O maior cemitério de aviões do mundo (+ de 10 milhões de m² e 4400 aviões)

Airplane Graveyards



by Joe Zentner



You have heard, of course, about aging elephants that wander off to die in a specific communal place, a kind of elephant graveyard. It’s sort of the same concept in south central Tucson, in the heart of the Sonoran Desert, where old airplanes instead of old pachyderms come to rest.

The Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, within sight of Interstate 10, contains a storage facility known to many locals as the “boneyard.” The facility functions as a holding place to store planes until their ultimate fate has been determined.


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The Tucson area serves as an ideal graveyard for airplanes. It has a dry, clear and virtually smog-free climate that helps minimize corrosion. It has an alkaline soil so firm that airplanes can be towed and parked on the surface without sinking.

These military war-horses have officially been mothballed—forced into retirement. Their engines and windows have been covered with tape to protect them against the desert’s sand and dirt. A properly sealed plane can be stored for years in the desert, thanks to the moderate winters and low humidity.

An airplane graveyard is not just a fence around airplane carcasses and piles of scrap metal. Rather, many millions of dollars worth of surplus parts are salvaged to keep active aircraft flying, including U. S. planes that have been sold to foreign governments.


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Mothballing


Planes that are to be mothballed, if only temporarily, go through a meticulous process to prepare them for exposure to the desert environment. On arrival, the planes are inspected. Fuel tanks are filled with heavy oil, which provides a protective coating for engine parts. Canopies, engine intakes and other openings are sealed with layers of “Spraylat,” a latex-based, permanently flexible substance that is easy to remove.

The top layer of “Spraylat,” which is white, reflects enough solar heat to keep a plane’s interior at nearly the same temperature as the outside air. Without Spraylat, the interior could quickly heat up to 200 degrees Fahrenheit during hot summer days. The coatings protect the plane’s most vulnerable parts against sun, wind, dust and nesting animals. Every four years, the planes are brought into an open hangar for a checkup.


Four Categories of Mothballed Planes


Most of the airplanes that sit in desert graveyards today date from the Vietnam era or later. They are divided into four categories, depending on their future prospects.


• Category 1000 planes are preserved with an eye toward possibly flying again, should international political conditions warrant.

• Category 2000 planes are maintained for spare parts. Some parts from older aircraft, are available nowhere else.

• Category 3000 planes are kept in near ready-to-fly condition, awaiting a more-than-likely new deployment.

• Category 4000 planes are destined for “static display” in museums, town squares or Air Force base entrances. Most, however, will be sold as scrap metal, eventually finding new life as razor blades, soft drink cans or car fenders.

Among the most notable Category 4000 planes is the Cold War’s most enduring icon, the B-52 Stratofortress heavy bomber. Most B-52s in the U. S. fleet are headed for the scrap heap under the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).


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After arriving at the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center, or AMARC, the B-52s are stripped of engines and other parts that might be needed to maintain the surviving active fleet. Then they are towed to a special place to await the executioner’s ax—a 13,500-pound steel blade, hoisted 60 feet into the air by a crane and dropped. The blade “goes through this airplane like butter,” observes Joe McKinney, AMARC’s chief of treaty compliance. The plane is cut into five separate pieces: first the tail comes off, then both wings, then the fuselage is cut in two, between the wing attachment points.

Chopped-up aircraft must remain on the ground for 90 days after they’ve been reported destroyed, to give the former Soviet Union time to verify by satellite surveillance. The only exception to this rule occurs when Russian inspectors come in and release the destroyed plane following an on-site verification.


Location of Desert Boneyards


AMARC is situated near the heart of Tucson, at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, a boneyard for some 4000 airplanes. Under various names, AMARC has performed its unusual mission since it housed B-29s and C-47s from World War II. These older planes are gone, sold as surplus or scrapped. Today, if you want to see old, commemorative airplanes, you have to visit various military installations around the country.

Another notable airplane graveyard is located in Southern California, at the Mojave Airport, where retired planes are cannibalized for spare parts. Although fenced off with concertina wire and patrolled regularly, it is still possible to walk up to the fence and peer at the many abandoned aircraft.

The airplane graveyard is located at Flightline 1434 in Mojave. Take Interstate 15 North over Cajon Summit toward Victorville, California, then take 395 exit and keep on going up Route 395, you will see huge commercial jets off in the distance. Flightline 1434 wasn’t meant to be an airplane graveyard, but, out of necessity, it has become that. Here there are all sorts of plane makes and models. They were parked here after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, because airlines could no longer afford to keep so many flights in the air as they once had, and because hangars at many U. S. airports were full.


Tours


The Pima Air and Space Museum, under contract with AMARC, offers tours of the Tucson airplane boneyard. Tours are available Monday through Friday (excluding federal holidays). Departure times from the museum at 10 a. m., 11:30 a. m., 1:30 p. m., and 3 p. m. Tours last an hour and ten minutes.

During the tour you will see thousands of aircraft in storage. While individuals are allowed to take photos or video for private use, they are not allowed off the tour bus while on AMARC property. For information on tour schedules and fees, contact the Pima Air and Space Museum at 1-520-574-0462, or visit the Pima Museum website.

The military planes that rest in our Southwestern deserts today are a mix of Strategic Air Command gray and Desert Storm camouflage. Even with large parts missing and rough shards of metal hanging in place of the engines, the planes convey a sort of faded dignity. Some sport nose art identifying them, as for example, Yankee Doodle II or Tantalizing Takeoff.

Bringing planes to their final resting-place can be an emotionally trying experience for veteran pilots, for example, Colonel William Saunders. He flew a B-29 tanker during World War II. At the end of the war, when the military had a large surplus of aircraft, he found himself parting with cherished planes on many occasions. Former astronaut and military pilot Frank Borman restores and flies old planes. Plane enthusiast George Litzenberg today spends his retirement years helping restore Sentimental Journey, a B-29 bomber flown during World War II.

When the last of the B-52s and fighter-bombers at AMARC are scrapped, the planes will disappear from their neat rows in the boneyard as completely as the World War II vintage aircraft that went before. Presumably, they will someday be replaced by the aircraft patrolling our skies today.


Fonte: http://www.desertusa.com/mag06/apr/airplane.html

Cemitérios de aviões foram criados em 1945 para estocar parte dos mais de 300 mil aviões construídos pelos Estados Unidos durante a Segunda Guerra Mundial.

O maior cemitério fica na base aérea de Davis-Monthan em Tucson, no deserto de Sonora, no Arizona e ocupa uma gigantesca aérea de mais de 10 milhões de m².

O local foi escolhido por ter baixo índice pluviométrico e baixa umidade, o que diminui em muito a desgaste das aeronaves.

Existem mais de 4400 aviões militares da USAF nesse cemitério. Grande parte deles ainda pode voar e fazem parte da reserva aérea estratégica da USAF, que é de longe a maior do mundo. Todos os aviões que dão baixa da USAF vão para esse lugar.

O Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center (AMARC) é responsável por fazer a manutenção e regeneração dos aviões. Os aviões passam por um processo antes de serem levados aos seus aposentos, os motores, os vidros e as entradas são completamente seladas para evitar a entrada de poeira e os tanques são enchidos com óleo pesado.

Com a crise da aviação comercial mundial após o 11/set, companhias aéreas do mundo inteiro estacionaram seus aviões nesse cemitério esperando que o mercado volte a crescer como antes.

O cemitério virou atração turística e se transformou no maior museu aéreo a céu aberto do mundo, amantes da aviação vem de todas as partes do mundo ver de perto a historia da aviação.


Coordenadas: 32.166997, -110.854563 (Latitude, Longitude)


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puuuta que pariu quanto caça, quanto aviaoo meu deus :O

Caramba, parece até joguinho RTS...:sm54:

Quem se mete contra o poderio bélico dos EUA??????? :sm11:

Nossa senhora, quanto voador :eek:

não tem como reciclar as carcaça deles? reaproveitar o ferro, aluminio, etc?

tem uns ali que se funcionassem ainda dava pra fazer um bom estrago hehe

Quote:

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Originalmente postado por Raybon

Nossa senhora, quanto voador :eek:

não tem como reciclar as carcaça deles? reaproveitar o ferro, aluminio, etc?

tem uns ali que se funcionassem ainda dava pra fazer um bom estrago hehe

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Nossa com ctz!!! dah pra bombardear o mundo com esses aviões!!!! hehehe

mto loko mesmo!!!! :eek:

foda q isso num passa d uma vitrine norte americana pra mostrarem o poder belico deles!!!
e o q eles disperdiçam materia prima por nd!!!

o que tem de B52 naum eh brincadeira PQP, puta arsenal gigante seria se ainda extivessem em operação...


PS... cena triste ver os F14 sucateados, um dos caças mais fodas que já voaram e saiu de operação esse ano...

foda demais, pqp, sem noção...

Quote:

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Originalmente postado por Raybon

Nossa senhora, quanto voador :eek:

não tem como reciclar as carcaça deles? reaproveitar o ferro, aluminio, etc?

tem uns ali que se funcionassem ainda dava pra fazer um bom estrago hehe

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eles reciclam sim...

eles usam uma guilhotina enorme, fatiam o avião e transformam eles em cubinhos de ferro e manda para a recicladora...

esses aviões estão TODOS aposentados

eles ficam no deserto porque ai eles não sofrem tanto desgaste, assim podendo ser recolocados na ativa ou vendidos para paises pobres (tipo nós) sem muita dificuldade...

Naqueles acordos de desarmamento nuclear (START, etc), os B-52 eram "decapitados", ficavam expostos por umas semanas para os sovieticos tirarem fotos de satelite para ver se os acordos estavam sendo cumpridos...

http://www.murdocnet.net/pics/b52chop.jpg

Nossa com esse dinheiro que eles gastaram pra fazer esses aviões dava pra ajudar tanta gente...

Malditas guerras, são um atraso para a humanidade...

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Originalmente postado por Chrno

Nossa com esse dinheiro que eles gastaram pra fazer esses aviões dava pra ajudar tanta gente...

Malditas guerras, são um atraso para a humanidade...

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Na verdade, isso é uma ironia.

Boa parte das coisas que você usa hoje em casa, foi provavelmente desenvolvido com fins militares ou coisa parecida.

Principalmente se tratando de transportes, comunicações, medicina...

Inventaram o foquete V2 para cair em Londres... disso saiu os foquetes que levam satelites ao espaço... os nazistas inventaram o avião a jato para combater os aliados... disso surgiu os aviões que levam pessoas de n lugares do mundo... o Helicoptero foi originalmente concebido para levar e tirar tropas e feridos de regiões de conflito, e hoje ele é usado para transporte, resgate, televisão... os primeiros socorros que salvam hoje MUITA gente, foi aperfeiçoado durante a Guerra do Vietnam (você nem imagina o quanto foi aperfeiçoado)... enfim, existem n exemplos.

Hum mas eu não acho que o mundo teve mais avanços em periodos de guera, é só vc pegar, revolução industrial, renascimento entre outras grandes mudanças que ocorreram no mundo. todas elas ocorreram em periodos de paz.
Ou vc acha que se a segunda guerra mundial tivesse se prolongado até os dias de hoje estariamos nesse grau de evolução?
As civilações produzem em periodos de paz e de guerra, a diferença é que nos periodos de paz as tecnologias produziadas são com destino a população enquanto nos periodos de guerra as tecnologias são produzidas contra a população, somente com o fim de guerras é que essas tecnologias são convertidas para beneficio do povo.
Com o povo benificiado todos saem ganhando e a humanidade sobe um degrau na evolução.

Gostei do tópico cara!

Valeu!

Uma coisa q me intrigou e c alguem tiver informaçoes coloquem ae...eh como q era feito o transporte desses monstros!!
tava vendo no google earth...tem uma pista d pouso mas nenhum acesso a algumas areas q estaum os aviões!! e eh td organizadinho!!
e com ctz ele num desmontaram e montaram cada avião pra por ae neh!!

San Andreas e seus tópicos rox!!!! Muito bala.... muito mesmo!!!

Porra, manda uns f-14 de presente pro Lula, Bush!!! Pra ajudar a defender o Brasil dos EUA.... heheehehehe

caramba....mto doido....eu ficaria perdido la....ja imaginaram vcs andando la no meio desse monte de sucata!?

ESSES AVIÕES LA SÃO SUCATA, E AQUI NO BRASIL A AERONAUTICA USA AVIÕES MAIS ANTIGOS QUE AQUELES. MAS QUE BARBARIDADE TCHÊ!:sm03:
:sm43:XXX