Davis-Monthan A.F.B Arizona

A lot of the F4 phantoms are converted to drones

By BAE 😉

A lot of the F4 phantoms are converted to drones and used for target practice sorry to say. In the early 90’s they were using F86 for drones!

Then F-102s and later, 106.
With the end of the Phantom program (I’ve read that for some reason the USAF is converting only E’s and RF’s) they’ll use F-16s.

A lot of the F4 phantoms are converted to drones and used for target practice sorry to say. In the early 90’s they were using F86 for drones!

What basically happens at DM is that the newer arrivals are stored for possable reuse or sale abroad. For example the B-1’s are in store and can be reactivated in 60 days, they have done this recently as attrition replacements. As newer F-15/F-16/F-18 arrive the older ones are parted out. DM actually saves US tax payers billions in replacement parts as they are taken off aircraft as and when needed. The C-5’s for example are time expired but parts like the elevators, and flaps were in demand for the upgrade program. Once the aircraft are no longer needed for spares, or are completely stripped then they are either scraped on site or sold off to local yards. I think they now restrict this to non operational types after somebody tried to sell F-14 spares to Iran a couple of years ago.
The scrap yards are almost like museums themselves but are not acessable. Amoungst the more vintage items are KC-97, C-117 ,F-86, B-57, F-106, P-2, S-2, F-8, T-33, HH-34, HU-16, C-118 and one yard with 100+ H-34 (Wessex to you and me!).

Why do the C5’s have their elevators removed?

Probably as spares for the active fleet. Just a guess but that’s why certain parts are missing from many types.

The modern stuff would be interesting, but I’ll bet it was spectacular in the 1950s and 1960s…

You can buy *stuff* from the scrap yards that surround the base provided it’s isn’t something *special*. If you need a control surface for a coffee table etc they are easy to source.
Somewhere in my garage are some CF scrapers that in a previous life were part of an F117 tail that was thrown in the trash at Lockheed 🙂

JB. Many thanks for throwing some light on the subject, I did in 88, unwittingly pass this piece of aviation history whilst going to Phoenix on the

way back to San Diego.
Bet they could clear their National Debt if they sold bits and bobe to bona fide collectors.
Jim.
Lincoln .7

I was there in October 2010 and there were around 4000 aircraft there plus around 400 in surrounding scrapyards. They seem to process aircraft very quickly now. Once the US or allied forces stop using a type they scrap the majority very quickly. On our visit we were told the F-111’s were going to be scraped shortly after as the RAAF were retiring theirs.
They seem to save a few of each type for museums, there were a few F-14’s and C141’s left on our visit. I would say it is the number 1 must visit for any military enthusiast, plus the museum is awesome. They do two daily 90min tours from the museum of the base. There are also several local flying schools who will do photo flights.

Why do the C5’s have their elevators removed?

Do any of the aircraft ever get returned to flight for military or other purposes? Seems a waste of time if all they do is mothball, store then scrap. Why not just scrap?

p.s. there is a tv series called “Earth after man” where they hypothsise about what would happen to the planet if humans were removed. One episode focuses on Davis Monthan and the aircraft. Did you know the aircraft are periodically repositioned because of the effects of weather. The biggest threat to the aircraft survival is from the ground upwards. Plants would engulf and strangle them.

I was there in October 2010 and there were around 4000 aircraft there plus around 400 in surrounding scrapyards. They seem to process aircraft very quickly now. Once the US or allied forces stop using a type they scrap the majority very quickly. On our visit we were told the F-111’s were going to be scraped shortly after as the RAAF were retiring theirs.
They seem to save a few of each type for museums, there were a few F-14’s and C141’s left on our visit. I would say it is the number 1 must visit for any military enthusiast, plus the museum is awesome. They do two daily 90min tours from the museum of the base. There are also several local flying schools who will do photo flights.

Fantastic, isn’t it and I think Google maps is more up to date than Bing. I went there many, many years ago and it is astonishing to see how much it has grown.

My first visit was c1981 when there was at least twice as many aircraft as now….I think the total on the base and in the surrounding yards was over 7000 then. There were still many ex Vietnam war aircraft , both USAF and SVietnam AF.

The Pima County Museum (on the edge of the base )was then relatively new but already held many interesting aircraft.

Been back a few times since but that first visit was by far the best .

This was July 2000. These were the intact ones. There were many more chopped up and left for the satellites to see.

In the foreground of the B-52 picture, there are rows and rows of stealth aircraft 😉 :diablo:

Here’s some of the other aircraft on my tour.

I first went there in 1976 when my brother was stationed at Luke AFB near Phoenix. Our request to tour the boneyard was so rare that the D-M public affairs staff simply assigned us an airman to ride in our car as we drove among the rows taking photos. So we made our way around in my brother’s Pontiac Firebird (as seen in The Rockford Files) avoiding the small sharp scraps of planes that had already been axed. Having grown up on air bases with many of these types, it was a bit surreal. My slides from that trip are awiting scanning into a digital format.

Today (or last I heard) they (in conjunction with the Pima Air Museum) have weekly bus tours and no one is allowed off the bus.

Of course by then all the WWII stuff was long gone (save a few C-47s and C-54s), but there were plenty of piston transports (C-119s, Connies, C-124s and KC-97s) and colorful “century Series” fighters. While there, I saw a “Roman nose” (no radar) early C-130 land at the base. I wondered if I witnessed its final touchdown.

The area was ringed with early model silver B-52s. They were out of service but too good/new to scrap, so they sat there. Some had been there since the mid-60s. The base golf course was nearby and the jets made an imprerssive backdrop.

In the early 90s, when I was stationed in the Phoenix area while in graduate school, I went down to Tucson often. Of course I had no trouble getting on the base and while I couldn’t get official permission to enter the storage area, I drove around the perimeter at will. More than once I’d be out in my red MX-5 and would meet a Security Forces truck on a dusty road. I’m sure they thought I was nuts.

Later, while assigned to Wright-Patterson, I had business at the base which got me a very official tour.
By then the silver B-52s had been broken up on site and their places taken by newer planes made surplus by the end of the Cold War. I climbed in the very B-52G I had flown in just a few years before. It wa stripped and was awaiting the chop. I imagned I would be the last person ever to board her that had flown in her. I managed to take a pice of scrap out of it. Marked with the plane’s serial number, it sits a few feet away on one of my display cases. (I also picked up a half-buried a red navigation light from a T-33 wingtip drop tank).
The late model B-52Gs are also gone now. They were chopped up on site and their bones were left to bleach in the sun for months to allow Russian satellites to confirm their destruction.

I met with the man whose job (among other duties) was to keep track of the airctraft loaned for displays. He was had plenty of A-7s available…and could get you a Phantom without problem. He loved the planes and wanted to see as many as possible avoid the scrappers. (Of course you had to be an accredited musem or city and had to provide transport and disassembly).

On my last visit it was strange to see F-15/16/18s in store along with A-10s (many awaiting a conversion program with new wings), Harriers and the like. Not to mention hundreds of Phantoms in every color scheme. Now the transports stored were C-141s and even a few C-5s and KC-135s.

As a matter of interest, do they sell bits and bobs, ie pistons, valves etc.
Anyone know?.
Jim.
Lincoln .7

No. After spares are eclaimed by the Air Force/Navy, the airframes are sold to yards that border the base.
Some types (transports, light planes, small helicopters) are restored and sold for civil use. Engines/avionics with potential civil uses are also sold on.
Most are broken down for metal. I understand rules have been tightened to avoid parts going to places where we don’t want them to go (F-14 parts to Iran).
I was in one yard and the owner had saved the front fuselage and cockpit from a F-105 just because it looked neat.
I’ve bought some parts from them: a control wheel, instruments and a tail rotor blade from a H-34/Wessex.
Flying home I carried the blade as carry-on baggage on a TWA flight. The older man at the ticket counter looked at it and said…”You don’t need to bring your own props, we fly jets now”.

Are the Salt Lake Treaty B52’s still there?

As a matter of interest, do they sell bits and bobs, ie pistons, valves etc.
Anyone know?.

Jim.
Lincoln .7

When I was last there, about 12 years ago, I was surprised to see a line of Harriers there. It just shows how soon aircraft become redundant. It seems only yesterday that we had 2’s 3’s and 4 F-111’s in loose formation on their way back to Upper Heyford.

A field full of derelict B 52’s must be something to behold…

Fantastic, isn’t it and I think Google maps is more up to date than Bing. I went there many, many years ago and it is astonishing to see how much it has grown.