Pima Air & Space Museum

Another FOURSDAY and another road trip and today, Tito's dream activity is being realized. 

We venture out to Tucson, Az where the Pima Air & Space Museum has over 400 displays of American Military aircraft, Nasa Space items and other unusual and rare exhibits including a few Soviet built MiG fighters. Later in the day, we take a bus tour of the AMARG Aviation Graveyard where over 4,000 military airplanes and helicopters are stored or dismantled for resale, recycle or demolition. AMARG (Aerospace Maintenace and Regeneration Group) boasts that it is the only US military department that actually makes money.

Entrance into the Pima Air & Space Museum

Let me start by saying that Yvonne and Sandi should be commended for being such good sports about today. Their retaliation day will certainly come.
I will only post a few of the photos I took and only those I found to be most interesting.

This Lockheed SR-71A is, by far,  the most impressive plane on display.  The "Blackbird" was a CIA operated 2-seater Spy Plane capable of speeds over Mach 3. It set a speed record of 2,193 mph and altitude record of 85,069 ft. Quite impressive for the 1970's. In 1990 it flew from New York to London in 1 hr - 55 min - 42 sec.  It was a gas guzzler and could only fly for 1.5 hrs without nursing from a flying fuel tanker.

The U.S. Air Force has been flying the F15A since 1970 and is only now starting to replace them with with the F22 Raptor. Rob and Julie, our friends here at Leisure World,  have a son who flies this type of fighter jet. I found that if you want to know anything about fighter aircraft just ask Rob or Julie.

That innocent looking little item on the dolly in front of the F4 Phantom is actually an unarmed nuclear bomb.

The MiG-23 was the Soviet Unions answer to American fighters such as the F4 Phantom in the previous picture. The Soviets built over 5000 of these MiG 23s.

This is an OV-1 Mohawk that was used for battlefield observation in the 1960's Vietnam war. They are normally equipped with only cameras and infra-red sensors but sometimes do carry armaments. As the story goes, a US pilot got very lucky while taking pictures and he shot down a Soviet MiG after it first attacked him and then inadvertently flew right into his gun-sights.

This odd looking helicopter is a Sikorsky CH-54 SkyCrane. 

Image from Wikipedia

 SkyCranes left military service in the 1990s and are now widely used as Heavy Lift helicopters for erecting electrical towers, fighting forest fires and extracting timber from remote areas. They can fly at 30,000 ft and can lift up to 20,000 lbs.

Various flag markings displayed on a F4 Phantom fighter.

 

This photo and the following one were downloaded from the AMARG website.  They show a small portion of the 4000 aircraft in storage at the Military Aviation Graveyard near Tucson. 

The aircraft are divided into two basic groups. Flyable and Un-flyable. Flyable means they can be made flyable. These are usually up for sale to friendly foreign nations or sometimes they might even end up in museums or displays. Un-flyable aircraft are usually destined to become spare parts for flyable aircraft. Whatever is left over will go to the shredder.

And finally, a glimmer of hope for the future. These B52 bombers are heading for the shredder but not because they are un-flyable.
Under the 2011 U.S. - Russian New-START Treaty, hundreds of B-52's like these, amongst other types of nuclear missile launchers, are being eliminated from the U.S. active arsenal.

This small airplane is equipped with a radar dome on it's back.  Our tour guide told us a funny story about this airplane. Apparently a lady reported that an airplane was being abducted by a Flying Saucer when she saw this unusual airplane taking off from the airport. 

We ended our day with Fajitas and Enchiladas at a Mexican restaurant called On the Border.  

Great choice for Foursday Tito. Now we have plenty of ammunition for our next encounter with Rob and Julie.