AIRAILIMAGES VIDEO MAGAZINE 7 (Davis-Monthan MASDC Boneyard 1971, B-58, B-26K, C-124, B-52, B-47) 

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Ouch . . . I wince, with such symbolism ! 🎭 🇺🇸

And thanks for sharing your memories.

Thank you for watching and commenting. This project is near and dear to me.

Mach 2 Monster!

Yeah, those lines were amazing!!! Only a couple of them remain - One at Pima and the one they rescued from Chanute...

When the wind was right you could hear the C-124's brakes screeching for MILES!

Thanks for watching... and for being a Marine.

TreeTop1947 I

taketimeout2 When I saw some photos of a Hustler many many moons ago, I said That is the sleekest jet aircraft ever, especially for a bomber. I still say its the most beautiful jet aircraft ever. Now for the Ugly Awards there are many candidates.

I wonder what the Russians first thought when they saw it.

Wonder what one would be like today with modern computer control and newer power plants. For a jet bomber, I didn't think anything rivaled it's beauty.

@@ronfullerton3162 Anyway, it was an overdesigned flop.

I was at an airshaw at March AFB in the late 60’s, where there was one on static display. Impressive, even standing still

Thank you for adding your experiences at Davis-Monthan. Interesting comments.

I hope you have the opportunity to enjoy that. Thanks for watching!

Thanks!

I saw a.Boeing B50 bomber . an upgraded version of the B29.

Yes, the C-124 was a milestone in airlift development. Lots of retired airlifters have a soft spot for the '124. Thanks for watching and commenting.

Chuck La Mont : would love to see a C-124 restored to flying condition...

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Thanks for watching and commenting. Yes, when I saw those F-111s I was surprised too, but they were developmental and test birds that I believe were not readily interchangeable with production aircraft in the field.

And thanks for watching. From time to time we'll have more photo essays from that era.

Much like you John seen most of these and flew on a few as well.

I grew up just outside Goldsboro NC and Seymour Johnson AFB and on the weekends in the summer we went to our place on Emerald Isle near Cherry Point MCAS & New River NAS. I watched Seymour Johnson go from a SAC Base with B-52s to a TAC Base with F-15s. I was born just a couple years after the Broken Arrow incident that occurred there. At the beach, out on the boat, we would watch the A/V-8Bs head out to sea to set up for their attack runs over the beach and into the bombing range. Great times.

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Era’s passing like years! If only we could slow down time to lock in the memories.

I believe that!

Fellow Air Force brat here. Among my many memories is one of living across Lake Worth from Carswell AFB and seeing the Northrop YB-49 'flying wing' whooshing over our house on final approach . Science fiction! It was the sleazy Stuart Slimington, Secretary of Defense, who forced Northrop to give up the flying wings and instead awarded contracts to Convair for the Rube Goldberg-designed B-36s, which I saw plenty of when my old man was stationed at Loring (then Limestone) AFB in northern Maine (1952). Dad used to hear mechanics complain about how frequently breakdowns kept the B-36 out of the air. Ugly as sin as well. UFO enthusiasts might remember reports of regular sightings of unexplained craft hovering over the nuclear weapons bunkers at Loring, before it finally closed down. It's all on the web.

I hear you -- I had the opportunity as a civilian Wing historian to fly on airlift missions around the world (C-141s, C-130s) with some of the best can-do people I have known.

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Thank you for watching, and commenting. I am glad I could share those pictures.

Agree! I think the AF should save more aircraft from destruction. Imagine scattering old airplanes throughout the country for people to enjoy, or building stashes of spare parts for restoration projects for museums or the war bird scene!

How cool was that none of these old planes should be broken up

Thank you very much! More to come...

👍👋👍👍🇦🇺

You are welcome. Thank you for watching. And thanks for your service.

Wow -- thanks for sharing that story. Sounds like your dad was with EC-47s. Interesting service. Thank you both for watching.

@@airailimages yes! The EC-47Q.

@@fetengineer9151 If I may ask, is your father still here, and if so did he go to the 6994th Security Squadron Reunion last year?

Thanks for sharing that story. And thanks for watching.

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You served in a very interesting time in the development of American military aviation. Thank you.

Good story! Thanks for adding it to the mix of messages.

Thank you Debbie! This stuff is fun.

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Hi Fred... I started shooting airplanes about this same timeframe, late 60s having commandeered my father's Contax IIa rangefinder. Alas, none of the Pan-X negs survived the detours of life. It wasn't til the late 70s I got more organized cataloguing my Kodachromes. This was an artful presentation; a snapshot of several generations of aero technology better than most museums can front!

Brian --Yes, Panatomic-X was gorgeous for black-and-white when the light allowed; slow ASA of 32, if I recall. I was fortunate when I was a teenager to get to know aviation historians and photographers like Pete Bowers who had extensive collections of negatives. I started, literally, with a shoebox of negative envelopes that I watched over and grew until it became larger and somewhat organized. I will continue to dig out more vintage photos for programs like this as we go along...

Thank you for watching and commenting! I'm glad you found something of interest. And I look forward to hearing about your own uploads.

You are welcome. Thank you for watching.

You are very welcome. We have more C-124 films on the Airailimages RU-vid Channel; here's a link to one of them: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-mLijN63cJW8.html

AMARG is no scam. It actually is a money maker. Parts for aircraft still in use but out of production are mined from stored aircraft and used on aircraft of that type still flying. Much less expensive than having parts for out of production types newly manufactured. Older aircraft are sold for scrap and the metals recycled. Very cost effective and generates a profit for the Air Force. If you used authentic parts for you F-4 instrument panel display all of them probably passed through AMARC and would not have otherwise been available. The A-1s used by the Air Force in Viet Nam were all pulled from then MASDC and most, if not all, of the replacement airframe and flight control surfaces along with engines and many other parts replaced on battle damaged aircraft also came from the boneyard. The A-1 was one of your "old slow-and-vulnerable relics" that built an heroic reputation in Southeast Asia. Other obsolete types, such as the T-28, were also pulled from the boneyard and sold to Viet Nam and Thailand and used effectively during that period. BTW, while you were at Seymour Johnson in '71, I was a crew chief/flight mechanic with 377 CAMS on T-39s operated by 7th Air Force Flight Operations (Scatback) at Tan Son Nhut AB (12/70 - 12/71) following a tour with the 4453 CCTW at DM as a young F-4C crew chief (6/69 - 11/70).

Brian, nice reply buddy but you misread my comments. The scam isn't AMARC, it's the ultra wasteful US government and even more wasteful Pentagon, as always. I understand the great job that AMARC boneyard, or whatever it's called these days, does. Yes, many of the later models of surplus aircraft there are carefully stored for future use, or for eventual sales to foreign nations. These aircraft are typically sealed with the white plastic coverings to protect them from the elements and they undergo annual inspections, engine starts, systems checks, and maintenance, to keep them airworthy. Also, like you mentioned, many of the older obsolete aircraft provide out of production parts for still-operating US military aircraft as well as those sold to or operated by our allies. Glad you made it back from Tan Son Nhut AB, Vietnam, with all your fingers and toes. ;^) I also was in SEA, but late in the Vietnam War when it was a manic all out air war. In early April 1972, under emergency war orders, my 334TFS F-4E fighter squadron, and also our fellow 335th and 336th buddies, were deployed to Ubon RTAFB to combat the massive push into S. Vietnam by N. Vietnamese forces, called the Eastertide offensive. Of course, many US military units from all over the world were also deployed under the same emergency war orders at that time. I personally ended up serving a total of 14 months TDY (Temporary Duty) in SEA in 1972-73 during both Linebacker I and Linebacker II aerial campaigns. It was grueling, especially during the Max Effort missions, where some days up to 100 loaded-for-bear F-4Ds from the vaunted 8th TFW, and our newer gun-nosed F-4E Seymour Johnson Phantoms, were lined up on the taxiway as far as the eye could see, waiting in line to take off for MiG hunts, etc. During much of that time I worked EOR (End of Runway) checking each Phantom right before takeoff, then turning the aircraft over to the weapons guys, to arm the myriad of laser-guided bombs, anti-personnel cluster bombs, Air-to-Ground and Aim-7 and Aim-9 missiles, and later, napalm canisters (the use classified as Top Secret during that time). We, my fellow EOR mates and I, were also tasked with checking all returning-from-combat Phantoms, as well as some Navy/Marine Phantoms. This was required immediately after the EOR weapons crew de-armed whatever ordnance that hadn't been used. Ubon RTAFB was the first alternate to Da Nang AFB so we received quite a few of these wayward Navy/Marine F-4s, some shot up, as well as our own. That period of time was an experience I'll never forget. And during my first TDY deployment, I was asked if I wanted to volunteer for a TDY deployment to Da Nang AFB, Vietnam, to join a crew supporting our damaged-during-combat Seymour Johnson Phantoms that couldn't make it back to Ubon. My dad, a career USAF pilot had warned me early on to NEVER volunteer for anything the military offered, so I respectfully declined that offer. Luckily, I also came back from that unnecessary conflict with all my fingers and toes. Cheers from Thailand brother!

@Steven Van Niman LOL you're absolutely right... I'm not a vet. I don't treat/heal animals. OTOH the big old heavy USAF F-4E Phantom II fighter jets I used to work on were quite beastly at times! Merry Christmas!

Thanks for watching and adding your story.

Thank you for a philosophical observation.

Такова жизнь. Увы, ничто не вечно под Луной!

Thanks for watching and commenting. We've got a lot more in store!

I've been saying the same thing since I can remember... There are plenty museums out there who would love to get their hands on any of these birds. I hate to see them destroyed, it's like erasing history and the man and machines that made it!

Military Air Transport Service. MATS was the combined Navy and USAF air transportation commands from 1948 till it became USAF's MAC in 1966. How we flew back from Guam in 1956 in a C-54 that had engine troubles causing a 2 week stay on Kwaj.

Thanks!

Thanks!

Will do. Thanks.

You can see a B-47 on display in Pooler, Georgia at the Mighty 8th Air Force Museum. Right next to I-95. www.mightyeighth.org/ Being a Navy brat, I still liked the looks of the B-47 over that of the B-52. And the B-58's looks beat both of them.

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That's quite a variety! Thanks for watching and commenting.

Being a military brat in the middle 50s and 60s had its privileges. First jet I flew on was a BOAC D-H Comet and after that flew on a Boeing 707. When they both were new. Didn't see any DC-7s or C-54s/R5Ds in the video. Failure of an engine on a MATS C-54 resulted in a 2 week stay on Kwajalein. The C-124s were very busy when we arrived in Florida bringing in the Army missile equipment right after the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Glad you found this video! Thanks for adding your family story. Quite a few of our viewers come from families with an aviation background, and it is interesting to see what they have to say.

You're welcome. Thanks for watching.

It's good that we were able to capture these aircraft on film. How many aircraft in other boneyards and other eras went to the smelter with no last photos to remember them by...

I flew on a MATS flight in a C-118 from McGuire, to St. Johns, to Prestwick and on to Mildenhall in '63 as a dependent. An adventure to say the least. Went to MAC shortly after that.

Thank you for watching and commenting. We have some more boneyard videos on the Airailimages Channel; hope you'll view them too.

Many types shown at D-M are on display at Pima County Air Museum right across the road. And had to wonder if some of them there were aircraft I had flown in when younger.

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You're very welcome

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Thanks!

Good catch. Thanks for watching and commenting.

t sam, that’s amazing, thanks for all that you did.

I'll make a guess -- the rudders are a large surface that catches the desert wind, and if the rudder lock fails or is not installed, the constant wind banging from right stop to left stop could do damage -- just my hunch. Thanks for watching!