![]() Such parts might include flight controls, engines, doors, landing gear, recorders, etc.įinally, the remaining valuable materials are recycled. Then, valuable parts that can be used in other airplanes are removed. Workers must first get rid of any hazardous materials. Have you ever thought about how complex airplanes are? A Boeing 747 contains over six million parts, 170 miles of wiring, and nearly 150,000 pounds of aluminum. When aircraft reach the end of their lives, the workers at aircraft boneyards will take them apart for recycling. The dry climate makes them ideal places to store these large metal machines. Most aircraft boneyards are located in dry desert areas. Finally, they’re sealed to protect them from the elements. When aircraft arrive on site, they are stripped of weapons, electronics, and classified hardware. Some fighter jets are even turned into drones. Others are scrapped for usable parts and recyclable materials. The boneyard even houses old space shuttles from NASA! Some of the aircraft are stored for future use. This boneyard holds old military and government aircraft.Īt the 309th AMARG, you’ll find 4,400 airplanes, jets, and helicopters. It’s part of the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona. The world’s largest aircraft boneyard is the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG). They usually end up in a place known as an aircraft graveyard or boneyard. Most aircraft tend to have long life cycles. That got us WONDERing…what about airplanes? What happens to aircraft when they get too old to fly or aren’t needed any longer? ![]() There may be cars, trucks, and even buses. ![]() You can find all kinds of vehicles at a salvage yard, too. There, it’s used for parts or crushed and recycled for scrap metal. If a car or truck is too old, though, it might end up in a salvage yard. Those trade-ins can then be resold to other people looking for a different vehicle. Many times, when people buy a new car, they trade in their old one. You may have also noticed that both brand new and used cars were up for sale. You might find cars from many different brands all being sold on the same lot. Have you ever gone with adult friends or family members while they were shopping for a new vehicle? If so, you know most car lots sell a wide variety of vehicles. Aerospace Maintenance And Regeneration Group,.But for those of us who love aviation, there's something a little bit sad about row after row of aging aircraft sitting in the desert, all but forgotten. We're probably all lucky that some of the old birds sitting in those graveyards aren't being pressed back into service. Keating says he expects that 40 percent of the planes at Evergreen will never fly again, especially older gas guzzlers like the DC-9, DC-10, L1011 and early 747s. Some of the planes currently baking in the desert will go back into service as the economy improves, but others have reached their final destination. The 9/11 attacks sent entire fleets to the desert, and boneyard aficionado John Weeks says things got so bad in the years following that sometimes airlines would fly planes directly from an assemblyline to a boneyard without having carried a single passenger. There was an influx after the big oil shock of 1974 and another in the early 1980s when deregulation changed the way airlines utilized their fleets. By the end of the 1960s, they were being filled with prop planes as airlines took delivery of their first passenger jets. They were swamped by retired military planes after World War II. Airplane boneyards go through boom and bust cycles.
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