We had a busy day starting in line at 9am when the museum opened to get tickets.
First the boneyard, 4400 planes in short (3 years or less) or long (3 to 25 years) or salvage (disassemble for parts then scrap the leftovers). Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard, and foreign planes & helicopters, even 2 missiles. Big planes, little planes; hummers, desks & chairs and we passed a few hundred cars & trucks confiscated for smuggling drugs. Rows & rows of airplanes, many were unique and some waiting for museums to pick them up.
Second was a tram tour of the outside museum planes, I never knew there were so many different planes. President Johnson's planes, Eisenhower's helicopter, Russian, Canadian, Swiss, NASA, CIA (unmarked), Italian, French, commercial, one with an engine cylinder that blew through the engine cowling (still there) landing at the museum, etc, etc, etc. Someone has a sense of humor....there was a sign & tie downs in an empty space marked as a B117 stealth fighter.
Finally we walked through several hangers full of more planes. The most impressive hanger, to me, was dedicated to the 390th bomb squadron based in England during WWII flying B17s.
We returned to Benson and had a real good Mexican lunch/dinner before returning home. Great day.
