TGART Day 15; Tucson, AZ to El Paso, Texas

www.dennismook.com

We spent the morning and part of the afternoon in Tucson visiting the Pima Air & Space Museum as well as Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.  I can highly recommend both of these venues if you have any interest in historical or present day military aircraft.

We spent the first hour looking at the indoor exhibits, in other words, various aircraft both commercial and military in Hanger 1.  We never did get to see hangers 2,3 or 4, sadly.  Then we took a tram tour of the aircraft parked outside around the museum's grounds.  The museum holds about 300 aircraft, both fixed and rotor wing.  The aircraft are mainly American, but there are some British and Soviet planes also.  The tram tour took about an hour and 10 minutes.  The driver/narrator did a terrific job giving us the history of each aircraft and its significance.  I was impressed by his knowledge.

I've included a couple of photographs of some interesting aircraft.  First, the Super Guppy, an airplane based upon a Boeing C-97 aircraft was built to transport very large, but light payloads.  The entire front of the aircraft swings open so the payload can be rolled in.  It is probably the most unusual aircraft built.

The Super Guppy was the aircraft that transported the segments of the Atlas 5 rocket that propelled the Apollo Space missions.

I've always been impressed with the B-52 Stratofortress and I don't remember ever seeing one in person.  The museum had three of them, with a B-52a modified to take the X-15 experimental aircraft up for supersonic tests.  This is a B-52G, the immediate past model of the ones currently in use and can fly 7100 miles.  It weighs almost a half-million pounds and has 8 Pratt & Whitney jet engines.  The B-52 was first flown in April, 1952 and continues to fly.  Some predict that the plane design will be in use for 100 years before totally taken out of service.  That, in an of itself, is amazing.

I was fascinated by the museum's display of the SR-71 Blackbird, the famous spy plane.  It can fly at 85,000 ft. at over Mach 3 (three times the speed of sound).  I touched the fuselage to see if it was metal and it was not.  I suspect it was built out of something like carbon fiber for light weight, strength and heat resistance.  It is really a space ship that looks like an airplane.  By the way, the pilots wore what is, in essence, space suits.

After we finished the tram tour, we walked to the front of the museum to catch a bus that would take us over to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.  Davis-Monthan is where they keep the decommissioned aircraft.  These aircraft are brought here, washed thoroughly, their vital outside parts are wrapped in plastic and I suspect their avionics are removed since they will be sitting in the hot Arizona sun for an indeterminate amount of time.  Currently, there are about 4000 aircraft in storage at the facility.  There is every type of current military aircraft mothballed here that you can think of.  The place is nicknamed "The Boneyard."  I have included a photograph of C-141 cargo planes that lined up.  Sometimes these planes are brought back into service.  Also, some of these aircraft may be sold to other countries who are friendly with us.

On the other side of the facility sit the planes that are cannibalized for parts.  Planes that are old but are still in use have the problem of no parts available.  So, the owners call Davis-Monthan to see if parts are available.  When they are, the mechanics remove, recondition and test the parts before they are sent out.

After the tours, we started driving east toward New Mexico.

Travel Tip:  If you ever find yourself in Tucson and want to go to points east, don't drive.  Fly!  Interstate 10 east out of Tucson crosses the most barren, boring, and desolate land I have seen during this entire trip.  The road is straight, trucks are numerous and the day seems twice as long as it should.  Do yourself a favor and fly or take another route.  There is nothing to see along this route.

After arriving in El Paso, we ate a fine dinner at The Great American Land and Cattle Company.  It is a steakhouse which sits on a hill overlooking much of El Paso.  A good dinner and a great view.

We drove across Arizona, across the entire state of New Mexico and into Texas today.  Our mileage was about 320, although it seemed like 500 with that desert we crossed.

Tomorrow, we continue our journey east.  Enjoy!

Thanks for looking.
Dennis Mook