A waste

[Netpackrat]

A year or so ago, this aircraft was the pride of JAL's -200 series freighter fleet. Now they are operating all -400 aircraft, and the airline they sold it to decided that the best thing to do was strip it for parts, to keep their existing fleet of less carefully maintained 747s flying. Out of all the 747s that I worked on, 8180 was my favorite and this just pisses me off.

[Rumpshot]

That kind of thing happens at Goodyear, AZ. But this airframe was not one of them here. We have close to 100 air carrier aircraft on the field right now, mostly 737's and MD-80's with a mix of others. I think, offhand, we only have 2 747's bound for the recycler. But we have a bunch of 727's that are in limbo. Not airworthy, nobody will admit to ownership, can't even be scrapped.

[blackeagle603]

She's a long way from commissioning day at Paine Field. Grieves me to see an aircraft die.

[mekender]

One of my must see things out west is the Boneyard... though i do not know if i can make it through without tears in my eyes.

[Steamforger]

One of my must see things out west is the Boneyard... though i do not know if i can make it through without tears in my eyes.

It's a damn good thing I don't live anywhere near the place else I'd probably have jacket several inches thick.

Sometimes I get on Google Earth, and dream...

Edited to add- Slight hijack: anybody know what these might be???

[Cybrludite]

The cargo plane looks like a C-123. As for the wedges, please look into this flashy-thing...

Judging from the pic of a wedge next to a P-38, it appears to be around 55 feet long, so my initial guess about them being the nose sections of a A-12/YF-12/SR-71 won't work. The "wings" go much too far forward to be a F-102 or 106. Too short to be a F-117. Dunno what those are.

[Catbird]

The cargo plane is almost certainly a Boeing YC-14.

The wedge shaped thing looks like a Lockheed D-21 drone.

[mekender]

your picture Wedge.jpg is indeed a x-21 drone

here it is from a side shot

http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/3847002.jpg

the other two are located a few streets over on the same area of the base.

What i cant place is the aircraft behind it painted with the AF-1 scheme... the tail number does not match the numbers from previous AF-1 models... so perhaps it is a 707 that was painted that way for display?

[Catbird]

What i cant place is the aircraft behind it painted with the AF-1 scheme... the tail number does not match the numbers from previous AF-1 models... so perhaps it is a 707 that was painted that way for display?

Built as a KC-135A Stratotanker, it was used by the FAA from 1960 to 1976 registered as N96 and named "Ol' Smoky". Thereafter it was converted to one of only three EC-135K "Head Dancer" command posts, the other two conversions were 55-3118 and 62-3536. All three were operated by the 8th Tactical Deployment Control Squadron.
In 1996 59-1518 was converted to C-135K and assigned as a VIP transport to the 15th Air Base Wing, 65th Airlift Squadron, Hickham AFB, Honolulu, Hawaii. It was retired March 7, 2003 and flown to the AMARC in Phoenix, Arizona, USA, where it can be seen on "Display Row" (also known as "Celebrity Row").

>>link<<

Two more pics: (1) (2)

For a real mystery, perhaps someone could explain to me the 727 I witnessed in the Boeing Everett factory back in 1999-2000 or so. It was obviously well-used, all white, and had no markings whatsoever. It was only there for a couple of days and no one I talked to knew anything about it.

[randy]

Judging from the pic of a wedge next to a P-38,

Actually, I think that's an O-2 FAC bird (Military version of the Cessna Skymaster)