Airplane Boneyards

SixPapaCharlie

SixPapaCharlie

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Anyone ever been to one?

I see them on TV shows like Mythbusters and have seen photos around.
Can you go in and walk around them and climb inside the planes or are they off limits?

Closest one I see to me is in Abilene, TX

Or s it like a scrapyard where you pay a fee and buy the old parts?
Ideally I would like to go visit one and take photos. of the interior of the decaying planes.


Anyone know how these places work?
 
The ramp at a few airports I frequent would qualify. :)

The only one I've been to is the one at KTUP and it is hideous looking. Someone greased city council pretty good to get that in there. Not sure I'd want to take any pictures there, it's an embarrassment.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
Anyone ever been to one?

I see them on TV shows like Mythbusters and have seen photos around.
Can you go in and walk around them and climb inside the planes or are they off limits?

Closest one I see to me is in Abilene, TX

Or s it like a scrapyard where you pay a fee and buy the old parts?
Ideally I would like to go visit one and take photos. of the interior of the decaying planes.


Anyone know how these places work?
Click to expand...

The closest one to you is across the street from LNC. Air Salvage of Dallas. They will allow you to roam around if you are actually looking for something specific. So will the one in Abilene if you ask for something reasonable.
 
Ive been to the one at DM in Tucson. It is a very unusual experience to see that many aircraft lined up waiting to be dismantled.
 
I flew a few Eagles to the boneyard at Davis-Mothan. Not all of them are scheduled for dismantling. Many of them are kept in "war reserve" status where they are hermitically sealed and started ~ every 18 months. Don't get me wrong, they aren't current front line fighters but it'd be a lot easier to spin some of those up than build new ones. Look at where they got the jets for the 69Th bomber squadron when they opened it a few years ago.

Having said that, one of the saddest days of my career was flying my jet from Tyndall to the boneyard.
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Same here, a few B-52's out of Castle.
 
Roswell has a bunch of civilian aircraft.
 
Your typical Navy and Air Force installation usually has an aviation boneyard in it. I used to spend hours at the dump, and the airplane boneyard.
 
At Davis Monthan, a civilian can't just go wander around. You can take a bus tour of the boneyard, but you stay on the bus. At least, that was the case when I was there.
 
I've been to Air Salvage of Dallas (in Lancaster, actually) looking at a salvage plane prior to bid, and one in Central Oregon years ago. I could spend hours wandering around looking at planes, especially structural details since that is my profession. ASOD has an open house/big sale once a year, in December, I believe. They might escort you around if you're looking to purchase something in particular, but I don't believe you can wander freely as some of the planes under their care are tied up in litigation and thus you're not supposed to see them.
 
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