Pima Air Museum and the Boneyard
Conor recommended I see the Pima air and space museum while I was in the Tucson area, so today I finally made the 10 mile trip.
I arrived as early as possible as I was told that it is easily a full day visit if not more. Getting there before the crowds has it’s advantages, including easily buying a $7 ticket for a bus tour of the “Boneyard”. While I was hoping to be able to walk through the graveyard of planes, it happens to be located within the air base itself and we were not allowed to see it any other way than on bus. Still, we had to show picture I.D. as we were still entering the base.
The “Boneyard” or “Graveyard” is a half truth nick-name to this place. It is actually an open-air storage facility of thousands of airplanes in various stages of decay. Half are basically in storage and can be ready to fly again with minor maintainence. The rest are parts-planes for the rest of the airplanes in the US military… it is far from a graveyard. The white latex-type coating (to seal out the elements) signify the planes ability to re-live and why the planes may appear to be ‘bones’
Afterward, I went into the museum itself and was able to walk among and touch more than 300 planes including restored B-29, B-17 (my childhood favorite), P-51 Mustang, and the SR-71 (another favorite). My ability to walk around and view planes on display was nothing new, but here you can get in there and feel them, and many you are able to walk under and get up in there to see inside the wheel-wells and engines. It was a refreshing approach and worth the $15 entry fee.
