Davis-Monthan AFB: A bus tour of the world's largest aircraft graveyard

@ElentirENG ES 4·29·2022 · 23:19 0

Aviation buffs have a few places in the world that can strike a chord with us, but none quite like Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.

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That USAF base, built in 1925, still houses active units, and is also home to "The Boneyard", a popular nickname for the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG), which since 1964 has been in charge of retired aircraft from the United States Air Force, and also some from the Navy, such as the F-14 that heads these lines.

This graveyard contains some 4,000 aircraft of the most varied models, from the first variants of the huge C-5 Galaxy to fighters and helicopters. The AMARG occupies an area of 319 hectares (about 455 soccer fields), and being in the middle of the Arizona desert, it has the advantage that the low humidity helps to preserve the planes. And it is that many AMARG aircraft are preserved in case they need to be returned to active service, while others are "cannibalized" (as they say in aeronautical terms) to obtain spare parts for models that are still in service.

The AMARG is open to visitors, and there is a bus line that runs through it to show tourists the aeronautical treasures it contains. Paul Donovan visited it that way and posted this interesting video of the tour:

Under these lines you can take a look at the AMARG through Google Maps: