faded red) and White.. Coast Guard??

 

[zab1001]

Orange (maybe faded red) and White.. Coast Guard??

Maybe if the Coast Guard had P-3s.

Negative.

 

[SoICanBeFree]

Yeah I didnt think so..

 

[Gatordev]

It's the same reason everyone flies their clown planes in flight school. It signifies they aren't a combatant.

Thanks for the info, Zab. At first I was thinking VPU, but I guess they're different. I still don't completely understand what the VPU guys do, and no one seems to like to talk about it.

 

[A4sForever]

I was down @ Davis-Monthan recently --- the "chop-shop" was basically working on the '50's and early '60's inventory. I suppose if we ever got into a protracted, non-strategic nuclear, non "come-as-you-are" war --- something that dragged on (ChiComs?? ) we might haul some of the old war horses (planes and pilots) out of storage. At present --- DM represents a huge, bought and paid for parts locker.

Plus, it's a source of potential income from foreign sales ..... the Israelis considered a "non-system" version -- basically day/VFR --- of the A-6 Intruder at one time. Four 30mm cannons in the nose, maximum ordnance on the wings. It never "flew" because we wanted all the A-6 airframes we could get, at the time.

Saw some of my old mounts --- recognized a couple of BuNo's ... there were many other aircraft that seemed too "new" to be there ----- life is hard.

INTRUDER ROW ......

Here's one of my old mounts they won't get .... (???)

A small group of us is putting together the financing to buy "more than one" A-4 ... we will see how it goes. Don't ask for details at this stage, unless you have a lot of money that you want to invest. We're also looking for a working, full motion A-4 simulator; probably one of the rehabs from Chase, Kingsville, or Meridian.

The 'in lamp is definitely lit .....

 

[AllAmerican75]

My uncle retired the last F-4 Phantom in regular Air National Guard service out to Davis-Montham. He sad it was a pretty sad day. I went out there a couple years back, and as a aviation junky, I gotta say, it was "freakin' sweet!"

 

[petescheu]

You know there are so many jets there that I'd be willing to bet a case or ten of beer they wouldn't miss it if you decided to go in there with, say, a blowtorch and a flatbed truck in the middle of the night and decided to, um, "liberate" one for personal use later on down the road...