How to travel to the American Aircraft Cemetery?

The aircraft cemetery, as the name suggests, is the place where aircraft finally end their lives. When mentioning this name, we have to mention the location of the world's largest aircraft cemetery-Tucson. This desert city in Arizona is named after the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base where it houses retired U.S. military aircraft.

The base covers an area of ??10.5 square kilometers, equivalent to more than 1,400 football fields. It was first built in 1925. It retains more than 5,000 aircraft, 80% of which belong to the United States air, sea and Retired aircraft from the Army and Coast Guard, as well as some lesser-known experimental aircraft. This is a must-visit pilgrimage site for many aviation fans, and it is also the best place to watch all the flights. You will definitely see more military aircraft here than you will see at any other time in your life.

The reason why this was chosen as a cemetery was not because of its good "Feng Shui". There are three main reasons:

First, the altitude here is relatively high, and it is surrounded by desert. The air is dry all year round, so many parts of the aircraft will not corrode.

Secondly, the soil quality where the base is located is relatively good. It is relatively dry and hard red clay, which can bear the weight of the aircraft, so it is almost impossible to build a runway to park and move the aircraft.

Third, the base is large enough to park as many aircraft as you want, and the land stock is large.

It is these three reasons that make it the best choice for a cemetery. The aircraft that come here will stay here if nothing else happens, but there are also lucky ones. In the past 25 years, more than one-fifth of the aircraft have returned to the sky after maintenance or been sold to other countries. .

A few years ago, a B-52 bomber in the United States was involved in an accident and was severely damaged. Then a 56-year-old B-52 was found from this cemetery. After renovation, it continued to be rebuilt. Back to the blue sky!

After my first trip to this holy place among aviation fans in 2014, I came here again to start a unique air journey.

On the first day after arriving, we still followed Google Maps and circled Davis-Monthan Air Force Base to find the right angle to view the aircraft. There is a scene in the video where I am standing on the roof of a car. When I took a photo, I got the picture from the angle above. The C-130 ended its life under the setting sun. It was infinitely emotional.

When we came here in 2014, we took a base inland bus to visit Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. The rows of dismembered fighter jets were shocking enough.

At that time, a group of us took a bus and went deep into the base through this gate. We were really shocked by the fighter planes inside. But this time when we came here and planned to make an appointment to enter the base, the staff of the PIMA Museum told us that according to the regulations issued just 3 days ago, all visitors to the base must make an appointment on the website, and they must make an appointment at least 10 days in advance. Upon review, this disappointed the group.

Recalling our visit at that time, the retired Air Force pilot told us many stories as a volunteer. This time we met a veteran who had participated in the Vietnam War at the Air Force Museum. While we were chatting, we heard the roar of fighter planes taking off in the distance. The veteran didn’t even look back and said they were two F-16s. Sure enough, ! Two F-16s then appeared in the sky.

He also said that if you hear such a sound during the war, it means that death is not far away. There was still indifference in his eyes.

PIMA Aviation Museum

After that, we simply went directly to the PIMA Aviation Museum. This is the second largest aviation museum I have ever seen so far (the first is the United States Dayton Air Force Museum, will be introduced in the next issue). Although it was already my second time here, I was still very excited and walked around from beginning to end.