Our first evening at the “Resort” was a little noisier then we expected. We are in the “doggy allowed area” so everyone has at least one to three dogs. The trailer next to us has three “barky, barky” Westies with nasty temperaments. They growl and bark incessantly and the owners do no try to quiet them. Our neighbor to our left tells us that the dogs bark all day. Great!!! We love dogs and understand that dogs need to be trained to be quiet – so you can only blame that on the owners.
Ron loves planes and he has wanted to go to the plane “bone yard” for years. I guess there are two in the country - one in California and one here. So it was off to the Pima Air & Space Museum about 12 miles northeast of us.
Our first stop was in the Spirit of Freedom Hanger where A10A”Warthog”, SR-71A “Blackbird and many other fighter aircraft were on display.
Then there were the beautiful jets.
We then toured the 390th Memorial Museum where they had the most intact and well preserved B-17.
Ron and I were amazed at the confined spaces that gunners had to access to do their job.
The men that fought these battles are and were true heroes.
Then it was time for the tram tour around the 80 acres with over 300 planes. The docent led tour was done by a retired Air Force fighter pilot, turned commercial pilot, turned tour guide. He was able to give us a complete history on every plane on the grounds succinctly and all by memory. It was an amazing tour.
The plane below was used to fly missions over the jungle during the Vietnam Conflict. It was painted black to blend into the night skies.
The tour of the grounds was very good and I do believe we got the history of at least 200 of the three hundred planes and helicopters on display!!
Then it was on to the AMARG (Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group) tour Ron was really looking forward to. Also called the Bone yard tour of the 4000 planes that are stored at the Davis-Monthan AFB. We were told that right after the Vietnam Conflict there were 7000 planes at the base.
The Stealth Bomber is so stealth you can’t see it! The docent made sure we took note of this display.
The planes are either stored here and repaired or dismantled, scrapped or the parts are used to repair planes around the world. It was another great tour.
Back at the museum we stopped in to check out the Space Gallery. It was nicely done but since we had recently been to the Johnson Space Center we mostly just walked through.
Ron was interested in checking out the hangers with more WW II planes on display.
Back at Hangar #1 Ron got a great picture of the Stealth Bomber.
I guess this proved that paper airplanes are not a good idea.
It was a great but tiring day. We have seen more airplanes then you could imagine and I think we are done for now. Or, maybe not!!!! If there is a plane to be seen Ron will make sure we see it. LOL The plan for Thursday is to go to the Mission San Xavier Del Bac and the Mini Time Machine Museum of Miniatures.
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