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July 29, 2004

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Just outside of Tucson, is the Pima Air Museum. You can explore the facility there and/or take a bus tour of the nearby "bone yard" and storage area where there are thousands of decommissioned U.S. military aircraft. Through the AMARC (Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center) many of these planes are being scavenged for parts, rebuilt, recertified, and reused. Some of them are actually sent to be used as drones or targets in training simulations. Others are actually being sold to be used as military aircraft for foreign countries. (Hmm, is that really such a good idea?)

One very sad issue, I feel, is the decommissioning and destruction of the, totally functional, B-52 bombers. After the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia, the two countries agreed to destroy, discontinue, and dismantle various components of defense systems. One in particular was the destruction of 365 of these enormous airplanes. One by one they are being cut into pieces, never to be used again. Large cranes drop a 13,000 pound steel blade and, like a huge guillotine, they literally shear the wings and fuselage apart and into various pieces. The carcass is left there, out in the open, for 180 days so that the Russians can view it from their satellites and verify that it has been destroyed. For each one of our planes that we destroy, they do the same to one of theirs.

You can find out more about the Pima Air & Space Museum by visiting their web site at:
http://www.pimaair.org/