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Great photo series. It's worth noting that not all of the planes are there permanently. Many are there in long-term storage and would be flyable with some maint

Great photo series. It's worth noting that not all of the planes are there permanently. Many are there in long-term storage and would be flyable with some maintenance.

Avshalom 9y ago
Also I believe there's quite a few military b-XX there kept for spare parts.
- CapitalistCartr 9y ago
  The Air Force keeps theirs in Arizona at Davis-Monthan. And it looks the same, only bigger.
  - kkylin 9y ago
    Yes, and if you're ever in Tucson, the Pima Air & Space Museum offers a bus tour (weekdays only I think) of the "bone yard" at Davis-Monthan. There's also the Pima Airpark a bit outside of town (see https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/19/business/747-airlines-final-flight.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/19/business/747-airlines-fin... ).
ChuckMcM 9y ago
I was going to add this as well. I have visited the Mojave airfield and "space port" a number of times, both when Rotary Rocket and Scaled Composites were active there and later as part of a group that was looking into wind turbine efficiency (there are big turbines up on the ridge to Tehachapi) A bunch of planes there have come off lease and are being held pending new leasing arrangements, those are basically ready to fly. Some have used up their cycle count (landings/takeoffs/pressurization/depressurization cycles) and act as spare parts for similar models still flying. One clue is the ones that have had their winglets removed are generally 'donor dollies' where the owner has started parting them out to recover what remaining value they have. I would also love to crawl around the military depot in Arizona but so far have come up short on a good enough reason :-).
- mc32 9y ago
  Given at least some of these aircraft have reached their usable lifecycle and presumably those stressed parts can't go back into similar aircraft at that point, why aren't the materials being recycled more? Is it too costly to recycle these alloys? One might think that if aluminum drink cans are worthwhile recycling, more massive aircraft parts would also be profitable to recycle.
  - ChuckMcM 9y ago
    That is a good question, and it was the subject of a paper in 2007 (http://www.phinix.net/services/Recycling/Recycling_Aluminum_Aerospace_Alloys.pdf http://www.phinix.net/services/Recycling/Recycling_Aluminum_...) which basically says that aircraft alloys have a lot of impurities to improve their toughness which makes it harder to recycle them into something useful.
    - mc32 9y ago
      Thanks, that's interesting. Although it seems to presume that the recycled aluminum alloys would go back into aircraft and thus would need further [relatively costly] processing/refining to remove impurities and meet modern specs. However, unless expensive to process at all (recycle) they could be recycled for other uses --like park bench frames, ladders, food service furniture, new truck beds, camper tops, etc. I can see where cheap iron may be more economic than even recycled aluminum though.
      - ChuckMcM 9y ago
        It is a solid idea. One of the things I have done a little research on is the question of planned economic communities. One possible engine in that type of community would be recycling.

Great photo series. It's worth noting that not all of the planes are there permanently. Many are there in long-term storage and would be flyable with some maintenance.

Avshalom 9y ago

Also I believe there's quite a few military b-XX there kept for spare parts.

CapitalistCartr 9y ago
The Air Force keeps theirs in Arizona at Davis-Monthan. And it looks the same, only bigger.
- kkylin 9y ago
  Yes, and if you're ever in Tucson, the Pima Air & Space Museum offers a bus tour (weekdays only I think) of the "bone yard" at Davis-Monthan. There's also the Pima Airpark a bit outside of town (see https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/19/business/747-airlines-final-flight.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/19/business/747-airlines-fin... ).

ChuckMcM 9y ago

I was going to add this as well. I have visited the Mojave airfield and "space port" a number of times, both when Rotary Rocket and Scaled Composites were active there and later as part of a group that was looking into wind turbine efficiency (there are big turbines up on the ridge to Tehachapi) A bunch of planes there have come off lease and are being held pending new leasing arrangements, those are basically ready to fly. Some have used up their cycle count (landings/takeoffs/pressurization/depressurization cycles) and act as spare parts for similar models still flying. One clue is the ones that have had their winglets removed are generally 'donor dollies' where the owner has started parting them out to recover what remaining value they have. I would also love to crawl around the military depot in Arizona but so far have come up short on a good enough reason :-).

mc32 9y ago
Given at least some of these aircraft have reached their usable lifecycle and presumably those stressed parts can't go back into similar aircraft at that point, why aren't the materials being recycled more? Is it too costly to recycle these alloys? One might think that if aluminum drink cans are worthwhile recycling, more massive aircraft parts would also be profitable to recycle.
- ChuckMcM 9y ago
  That is a good question, and it was the subject of a paper in 2007 (http://www.phinix.net/services/Recycling/Recycling_Aluminum_Aerospace_Alloys.pdf http://www.phinix.net/services/Recycling/Recycling_Aluminum_...) which basically says that aircraft alloys have a lot of impurities to improve their toughness which makes it harder to recycle them into something useful.
  - mc32 9y ago
    Thanks, that's interesting. Although it seems to presume that the recycled aluminum alloys would go back into aircraft and thus would need further [relatively costly] processing/refining to remove impurities and meet modern specs. However, unless expensive to process at all (recycle) they could be recycled for other uses --like park bench frames, ladders, food service furniture, new truck beds, camper tops, etc. I can see where cheap iron may be more economic than even recycled aluminum though.
    - ChuckMcM 9y ago
      It is a solid idea. One of the things I have done a little research on is the question of planned economic communities. One possible engine in that type of community would be recycling.