Boneyarded (Airplane content)

[AfricanSnowOwl]

So last week I had to honor of getting to retire one of our Jets. It had been in service for over 45 years and logged almost 30,000 flight hours. We took it on it's last flight ever, to the boneyard in Tuscon AZ.
(This is all common knowledge BTW, so no OPSEC here)

These C-5A models are all slowly being phased out over the next few years to be replaced by the C-5M model. Theres only about 7 left, all stationed at Lackland AFB.

If you live in Tuscon you definitely either saw or heard us approaching as we came in to land.

We did an overhead approach followed by a few low level 360s over the city to space ourselves behind some A-10s

As we crossed the runway threshold

Everybody signed above their crew position...

And also on the outside around the door

And now the jets final resting spot in the boneyard. It will spend the next few years kept in a status that maintains the jet as "flyable" just in case the air force decides they desperately need this tail back in action, but after that it will be used for parts and or shredded.

 

[crazycarlo]

Nice. I actually looked at the Boneyard on Google the other day and was sad. It appears all but 7 F-14's have been destroyed.

 

[Led_Zep]

Very cool, some of my old squadrons tomcats are out there, I need to take a drive down.

 

[BacNBlak]

There is something creepy but cool about boneyards. I'm more familiar with the James river ghost fleet. It's just weird to think of the history that these pieces of equipment have been involved in. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Zemedici]

How big is that boneyard? Thank you for sharing. First time I've ever seen or heard of a 'boneyard' or what its used for :beer:

 

[AfricanSnowOwl]

Not sure exactly how big the boneyard at Davis-Monthan AFB is, but it took about 2 hours for the guy to drive us around the whole thing only stopping a few times. This boneyard is strictly military and NASA. There is also one in New Mexico for retired civilian aircraft.
It was definitely a cool/creepy feeling seeing all those jets/choppers. Some of which were involved in major historical events.

 

[crazycarlo]

There are only 7 of them left in the yard. The rest were either sent out to different places or destroyed. I was VF-101 and VF-143. I miss working on the Big Cat.

 

[JetmechF16]

I used to work on C-5 turbofans in Delaware, don't miss pulling those monster motors!

 

[Planter]

Nice. I actually looked at the Boneyard on Google the other day and was sad. It appears all but 7 F-14's have been destroyed.

not to fear, there's at least ONE still operational and flying. It's owned and funded by a private individual. I saw it at Thunder Over Louisville 2011 in Louisville, KY.

wish someone had been able to buy an F-14 Tomcat and keep it strictly for flying airshows. Miss that damn jet!]

edit: my bad, i thought you originally said F-4's, but I see now you said F-14's. I might be dyslexic and not realize it. lol.

 

[SID297]

Sad to see it go into storage, but time marches on.

 

[Zemedici]

Not sure exactly how big the boneyard at Davis-Monthan AFB is, but it took about 2 hours for the guy to drive us around the whole thing only stopping a few times. This boneyard is strictly military and NASA. There is also one in New Mexico for retired civilian aircraft.
It was definitely a cool/creepy feeling seeing all those jets/choppers. Some of which were involved in major historical events.

That would be creepy. Awesome place to take pictures, though.

 

[jimmy77]

Shes just a pup with less than 30000 flight hours. Lufthansa has numerous 747-400's with 100k Plus fight hours. The C5 is a neat plane...I like em wide and curvy

 

[Sapperstang]

None of the A's are being upgraded to the M model?

 

[Prototype007]

Glad you got to share pictures with us! Stories and pictures like this is what will lead to documentaries for our future to look back on.

We've got a local boneyard for civilian aircraft. Seems like a whole new fleet of stuff shows up every 5-6 years.

 

[Stanger00]

Always will have a soft spot for the C-5. Dover AFB was my first duty assignment from 2003-2006.

 

[VegasMichael]

Very cool plane. There's another big boneyard in Victorville, CA which houses mostly civilian planes. Chockfull of old 747s.

 

[AfricanSnowOwl]

Yeah, no A models were or will be upgraded to the M. They've been using the newer B models. There's two C models(NASA modified A models) out flying around but those are also scheduled to get boneyarded.

 

[03cobra#694]

Great stuff, thanks for sharing.

 

[Powershift03]

Very cool photos. Thanks for posting!

 

[motoman991]

Awesome pictures! Thanks for sharing!