Tucson in Arizona is home to the world’s largest plane graveyard, where more than 3,000 military and government aircraft are stored.
The huge site covers a whopping 2,600 acres at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.
The facility is also known as the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG).
It’s pure heaven for anyone interested in aviation as it holds planes from various branches of the US military including the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard, as well as NASA.
The site is also often referred to as “The Boneyard” and it’s become an iconic storage location for abandoned military planes.
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According to the World Record Academy, AMARG holds over 3,280 aircraft as well as additional aerospace vehicles.
This makes it the largest aircraft storage and preservation facility in the world.
The location for the site was chosen carefully. The area’s low humidity combined with little rainfall and hard desert soil naturally preserve the planes and prevent rust, allowing the aircraft to be stored on the ground without pavement.
AMARG was originally established after World War 2 and it expanded to accommodate surplus planes from various US military branches and government agencies.
Today, the facility supports not only storage but also parts reclamation, scrapping and even the conversion of older fighter jets into aerial target drones for training exercises.
“It’s like a time capsule of aviation history,” said Scott Marchand, executive director of the nearby Pima Air & Space Museum, which is in charge of public tours around The Boneyard.
In addition to storage, AMARG performs meticulous maintenance on the planes.
The planes undergo a process to strip out sensitive materials and coat them in special protective films.
The Air Force described it as “preserving ghost planes” until they are either brought back into service or scrapped for parts.
Marchand added: “For real hardcore aeroplane nerds the Boneyard remains a bucket-list destination.”
