The Boneyard (Davis Monthan Air Force Base)

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A film by Jeff Watson
43 Mins

The Davis Monthan air force base in Tucson Arizona is the home of AMARG the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and generation Group more commonly known as The Boneyard.

Here basking in the Arizona sun are 4,400 aircraft ranging from the enormous C 5a Galaxy to fast jets like the F-15 Eagle, F14 Tomcat and F-16 Fighting Falcon. Most of the aircraft that end their days at Davis Monthan will never fly again but around twenty per cent are put back into service.

Combat aircraft like the F-14 are completely demilitarized to ensure they can never return to flying status or serve as sources of components. This may be as simple as catastrophically damaging the wings or as complex as completely shredding the aircraft before the scrap aluminium is auctioned off to contractors.

Some aircraft like the A-10 Warthog are part of a service life extension programme and others like the F4 Phantom are being turned into pilotless drones to be shot down in live firing exercises.

Jeff Watson takes us on a tour of this melancholy place and meets some of the characters who haunt the boneyard. He also visits the Pima Air and Space Museum nearby which has rare types like the B 36 Peacemaker, B58 Hustler, the stainless steel Budd Conestoga and the Douglas B 23 Dragon. For the aviation enthusiast, pure heaven!