On
the east side of Tucson is the PIMA Air and Space
Museum and across the street from this rather large
facility is the what is called by the locals, "The
Bone Yard". The bone yard is were airplanes are stored,
some repaired, some robbed for parts and many waiting
until the enconomy improves. There is probably a
thousand planes in the bone yard. There are tours
during the week through the boneyard, unfortunately
we were at PIMA on the weekend.
An
excerpt from Pima's web site: "Pima Air & Space
Museum, where history takes flight, is one of the
largest air and space museums in the world, and
the largest non-government funded aviation museum.
You'll see more than 300 aircraft and spacecraft
including many of the most historically significant
and technically advanced craft ever produced, both
from the United States and throughout the world".
On
the left below is the entrance to the museum and
on the right, the one and only time I will ever get
to sit in the cockpit of an aircraft!
.
Some
of the planes are really quite interesting to see.
Take for example the Lockheed SR71A Blackbird shown
in the pictures below!
.
The last of a small family of aircraft built by Lockheed's famous Skunk
Works, the SR-71 is one of the most recognized aircraft
ever built. Design of what would become the Blackbird began in 1958 with
a request from the CIA for an aircraft to replace the Lockheed U-2. The
aircraft the CIA got was a single seat, twin engine, delta-winged design
called the A-12. Even though the other versions of the Blackbird were
known publicly the existence of the A-12 remained secret until 1982.
The type made its first flight from the Groom Lake, Nevada test site
in April 1962. Slightly larger than the A-12 and with a longer range
the first SR-71 flew in December 1964. In total 50 aircraft in the Blackbird
Family were built with 30 of them being SR-71s. It is hard to overstate
the technological achievement represented by the Blackbird. It holds
world speed and altitude records and is the only manned, jet-powered
aircraft to exceed Mach 3.
A brief list of some of the records held by the Blackbird:
July 28, 1976 - World absolute speed record - 2,193 mph
July 28, 1976 - World absolute record for sustained altitude - 85,069
feet
September 1, 1974 - New York to London - 1 hour 55 minutes
42 seconds
March 6, 1990 - Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. - 1 hour
4 minutes 2 seconds
There
are over 300 planes to see at PIMA. I included a
couple more pictures we found interesting.
.
Next
we are on to Laughlin, Nevada were we wail be staying
for a week or two. We are going to checkout this
area for possible places to rent and stay for a month
or so.
Next
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