The Tucson Bone Yard

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How many of these planes are functional?

What are they saving them for?

Theoretically, all of them can be made operational. However, the cost of reactivating an obsolete aircraft that has sat for decades is far greater than the usefulness to be derived. Some of those aircraft have been in Tucson for over sixty years. Aviation systems have come a long way in even the last ten years, so retrofitting would be expensive and some cases impossible. In many cases, engines and other essential parts have been removed for reuse, or storage elsewhere.

These aircraft far outnumber pilot's qualified to fly them, and the cost of maintaining the operational aircraft would probably reduce the combat readiness of more modern and effective platforms.

Some aircraft, like the fleet of Buffaloes, are still in use and are effective delivery transcontinental systems. B-52'd have a long reach, fly so high that they can't be seen nor heard until the bombs fall, and they can carry enormous conventional or nuclear weapons loads. In accord with international treaties (SALT & SALT II), the U.S. is obligated to destroy a considerable portion of the bomber fleet.

Why save them? The taxpayers bought them and once in the inventory, its a bureaucratic nightmare to get them released. A few aircraft are "loaned" to museums, or for public display, but they remain on the inventory and are completely gutted. Some of the aircraft are converted into drones, or other expendable targets for military fliers to practice on. No one wants even the our most obsolete warplane to suddenly show up over a battlefield. Finally, it costs more to decommission and destroy old warplanes than it does to park them in Tucson.

Still worth a look, just to see them all.