Travel News - Where airliners to go die (or just rest for a while)

Where airliners to go die or just rest for a while in the Mojave Desert.

http://blogs.static.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/33186.html

Photos are mostly of those aircraft likely not to be your gate tomorrow.

I thought it was a mirage the first time I saw it. I was driving through the wastes of the Mojave Desert, two hours from anywhere, when off in the shimmering distance appeared the silhouettes of a hundred parked jetliners.

Interesting pics! Thanks for sharing the link! :)

Awesome pics... Knew about this place but have not seen it photographed like this..

I would love to crawl through all those planes. ^

That was quite an eerie set of pictures! I would also like to just rummage through all those planes. Seems like a cool graveyard to haunt

There is a place in the desert between Tucson and Phoenix where a lot of airplanes are parked. I passed it earlier this month as I was driving. Unfortunately I didn't have time to stop.

There is also a place in eastern KS that has a lot of old airplanes - certainly more of a graveyard than a place to "rest for a while." Saw that one from the air from a small plane a few months ago.

Can ordinary people go there and buy parts? I wold like to get my hands on a F or J seat. :)

There is a place in the desert between Tucson and Phoenix where a lot of airplanes are parked. I passed it earlier this month as I was driving. Unfortunately I didn't have time to stop.

There is also a place in eastern KS that has a lot of old airplanes - certainly more of a graveyard than a place to "rest for a while." Saw that one from the air from a small plane a few months ago.

Not sure it's the same place, but there's also is a place west of Phx that houses many retired aircraft. I think it's called Goodyear.

Awesome pics... Knew about this place but have not seen it photographed like this..

Cool shots from Google Earth

unfortunately , its hard to see great at the spot on the way to Tucson. I have pulled over and tried to see , a few times. The spot on I 40 in N arizona looks like a better view , but i havent pulled over to look.

thanks....i'll send it to my airplane buds....

Fascinating! Thanks for posting these most interesting photos.

unfortunately , its hard to see great at the spot on the way to Tucson. I have pulled over and tried to see , a few times. The spot on I 40 in N arizona looks like a better view , but i havent pulled over to look.
I believe the largest _military_ plane graveyard is Davis-Monthan, between Tucson and I-10. A Tucson city road cuts right through it, so a driver can see quite a bit. Not many places to pull over, though, but it sure is interesting to drive by. Nova actually did a segment on it in 2002-2003.

I visited Mojave a few years ago, working as a tech adviser with a Canadian film crew doing a documentary about the 20th anniversary of the Tenerife 747 disaster.

My visit was described in an article for Salon.com, here...

Letter from Mojave:
http://www.salon.com/tech/col/smith/2006/08/04/askthepilot197/

The photo links inside the article are mostly dead, as the URLs have since changed, but the pictures themselves are still visible, here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/globetrodden/sets/72157625865442573/

I especially love the Eastern DC-8 fuselage remnant.

Patrick Smith

Ironically, I used to work a mile away from the Mojave Air and Spaceport for a company that produces aerospace coatings and sealants. Another division of the company also makes windshields and windows. It was always fascinating to see those planes from our plant gate and know that our work was still holding up to the desert climate.

There's also a graveyard further east in the Mojave Desert in Victorville.

.... There is also a place in eastern KS that has a lot of old airplanes - certainly more of a graveyard than a place to "rest for a while." Saw that one from the air from a small plane a few months ago.

That's probably Dodson's
http://www.dodson.com/index.html

Google their address:-
2155 Vermont Road,Rantoul, Kansas 66079

Interesting to note they do not have a hard runway, just a very long grass strip....

- Tim

I visited Mojave a few years ago, working as a tech adviser with a Canadian film crew doing a documentary about the 20th anniversary of the Tenerife 747 disaster.

My visit was described in an article for Salon.com, here...

Letter from Mojave:
http://www.salon.com/tech/col/smith/2006/08/04/askthepilot197/

The photo links inside the article are mostly dead, as the URLs have since changed, but the pictures themselves are still visible, here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/globetrodden/sets/72157625865442573/

I especially love the Eastern DC-8 fuselage remnant.

Patrick Smith
Oh, the Canadian documentary about Tenerife. Very, very good. I highly recommend it. It is (or was) available on youtube.

My family had close friends who were on the Pan Am 747 (and did not survive), so documentaries are always especially interesting to me.

Driven by here a number of times over the years.. and its a massive facility, goes on forever it seems with aircraft types of every kind imaginable.

Pretty awesome the OP went inside for a tour!

The place between PHX & TUS is called Maranna. It's owned by Evergreen. You cannot get close as there is a guard as soon as you get off the highway.

I don't know about crawling through the aircraft. When I was in Marrana @ Evergreen they were telling my about the rattlesnakes that crawl up in the planes to get out of the desert sun:cool: