Of Bombers and Boneyards – Aircraft Graveyards through the Ages

On a brooding desert day, there’s something undeniably compelling about fallen giants, like this C-141B Starlifter at Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG). It was knocked to the ground in February 2005, not far from where the C-124s that it replaced were sliced for the smelter more than three decades before. (Photo by Frederick A. Johnsen)

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The primordial aircraft boneyard is easy to conjure. Imagine a Wright employee or a Bleriot or Curtiss worker pushing an early airframe to the back of the shed to make room for an improved version. But that early contraption still had value—those turnbuckles could be salvaged, that strut was the same dimensions as on the new machine—and so was born the aircraft boneyard. Aviation enthusiasts have had a love/hate relationship with aircraft boneyards for decades....

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