Pete McCluskey.
Lifetime Supporter
An Aviation first.
- Thread starter Pete
- Start date
Jim Rosenthal
Supporter
Very funny....took me a moment, I am ashamed to say.
Are those ALL junked airplanes? Wow.
Are those ALL junked airplanes? Wow.
David Morton
Lifetime Supporter
They should have filled the Centre Wing Tank with 30 tons of water to prevent it blowing around.
The planes in Petes photo are mothballed at Davis Monthan AFB Tucson, AZ. Thousands of planes of every type.
Jeff Young
GT40s Supporter
Al, HUGE graveyard like that for airliners in the Mojave near Tehachipi. Cool place.
Isn't that the "long range 747" version with shorter fuselage and taller tail?
That is cool. The Davis Monthan area is a 2,600-acre site with over 4,500 military aircraft. In the early 1990s, 350 flyable B-52 bombers were destroyed at the site. Each aircraft was chopped into four pieces with a blade dropped from a crane, and left out for 90 days so their destruction could be confirmed by Russian satellites. It's amazing how easily our tax dollars are pissed away. That must have been the best part of a billion dollars.
Considering the remaining B-52's are worth their weight in gold, and have a planned service life out to the year 2040, with possible extensions....yeah, that's something to cry over when looking back at it.
Think about that. An aircraft that first flew in 1952 will be in military service 90 years later. Bang for your buck doesn't get much better than that.
Think about that. An aircraft that first flew in 1952 will be in military service 90 years later. Bang for your buck doesn't get much better than that.
David Morton
Lifetime Supporter
Rick,
I think its a freighter -either a -300 or maybe a very early -400 but the wingtips are obscured which would identify it. It could actually be a converted Singapore Megatop. Because of the engines and maintenance inspections of old crap like this they are put into scrapyards and anything of any worth is stripped out before the rest is converted into caravans and window frames. The quality of the aluminium ingots derived from these scrapyards is not something you really want to use again in an aeroplane in the future.
The higher performance 747 you mention might be the B747-SP which again are becoming very rare as nobody wants to re engine them. Indeed they had higher tailfin ( or vertical stabilizer) to counter the loss of an outboard engine at lower speeds, a shorter fuselage
(Which was the reason for the higher tailfin) [a mucher smaller lever moment of rudder deflection]. They were the favoured jet of the arab leaders but of course Boeing came up with -400 conversions with gold taps, jacuzzi's, ferrari garage in no 1 Hold, cinema, formal dining room, and even a little boys room. I'll leave you with that thought.
Qaboos bin Said (bin Taimur) has such a -400 and his previous was the -SP
I think its a freighter -either a -300 or maybe a very early -400 but the wingtips are obscured which would identify it. It could actually be a converted Singapore Megatop. Because of the engines and maintenance inspections of old crap like this they are put into scrapyards and anything of any worth is stripped out before the rest is converted into caravans and window frames. The quality of the aluminium ingots derived from these scrapyards is not something you really want to use again in an aeroplane in the future.
The higher performance 747 you mention might be the B747-SP which again are becoming very rare as nobody wants to re engine them. Indeed they had higher tailfin ( or vertical stabilizer) to counter the loss of an outboard engine at lower speeds, a shorter fuselage
(Which was the reason for the higher tailfin) [a mucher smaller lever moment of rudder deflection]. They were the favoured jet of the arab leaders but of course Boeing came up with -400 conversions with gold taps, jacuzzi's, ferrari garage in no 1 Hold, cinema, formal dining room, and even a little boys room. I'll leave you with that thought.
Qaboos bin Said (bin Taimur) has such a -400 and his previous was the -SP
David Morton
Lifetime Supporter
PS - In1969 when BA's 747-100s first arrived and the BALPA union refused to fly them, the P&W engines were sold on to other operators. As a result of a silly accident I was being transferred from an Army hospital in Catterick (Yorkshire) to Headley Court (250 miles away in Surrey) so I directed the young Army driver ( I out ranked him) via the Heathrow Eastern area where the aeroplanes were parked and I could have a look at the new Jumbo jets . I noticed where there had been an engine there was a concrete block which was preventing the wind from lifting the nose. I never ever thought I would get to actually fly those very aeroplanes as operating pilot some twenty years later. I guess that trip in that Army ambulance fuelled my ambition to fly as a Pilot in BOAC. It was called BA by the time I joined and they looked so much better in the BOAC scheme but that didn't matter all that mutch.
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