Pima Air Museum

SVTStingRay

SVTStingRay

Sr Member
one of the great things about being out on the road is visiting different places. had plenty of time on this load (and was sick too) so i got a little sidetracked and ended up visiting the pima air and space museum. its the 3rd biggest air museum (behind smithsonian and usaf museum). make sure to bring lots of water, boy was it hot. if you visit the museum, you must take the boneyard tour. its nothing short of amazing to see all that aircraft sitting outside being preserved. sorry for the digital pics, will have better ones up in a few weeks (need to get film developed... yeah i still use film :confused
the yc-14 prototype on the display line

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a b-52 being preserved on the display line
2391911010.jpg



surprised to see a bunch of b-1's being used for spares.
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one of my favorites, a recent addition to teh museum, a mig-29
2391913mig29.jpg
 
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Need to go there + the boneyard one day.

I've only been to Wright Pat. + Smithsonian.


Thanks for sharing the picts!
 
Wow,!

I was just working out there yesterday!, Thats really funny you visited.. How did you like the stacks of old F101 fuselages sitting around all over the place?
 
a b-52 being preserved on the display line
2391911010.jpg


This is a B-52G from Castle AFB.
My dad retired from the Air Force in 1978 as a Gunner Instructor while stationed at Castle.

Who knows, He may have flown on this B.U.F.

Castle AFB is now a municipal airport in Atwater California.

Thanks for posting the photos.

Scot
 
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Nice pics! I was stationed at D-M until June 08 and used to drive past the boneyard every day.
We had one of our annual banquets at the Pima Air Museum. :)
 
Great pict's. Hope to get there one day as well as Castle for that matter... Please post more picts when you get back.

Matthew
 
OhioAstromech as far as the b-52s from clark, i saw 4 there in the display area along with 4 b-1s. the display area has 2 rows of unique aircraft that have been on display there seperate from the ones who are mothballed or being canabalized.
heres a few more
a now-rare beechcraft starship (designed by my hero dick rutan, they are rare now cause most have been scrapped. the first fully composite private jet.)
2392164012.jpg

heres the b-52 used by nasa to launch the x-15, if memory serves it was the 3rd b-52 off the essembly line
2392165013.jpg

and one of my other favorites the b-58 hustler
2392172014.jpg
 
The High and Mighty One needs to be brough to the USAF Museum and restored.
It's sad to see it baking in the sun like that.

Thanks for the photos.

Scot

SVTStingRay said:
heres the b-52 used by nasa to launch the x-15, if memory serves it was the 3rd b-52 off the essembly line
2392165013.jpg
Click to expand...
 
I doubt the USAF Museum would add another B-52 to the fleet... They already have one. They also take huge amounts of space -- mainly because of that wing!

The USAF Museum sometimes swaps out planes depending on whether they can get an airframe that is more "representative" of active duty planes.

They used to have a B-1A prototype (possibly the only surviving one) but swapped it out and sent it packing to the SAC Museum out West for a retired B-1B.

At other times, they'll keep one-of-a-kind frames and simply add another when it becomes available. That's why the Museum has two Blackbirds -- a YF-12A interceptor and an SR-71A recon plane.

Don't be too surprised -- with force reductions, some B-1s were bound to be retired because A) the Air Force can't afford to operate 90+ planes all at once and B) there just weren't enough spares to support 90+ planes to being with!

There were originally more B-1s retired, but I think about 6 were brought back to active duty.... The 11 or 13 still decommissioned are, as the original poster said, being scavenged and cannabilized for spares.

One good thing that's happened to the USAF Museum in recent years is the expansion of indoor hangar space. A lot of planes that WERE outside are now preserved indoors. One of those new indoor airframes is the sole surviving XB-70A Valkyrie. That plane spent over 20 years outdoors!


P.S. -- None of the F-117As on display in any air museum were operational Nighthawks. The 5 or so frames on display were developmental prototypes and have the YF prefix. They probably don't have all the sensitive radar-absorbing/reflecting coatings and avionics the operations planes did. It's not so much the shape the Pentagon is worried about getting leaked out as it is the electronics and chemistry built into the frame. If you didn't know already. the ENTIRE F-117 fleet was grounded last year and the surviving planes were parked with their wings removed in hangars at a remote, secure location in Nevada. (Not Area 51! LOL)

For the time being, they're being stored for possible future use. After that, who knows what'll happen to them? They may contain too much sensitive technology or be too toxic (chemicals used in their coatings are carcinogenic) to put on public display.
 
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The USAF Museum probably owns The High and Mighty One.
Many aircraft on display around the United States are on loan to their respective Museums.
It would be nice to see it without the chipped paint and most likely the coated windows. (can't tell if the windows are covered in that photo.)

They had the YB-52 before the museum was built but Ladybird Johnson had an American beautification program that caused it to be destroyed.

Currently they are in the process of restoring the Memphis Bell and the Swoose for display in the WWII gallery.
The museum is always changing.

They are also getting shipments of dismantled parts from the XC-99 when ever room is found on a C-5 coming to WPAFB from Kelly AFB.

They have parts laying around all over the place for that bird.

All the X Planes have their own hanger now over in the Annex.
You also can't leave out that the USAF Museum has all the Presidential planes.
I don't know where they are going to put the 747 when it's retired in a few years.

They have quite a bit of real estate on the base here at Wright-Patt so they will continue building hangers and adding to the inventory.

Scot
 
Man too cool. I went there in 200 I think. I have the same pic of the Hustler. Sad about the Beech Starships. One of fist times in a corporate jet was in a Starship. There is a scrap yard or two around there where you can buy parts like seats, as in ejection.
 
I was involved with the SAC museum when they were moving their facilities to the new museum location between Lincoln and Omaha. I photographically documented a lot of the dismantling of the aircraft. Before the move the aircraft were in SUCH sad states... it was so bad that the Air Force was on the verge of taking all of the aircraft back (although I have no idea what they would have done with them if they had...). The SAC museum was the only place I had ever seen an Avro Vulcan...
MAN one of these days I need to transfer all of the images onto the computer... it might be a bit though as my scanner isn't large enough as my favorite prints are all from my medium and large format cameras, and they like them printed large! Grrr!
 
My wife and I visited the Pima Air Museum several years ago while on vacation in Arizona. We weren't aware of it's existence until we drove past it, looked over, and said, "Jeez, look at all the planes!"

They weren't busy on the day we went, and we got a "private" guided tour of the Douglas VC-118A Liftmaster that was converted and used as Air Force One by Presidents Kennedy and Johnson--just us and the guide, who was in no hurry whatsoever and had lots of interesting information about that particular aircraft. We spent almost an hour on the plane, and the guide allowed us to sit in the seat Kennedy occupied on nearly all of his flights (something that is ordinarily not permitted for obvious reasons). Definitely worth the trip!
 
I remember a trip to the boneyard many years ago with my grandfather it was my first time seeing B-17's and B-29's up close. I wish I knew where those photos were now. I remember looking in the tail gunner position and seeing the interior. Id love to visit there now. Thanks for sharing the photos.
 
Atemylunch said:
I know a few are still in existence, but it's great the Air Force sent this plane to the Pima Air Museum.
quote]

yeah the b-36 is still being restored, i wasnt able to get close to it. it is huge!

the museum area is large, it will take you all day to explore. the other fascinating thing is surrounding the boneyard is several scrapyards that purchase the planes that are auctioned off for scrap. youll see several places with planes and helos next to the base.
Click to expand...
 
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I live about 15 minutes away from Castle AFB.
In fact my Credit Union is on the old facility grounds near the entrance.

Once a year they have open cockpit day where you can get inside most of the aircraft.

D6
 
division 6 said:
I live about 15 minutes away from Castle AFB.
In fact my Credit Union is on the old facility grounds near the entrance.

Once a year they have open cockpit day where you can get inside most of the aircraft.

D6
Click to expand...


From 1974 to 1978 I lived at 23 4th Ave. in Atwater.
I went to Belleview Elementary School.

I hear that all the base housing is fenced in and vacant.

Scot
 
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