Pima Air and Space Museum/AMARG

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Took a short walk to Loew’s resort next door and then got ready to head to Pima Air and Space Museum, something we have intended to do on our other trips to Tucson.  It is the third largest museum in this country of its kind and houses about 360 airplanes some inside and some outside. We first visited the 390^th Memorial Museum which is a tribute museum to the courageous men who flew B-17 bombers over Europe during WWII.  There are many personal stories and histories of their lives during the war, the high casualties, being a POW, learning to fly in 1-2 weeks and then going on a bombing mission.  It houses the B17G Flying Fortress named “I’ll Be Around.”

 We took a docent lead tour of Hangar 1 which was primarily unique aircraft.  There were 2 small planes that had been piloted by women and donated to the museum.  They both flew them into Tucson when they were well into their 80’s when they each decided they perhaps should give up flying!  One of them was a beautiful Leer jet with passenger capacity of 7. Another plane we saw,  was the Blackbird SR-71 which was built by Lockheed and was a reconnaissance jet which holds world speed and altitude records.  It is the only manned, jet-powered aircraft to routinely exceed Mach 3.  Its speed record is 2193 mph and altitude 85,069 foot sustained altitude.  It has gone from LA to Washington DC in 1 hour and 4 minutes, 2 seconds.

Leer Jet donated by the 80+ year old woman

Blackbird SR-71

The Bumblebee - at one time the world's smallest aircraft

 We also went on a docent led tour of Hangar 3 and 4 which was all World War 2 aircraft.  He talked a lot about the B-24 Bomber which was an unpressurized plane so the men who flew in them had to wear lots of clothing, including electric underwear.  The spaces they occupied to complete their bombing missions were extremely small, so they had to be all scrunched up.  He also talked of the unity of the country during this time, the women who worked in the factories making the aircraft and showed the thousands of rivets in this particular plane where one woman stood on the outside and one held a piece of metal on the inside to smash the rivet into. 

B-24 Bomber 

After Pima we got on a bus to go to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base which houses AMARG (the Boneyard).  Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group.   If you have ever driven down Kolb Avenue in Tucson you most likely have been amazed by the sheer number of planes on either side of the road (over 4000).  The west side are still potentially active planes that are being housed and stored and the east side are parts planes or aircraft to be “shredded”. 

Unfortunately we don’t remember the exact aircraft but one of the fighters is still being destroyed under the Stark Treaty with Russia.  Initially they were using a Guillotine like device to chop off the wings and tail so that the Russian satellite could confirm the destruction of the aircraft.  They then figured out this was wasteful as there were useful parts they could harvest by using more precise “scalpel” method of  destruction.  It is shocking how many planes sit here in the desert.  She did keep emphasizing that this was an active place, selling parts to other “friendly foreign countries”, recommissioning and repairing aircraft for other use.  She talked of the F-14’s that we supplied Iran with when they were a “friendly foreign country” (when the Shah was in power)and how now we are destroying the planes to make sure Iran cannot get parts.  This plane was replaced by the F-15 and currently the F-16 as the F-14 was very expensive and difficult to maintain. Tucson was chosen due to the extremely dry weather and very hard soil which allows them to store aircraft without having to lay concrete. We saw many A-10 “Warthog” planes taking off (used successfully in the 1^st Gulf War taking out Iraqi tanks) which are one of the 3 aircraft that are active at the air force base (not the boneyard). 

All in all, it was a fascinating day.  If you are interested at all in aircraft, visit the Pima Air and Space Museum’s website to see the planes they house and if in Tucson, visit the museum.  It is well worth your time and money.

Blue Angel Jet

Stopped for groceries, came home and made another big salad and watched the lively and contentious Presidential Debate.  My goodness how nasty they both can be.  It is hard to like either one of them.