Suprising tidbit of info...........

[GEEDUBBYA]

Howdy All,

I just came across a fact I was previously unaware of. When you think of the worlds airforces, and who has the largest, The US and the former soviet union come to mind right away. However, I just found out who has the worlds third (3rd) largest Air force...........
Any guesses? Would you be suprised if I told you Tuscon, Arizona?
The US Air Force "boneyard" just outside of Tuscon, Arizona has the worlds third (3rd) largest Airforce sitting on the ground. The vast majority of them are all capable of being made ready for flight again should the need ever arise. Check out these Pics:

http://us.f802.mail.yahoo.com/ym/us/ShowLetter?box=Inbox&MsgId=5583_26038233_172415_1901_693817_0_84001_911 983_1396894650&bodyPart=6&YY=48316&order=down&sort=date&pos=0&view=a&head=b&Idx=1

http://us.f802.mail.yahoo.com/ym/us/ShowLetter?box=Inbox&MsgId=5583_26038233_172415_1901_693817_0_84001_911 983_1396894650&bodyPart=3&YY=48316&order=down&sort=date&pos=0&view=a&head=b&Idx=1

http://us.f802.mail.yahoo.com/ym/us/ShowLetter?box=Inbox&MsgId=5583_26038233_172415_1901_693817_0_84001_911 983_1396894650&bodyPart=2&YY=48316&order=down&sort=date&pos=0&view=a&head=b&Idx=1

See any planes you know? I see everything from Skyraiders to eagles and tomcats and phantoms to B 52's and others.
Just thought I wouls share.

Have a good day,

Greg aka GW

[GEEDUBBYA]

me again,

oops....no skyraiders lol.



have a good evening, would someone let me know if ya'll can see the photos? thanks,


Greg aka GW

[Willja67]

Nope it just says that the session has expired.

[Bowdenja]

Ditto.......... session expired.

[46rob]

How then do you explain the fact that Davis Monthan is a USAF base? Doesn't that just make it part of the Air force?

[Kaz]

For those with google earth its location is lat=32.1546433728, lon=-110.84165456
search for pima earthspace museum in the Google Earth search bar

[shrike]

On a related note.
Did you know that Pepsico (the cola people) at one time in the 1980's had the second largest navy?
Pepsi was the distributor in the US and other countries of Stolichnaya Vodka. They also sold Pepsi products to the former USSR. The Soviets imported more Pepsi than they exporeted vodka, so in order to even out the balance sheets they made a deal to pay Pepsi with a large number of obsolete naval vessels as scrap. All of them were eventually broken up either in Russia or India, but if the Cola Wars had turned hot.......

[GEEDUBBYA]

Howdy Guys,

sorry about the photos.

http://www.combatreform.com/a4skyhawksatdavismonthanafb.jpg

http://www.merc.mercer.edu/mercinternet/projects/photos/21.jpg

http://www.merc.mercer.edu/mercinternet/projects/photos/23.jpg

http://tbirds.hp.infoseek.co.jp/damon1.jpg

Sory bout the original photos, I had already deleted the email this am before work so I looked these up on google.

have a good day,

Greg aka GW

[Stev0]

Theres a similar parking lot for non-military aircraft that unlike the above are taken car of day to day since it's cheaper to store them in a large open dry area than to go through the process of moving them around and resulting repair/maintenance requirements. Crews go out amongst the planes opening doors during the morning to vent the jet liners and close them up come sunset to prevent cooking the insides.

Are not the above planes a majority of retired aircraft that have served a set amount of air hours to put them in danger of a possible metal fatigue incident? Especially for combat aircraft and navy aircraft which take a daily pounding landing and taking off from carriers and pulling super G manuvers?

[shrike]

A lot of them are obsolete/obsolescent, but not all by any means. In fact in the 90's Apaches (built 100 miles north) and Blackhawks were shipped straight into storage as crew training lagged behind production.
In todays world of rapid transportation, many squadrons don't maintain the reserve strength of a/c on site like they used to (WWII average was a 50% reserve at any given time to provide back up a/c and parts). It's easier to keep them in one central location with specialized crews to maintain and pull parts.

The USAF also bought as many 707's as it could find to provide spares for the K/EC 135 fleet. That means that a big chunk of DM looks like a TWA ramp<G>

[46rob]

A lot of the planes are there as result of the downsizing that has occurred over the past twenty years. New aircraft are more capable, hence fewer are needed. Fewer aircraft result in a need for fewer pilots, and therefore, trainers. the decreased ASW threat coupled with improvements in ASW, means lots of patrol planes are parked.

Many times, aircraft are procured and put into storage, for use as spares, and later, when older airframes are at their service limits, the still new airframes are removed fom storage, equipt with modernized gear and sent to the fleet.

Sometimes, the planes are found to be needed and returned to service, as was the case with the Navy's A-1 series aircraft, which were transfered to the USAF for service in Vietnam. This is also where our allies sometimes obtain their aircraft as well, like the transfer of A-4's to Israel in the seventies.