Largest
military aircraft cemetery - 'The Boneyard' sets world record
TUCSON, AZ, USA -- Dubbed The
Boneyard, but officially known as the 309th Aerospace
Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG) facility,
spreads across 2,600 acre site, with a collection of over
4,200 retired aircraft worth $35billion , setting the world record for the Largest
military aircraft cemetery.
Located in Tucson, Arizona, on the Davis-Monthan
Air Force Base, the world's
Largest military aircraft cemetery was first set up
shortly after World War II. It was chosen for its high altitude
and arid conditions, that mean the aircraft can be left outdoors
without deteriorating too quickly.
A major industrial centre, AMARG
manages an inventory of more than 4,200 aircraft and 40 aerospace
vehicles. Some planes are merely stored at the base between
deployments, but for more than 80 per cent of the 4,200 aircraft
that call it home, it is a cemetery of steel - 350,000 items
to be called on when needed. Now, for the first time, a series
of high resolution satellite images of the four square mile-site
have been released by Google Earth. They show in incredible
detail the full range of aircraft found at the site.
A major industrial centre, AMARG
manages an inventory of more than 4,200 aircraft and 40 aerospace
vehicles.
Among the aircraft are B-52 Cold War-era
bombers that were retired in the 1990s under the the terms
of the SALT disarmament treaties signed between the US and
the Soviet Union.
Also, on show are dozens of F-14 fighter
planes which were retired from the US Navy in 2006 and featured
in the Hollywood movie, Top Gun. The
Boneyard has also featured in a series of films, the
most recent being Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
Among cabins, wings and undercarriages are more
than 4,200 of the western world's military aircraft, said
to be worth $US35 billion that were at one point in history
the most advanced weapons of the air.
In addition to being a massive plane park,
AMARG also refurbishes aircraft, returning them to flying
status or preparing them to be transported overland.
Officials at the base say that the parts
reclaimed and aircraft withdrawn turns every tax dollar spent
into 11 dollars in return.
Over the past 25 years more than a
fifth of the aircraft have been returned to flying status,
officials said. Similar to a large-scale recycling plant,
hundreds of staff sift and sort almost 20,000 pieces of junk.
Most of the aircraft are vacuum packed in
the hope they can be restored and returned to service or sold
to other nations.
"309 AMARG
does not own the aircraft stored here, they still belong to
the delivering military services and government agencies,”
said a base spokesman.
"Some of the aircraft belong to various
aviation museums like the National Museum of the U S Air Force,
the National Museum of Naval Aviation, the Smithsonian National
Air and Space Museum.
"This area was selected for two reasons.
The first is Tucson's dry climate minimises damage caused
by corrosion. The second reason was the ground under the site
consists of about six inches of dirt topsoil.”
He added: “Beneath that is a claylike
sub layer called ‘caliche’. This extremely hard subsoil makes
it possible to tow and park the planes in the desert without
constructing new parking ramps.”
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