1st June
So the Memorial Day holiday is over - I’ve been holed up in my (very comfortable & frostily air conditioned) room in the Hampton Inn at Tucson, waiting for the mayhem which is an American public holiday to subside.
I ride over to the Pima Air Museum – the whole reason I’ve ventured this far south into the Arizona desert…
A word of warning – if you don’t have at least a passing interest in aeroplanes – move on, there’s nothing to see here…
The entrance to the museum leads visitors through an arch, formed by the load bay of the huge Sikorsky Skycrane…
They have a vast collection of exhibits, some stored in climate controlled hangars, like this beautifully restored B24 Liberator…
…some stored under cover outside, like our old friend the SR71 Blackbird…
…which shares its open-ended hangar with a very fast pilotless drone…
Others are stored out in the full heat of the Arizona desert. It’s 107º F as I take these pictures…
…the Lockheed Constellation – surely one of the most elegant looking piston driven airliners ever designed…
…until the military got hold of it and converted it to an Electronic Warfare platform.
There’s all sorts of stuff here, from the B47 – Strategic Air Command’s first all jet bomber…
…to the Super Guppy, originally used to transport NASA rocket components and later to move parts of the Airbus…
But the main reason I’ve come here (and delayed my visit until today) is that I want to visit the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center (AMARC).
This is basically an enormous storage facility for US Military aircraft. They have over 4400 aircraft here, from the old, like this F101 Voodoo…
…to the new, like this B1 bomber…
They store aircraft here (as you may remember airlines do with spare airliners) because the climate is ideal for the task. Each aircraft undergoes an incredibly thorough procedure before going into storage, and more than 20% of aircraft arriving here, fly out again one day…
…there are hundreds of F16s…
…and F4 Phantoms…
as well as dozens of helicopters of all types.
The facility also scraps aircraft. Some of the scrapping is to comply with the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) agreement. B52s are towed out into the open (in plain sight of Russian satellites) and literally chopped up – using a massive guillotine type crane…
Here is the effect it’s had on a C141 Starlifter…
Meanwhile, Russian Backfire bombers are being carved up in Russia, their destruction similarly verified by satellites and by monitoring and inspection teams.
As with all the museums I’ve visited in the USA, the tour guides give a well prepared guided tour and actively seek out and speak to visitors – you really get your money’s worth (entrance and the coach tour of the AMARC totalled under $15).
After returning from the AMARC tour, spend some more time walking around the Pima exhibits…
…before returning to the hotel and prepare to leave tomorrow. I intend to be on the road as close to dawn as possible, heading north east towards Springerville (where I‘ve been before). I was hoping to ride the 191 – my favourite road in the USA so far – but it’s closed by a forest fire
… I’m told that the next road over is pretty good too, so I’ll be giving it a go…
So the Memorial Day holiday is over - I’ve been holed up in my (very comfortable & frostily air conditioned) room in the Hampton Inn at Tucson, waiting for the mayhem which is an American public holiday to subside.
I ride over to the Pima Air Museum – the whole reason I’ve ventured this far south into the Arizona desert…
A word of warning – if you don’t have at least a passing interest in aeroplanes – move on, there’s nothing to see here…
The entrance to the museum leads visitors through an arch, formed by the load bay of the huge Sikorsky Skycrane…
They have a vast collection of exhibits, some stored in climate controlled hangars, like this beautifully restored B24 Liberator…
…some stored under cover outside, like our old friend the SR71 Blackbird…
…which shares its open-ended hangar with a very fast pilotless drone…
Others are stored out in the full heat of the Arizona desert. It’s 107º F as I take these pictures…
…the Lockheed Constellation – surely one of the most elegant looking piston driven airliners ever designed…
…until the military got hold of it and converted it to an Electronic Warfare platform.
There’s all sorts of stuff here, from the B47 – Strategic Air Command’s first all jet bomber…
…to the Super Guppy, originally used to transport NASA rocket components and later to move parts of the Airbus…
But the main reason I’ve come here (and delayed my visit until today) is that I want to visit the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center (AMARC).
This is basically an enormous storage facility for US Military aircraft. They have over 4400 aircraft here, from the old, like this F101 Voodoo…
…to the new, like this B1 bomber…
They store aircraft here (as you may remember airlines do with spare airliners) because the climate is ideal for the task. Each aircraft undergoes an incredibly thorough procedure before going into storage, and more than 20% of aircraft arriving here, fly out again one day…
…there are hundreds of F16s…
…and F4 Phantoms…
as well as dozens of helicopters of all types.
The facility also scraps aircraft. Some of the scrapping is to comply with the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) agreement. B52s are towed out into the open (in plain sight of Russian satellites) and literally chopped up – using a massive guillotine type crane…
Here is the effect it’s had on a C141 Starlifter…
Meanwhile, Russian Backfire bombers are being carved up in Russia, their destruction similarly verified by satellites and by monitoring and inspection teams.
As with all the museums I’ve visited in the USA, the tour guides give a well prepared guided tour and actively seek out and speak to visitors – you really get your money’s worth (entrance and the coach tour of the AMARC totalled under $15).
After returning from the AMARC tour, spend some more time walking around the Pima exhibits…
…before returning to the hotel and prepare to leave tomorrow. I intend to be on the road as close to dawn as possible, heading north east towards Springerville (where I‘ve been before). I was hoping to ride the 191 – my favourite road in the USA so far – but it’s closed by a forest fire
… I’m told that the next road over is pretty good too, so I’ll be giving it a go…
