South of Tucson, near the airbase, is the Pima Air Museum .
The third largest air museum in the USA and the largest private museum,
it is located on the hard-pan dirt made famous by the nearby Boneyard. The soil is so firmly packed that aircraft do
not sink into it and can be safely parked in the dry air for years.
Dedicated to the restoration and preservation of aircraft,
the museum contains a wide variety of military and civilian aircraft from
around the world. We took a walking tour
of the hangars, led by an ex-Air Force docent who was very knowledgeable, and
followed it with a tram tour of the vast outdoor storage areas, with commentary
by another ex-Air Force man. Very
interesting and well done.
Unfortunately the nearby Boneyard (where thousands of planes
from around the world are mothballed in the dry climate against future needs)
is closed on Sundays, so we enjoyed an ice cream in the shade, bade our
Cornwellian friends adieu and hit the road for the 2.5 hour drive to Phoenix .
B52 used to launch the X-15
Part of Fighter Alley
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