Comments on: Strange Geographies: The Mojave Desert’s Airplane Graveyard

By: David

David — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 19:54:52 +0000

Awesome story. Always wondered about the plane boneyard.

By: Jerry George

Jerry George — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:05:47 +0000

Retired out of GE West Cost Operations at the Ontario Int. Airport..Worked there for GE for 28 Years as a Mechanic/Inspector on there Engines…Numerous Outside Job’s around the world..GE has a excellent product and good Employees..Sad to say even the Old Employees end up in some sort of Bone Yard..(:

By: meddjay

meddjay — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 19:40:42 +0000

Did they happen to mention how one would go about purchasing a part of an airplane or how much? When I saw the photo you took of the interior of that plane (that looked as if it was waiting for the passengers to board),I remembered seeing something about some guy that used the body of a plane to make their house out of. Or maybe it was an office, or a bar/resteraunt or something similar… It would even make a great storage contaniner if it could be acquired cheap enough. If you know how to get in touch with the folks that sell the parts, please let me know. Thanks

By: Thatoneguy

Thatoneguy — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 19:14:57 +0000

Somehow the thought of being surrounded by plane carcasses is unsetteling, perhaps this because I have several family members working in avionics. Neat article though, great quality photos.

By: jv01

jv01 — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 22:11:10 +0000

These pics are good. Years back I saw a number of same in Az. At that time you could walk all around the scrap yard and look to your hearts content. There were several hobby type groups building smaller planes in buildings on the yard.
It was truly amazing to see what looked like completely whole planes with white plastic over the windows and engine covers in place. These were located in places that did not look like they could easily be removed. Must have been totally forgotten about.
I remember walking around and looking at some old prop engines with metal labels stating they were turbo intercooled type engines. A type of engine introduced many years later in the automotive world.

By: Stacy

Stacy — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 14:42:41 +0000

I was just wondering if you noticed the blankets of chemtrails in the sky in these pics. They certainly help make more dramatic photos, but do you realize what they are? Nevertheless, it was a very interesting article, thanks.

By: Marcus HIll

Marcus HIll — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 19:18:34 +0000

@Natalie Benedict
That scene from the movie ‘The Best years of Our Lives’ was probably filmed at Kingman Arizona where thousands of B-17s and B-24s where cut up for scrap after WWII. I always thought they were turned into those trays the first TV dinners came in and the aluminum tumblers they sold in the fifties. Gads those tumblers were bad.

By: Liz Madara

Liz Madara — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 16:54:44 +0000

Fascinating! How can you work these into one of your short stories? They provide food for creative thought:) Thanks!

By: blatanville

blatanville — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 20:34:18 +0000

I wonder if some of these gutted fuselages could be transported away and turned into interesting or low-income housing?

By: Fred Fairchild

Fred Fairchild — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 11:15:13 +0000

I actually flew on planes salvaged from the Boneyard. The Coast Guard had a crisis back in the 1970′s when their HU-16E aircraft had to be retired. They needed an interim aircraft to fly until they could procure a replacement so they got some old Air Force C-131′s out of the desert, overhauled them and pressed them into service. The C-131′s did the job but it was a little dicey. There were a couple close calls but, by and large, nothing too serious went wrong. The Coast Guard eventually bought new aircraft and (thankfully) retired the C-131′s again.