Tucson - Part C
Davis-Monthan Air Force Base - Aircraft Storage Tour

Voyager RV Resort, Tucson, AZ, Altitude: 2,821 ft.
September 2-11
2007 Fall Trip - 37 days and 3,177 miles into trip

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When I was in the Navy the obsolete airplanes were kept at Litchfield Park NAS near Phoenix. As we passed through Phoenix I looked for it, but it was not on the map.

As we drove by Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson I saw Navy planes being stored there. They also advertised a tour. The tour was very interesting. I found out that in years past the Department of Defense, in their base consolidation, decided to combine all military aircraft storage here at Davis-Monthan.

The base is divided into 4 parts: An active air base, storage for surplus aircraft, boneyard where unwanted surplus planes are stripped for parts, and a aircraft museum.

These pictures are from the storage area. I toured it in a bus and had to shoot the pictures through the window. A plane in storage can be made flight worthy in less than 8 hours. They contain all electronics, armament, engines, and equipment in working order. The area is sectioned off by make of aircraft.

It was interesting to see over 200 F14 Tomcats sitting side by side. That was the plane Tom Cruise flew in “Top Gun.” Even though it was still a very good weapon, it was pulled out of service because of it’s high maintenance cost. The F14 is only flown by one other country in the world, Iran. Because of our poor relations with Iran, the order just came down to destroy all F14s. They do not want any parts leaving here for Iran. So next year if you tour the base you will not see the F14 in storage.

F14 Tomcats
There were rows and rows of planes in storage.

F15 Eagles.

H-3 Helicopters.
They remove the rotor blades because they are susceptible to ultraviolet rays.
Those are spare engines in the background.

Airforce jet trainers.

F4 Phantom
This plane was developed by the Navy and had the same Sparrow III missile that I worked on. I saw it in prototype while I was in the Navy at missile shoots.
It out performed anything the Air Force had so they also ordered it. They are now slowly being converted to drones and used as targets by the Air Force and Navy.

These are all F4's. There must be 400 to 500 planes.

There were many different types of helicopters.
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