The boneyard was established in 1946 to store World War II bombers and transports. at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Ariz. In this May 21, 2015, photo, F-16 Fighting Falcons sit in a field along Miami St. Cleaning the aircraft and their components makes them more resistant to decay, Sherry says. The men bake all summer in their rubber suits, then spend the cold winter outside soaking wet. Wash rack supervisor Mike Sherry says that on average his crew cleans about four airplanes and 50 refurbished parts each week. The parts will be refurbished in a shop at AMARG and used to extend the life of the Air Force’s fleet of ground-attack jets, a mainstay at Davis-Monthan and in the skies above Tucson. Nearby, other members of the six-man crew use high-pressure sprayers and industrial degreaser to clean A-10 wings and landing gear pods recently “brought in from the desert.” The aircraft has already been painted with the U.S. The next stop is the wash rack, where men in protective rain gear give a Coast Guard C-130 transport plane a nose-to-tail scrubbing before it flies off to be outfitted to fight wildfires. ![]() To coat all the necessary engine parts in an F-15 or an F-18, the fighter jets have to be lashed to the ground and run with their afterburners on, creating a rumbling sound that echoes across Tucson. As soon as he sees puffs of white smoke, like at the Vatican, he motions to the men in the cockpit to cut the power. Pace stands outside the aircraft, watching the engines for the telltale sign that the exchange is complete. Two members of Pace’s team climb behind the controls of the retro-looking airplane and spin up all four props to burn off the last of the jet fuel and draw the oil into all the places that need protecting. On this recent Thursday, the crew is working on the Navy P-3, which arrived at AMARG the week before and was towed to the flush farm earlier in the morning. The only way to do that is by firing up the engines. ![]() All of the aviation fuel is pumped out and replaced with a special oil, similar to the stuff used in sewing machines, that coats the tanks and fuel systems to protect them from corrosion. It works a little like a blood transfusion. ![]() “That takes us forever and a day to defuel,” the former Air Force mechanic says. Pace says the task takes longer for large airplanes with multiple engines like the massive C-5 Galaxy transport. Their first stop is the “flush farm,” where defueling supervisor Dale Pace and his crew can service up to six aircraft a day, depending on the type. They land and taxi through a gate at the southeastern end of the runway to be prepped for slumber. Roughly 95 percent of aircraft arrive at the boneyard under their own power.
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