Ever see something that just makes you speachless?

Check out this satelite pic of some old decaying B52's and other planes. man the $$ thats sitting there just rotting away. Makes me wonder.

terraserver-usa.com...

Pan around a bit and check all the other stuff siting there too

[edit on 6-1-2005 by skippytjc]

Awesome... simply awesome. I've got a friend with Keyhole at work... he just checked it out, and in color it's even more impressive.

There's a rocket junkyard in California... I think I'll try to find that and post it here...

Ever seen the footage of them being chopped up?

Personally I'm glad, it's a heart-warming sight to see that they have gone and will never be used to put real people through the meat-grinder.

As for the waste of tax-payers $?

Of course. What a waste. But for some reason the USA still feels the need to out-spend every other military budget on the planet combined.

Plenty more of this to look forward to in years and years to come.

Enjoy.

MAN would I love to walk around there, do you suppose they'd let you?

Wow!
There must be over a hundred planes there. You can clearly see some of them are damaged or decaying. Shouldnt these be repaired and stored in hangers?

Originally posted by GrOuNd_ZeRo
MAN would I love to walk around there, do you suppose they'd let you?

It looks like you can walk right into it because the houses are right across from there but i dont know if there is a fence there.. maybe you could but someone would call the police i bet..that place would make the best paintball/airsoft/laser tag place in the world

Originally posted by MERC
Wow!
There must be over a hundred planes there. You can clearly see some of them are damaged or decaying. Shouldnt these be repaired and stored in hangers?

what would be the point?... it's not economically viable and the US already spends enough on it's millitary

Actually the US needs to decrease defence spending at some point... it's currently unsustainable, so expect a lot more yards like these in future

skippytjc
man the $$ thats sitting there just rotting away.

Nope, They either get picked apart for parts to keep our 100+ B-52's keep going. Or they get melted down for the aluminum. So you might be drinking a can of pop that used to be apart of a B-52.

The planes have to sit there for at least 3 months to give Russia enough time to take satellite pics of em. Then after that they can be used for whatever. They are all unflyable, when a B-52 gets brought there to confirm to Russia that they really are unflyable they have a crane drop a big heavy steel beam on a part of the fusalage to crush a section, This satellite though doesn't have very good resolution, but Russia can clearly see that their dissabled.

sminkeypinkey
for some reason the USA still feels the need to out-spend every other military budget on the planet combined.

Do I detect a hint of jealousy?

Lucretius
Actually the US needs to decrease defence spending at some point... it's currently unsustainable, so expect a lot more yards like these in future

I dont think we need to decrease, But we do need to have it stop raising, especially so quickly.
You wont see huge future yards like this, its like leaving gold outside, you want to sell them asap to get all the aluminum money.
Current bombers (B-2) and Fighters (F-15), wont just sit there because Russia isn't worried about old fighters bombing them.

Originally posted by Lucretius

Originally posted by MERC
Wow!
There must be over a hundred planes there. You can clearly see some of them are damaged or decaying. Shouldnt these be repaired and stored in hangers?

what would be the point?... it's not economically viable and the US already spends enough on it's millitary

What would be the point in leaving that many planes to rot? They must have spent a massive amount of money on those. If repairing them isnt an option then they should recycle whatever they can from them and sell the rest as scrap metal. Leaving them there to decay is a pointless waste.

Originally posted by MERC

Originally posted by Lucretius

Originally posted by MERC
Wow!
There must be over a hundred planes there. You can clearly see some of them are damaged or decaying. Shouldnt these be repaired and stored in hangers?

what would be the point?... it's not economically viable and the US already spends enough on it's millitary

What would be the point in leaving that many planes to rot? They must have spent a massive amount of money on those. If repairing them isnt an option then they should recycle whatever they can from them and sell the rest as scrap metal. Leaving them there to decay is a pointless waste.

As a previous posted said, the number of Strategic bombers is limited by the SALT/START treaties. In order to comply with the treaty the dismantled bombers must be left out in the open for a minimum of 90 days...

They are enventually stripped of usable parts and sold as scrap..

Originally posted by MERC
Wow!
There must be over a hundred planes there. You can clearly see some of them are damaged or decaying. Shouldnt these be repaired and stored in hangers?

Isn't this display for the Russian satellites to pick up and confirm that the US is indeed reducing its strategic arsenal?? And the Russians do the same right? There was an agreement of some sorts on this right??

Wow didn't know they left old planes in the open like that. Lots of $$ going to waste there.

I read an interesting article the other day on US defence spending, and at todays levels it is roughly the same amount the US was spending during the Vietnam War, if you obviously adjust inflation and all that mumbo jumbo so it's comparable to todays levels.

it really puts it into perspective I think..

thanks,
Drfunk

Of course its wasted money. Do you really feel bad about wasting money that you didn't have to work for? Thats the position of the US government. They didn't really earn the money. So why should they care if it gets wasted?

Originally posted by Murcielago

skippytjc
man the $$ thats sitting there just rotting away.

Nope, They either get picked apart for parts to keep our 100+ B-52's keep going. Or they get melted down for the aluminum. So you might be drinking a can of pop that used to be apart of a B-52.

That is not quite true. Some of them do end up in a melthing pot but not all of them. Many are fixed and re-flown as test drones, while others are used for parts. They actually make money off those old planes by selling parts or in some cases even whole planes to other countries. Here is a link that I think uses flash but I am not sure just what program they used to be honest. It gives a very good discription of the facility and what goes on there. Enjoy. It has some very nice close ups I might add.

www.kodak.com...

originally by Th0r
Wow didn't know they left old planes in the open like that. Lots of $$ going to waste there.

The reason they are out in the desert is the climate is ideal to make them last as long as possible without rotting away. Most of the expensive avionics and usable parts are removed prior to going there anyway. I know for a fact that much of bankrupt Eastern Airlines aircraft went to sit there until buyers were found for them, for exactly this reason.


[edit on 1/8/2005 by defcon5]

Originally posted by sminkeypinkey

As for the waste of tax-payers $?

Of course. What a waste. But for some reason the USA still feels the need to out-spend every other military budget on the planet combined.

I bet you didn't think that it was such a big waste during the cold war. Having these aircraft on alert duty helped keep the Russian Bear in check. Of course, most of these bombers were built in the 50's. By the 60's we had cool stuff, like Minuteman missles.

there is a massive amount of scrap gold in those planes back when they were built gone was very very cheap so they coated nearly every electrical part with thick gold gold does not corrode and conducts very well. ive had some parts to place before i had a aluminum beam about 18" long with some ind of electrical componet connected to it the entire thing inside and out was 24k gold coated very thick plating and it was painted over with greey paint the whole unit was about 15lbs plated in gold. is amazing how much gold is in some of this military stuff and the electronics are also very valuble to collectors i wish i could go thought there and pick parts out i would make a fortune on ebay.

I'd love to restore one of those F-4's and fly it...probably will never happen but I can and will dream...

There are even some Modern jets out there as the F-15 and F-16, probably early A models...