Russian plane Graveyard from the Sky - Pretty Bad ASS!

[SleepyC]

Pretty awesome. Just a crappy Phantom I'm sure, but the subject is AWESOME!

 

[ericb]

Awesome.

 

[Mikeq]

That Russian plane museum is very impressive which made me think of this YouTube video I saw of our very first Air Force One plane setting in the Arizona desert going to waste. It needs to be restored and put in the Smithsonian..

 

[-Rick-]

Every time I see one of these "bone-yard" vids it makes me sad. Seen one where the WW2 fighters by the 1000"s where sitting waiting to be cut up. Stacked like cord wood. One about a 200 or so Corsairs sitting in a field full of farm animals. Why didn't we keep more of them at the time? So sad....

 

[bigblueswope]

That was a museum. Look at the plaques in front of the choppers towards the end of the video.


BJ Swope

 

[combat chicken]

Yep. Folks don't quite comprehend what the good old US of A faced during the cold war. The museum shows that a third world economy can produce a first world military if you are willing to grind enough of your population up to accomplish this.

 

[Jetpainter]

They even have a Concordski!

 

[CatalinaWOW]

From todays perspective it is sad that those fields of planes left over from WWII weren't salvaged. But think of it from the perspective of the time. Twenty years previously the hot planes were fabric covered biplanes. They figured in twenty years we would all be flying personal rocket ships to Mars. Who would want a Corsair in Barsoom? What is sad to today is looking back on the dreams that have died. There are kids that were too young to know about the moon landings that are starting to think about retirement, and realizing that they may be retired before the US has a working spaceship again.

 

[49dimes]

You should see the "bone yards" of F-4's, F-14's, F-16's, F-18's, F-111's, F-15's, A-6's, A-10's, numerous helicopters, support aircraft and bombers!
Literally 1000's of aircraft frame work and "turbine engine" depots being preserved in the south western deserts! These yards also support active models in use and can have literally thousands of aircraft flight ready and war ready in just a few short months.
I was born overseas and came home in a "super connie" when I was 3 @Mikeq

 

[CatalinaWOW]

F-4 and F-14 almost gone (F-4 converted to drones and shot down, F-14 scrapped to keep the parts out of Iranian hands), but there are still quite a few of the others in Tucson. They mostly are older models, and many of the airframes are high hours. In wartime the hours wouldn't matter. That was one of the differences between Russian and US design philosophy. We designed planes that would last thousands of flight hours in peacetime. They figured that planes would last tens of hours in war and went for cheaper, shorter life designs. Particularly in engines.