If you like airplanes this is a place you gotta go see. The Pima Air Museum is in Tucson right next to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. http://www.pimaair.org/view.php?pg=11 There are actually two parts to it. First is the museum part where there are several large hangers full of aircraft ranging from WWII era to the present and then rows and rows of aircraft on display outside. Several volunteers are on hand to tell you about the aircraft displays and you can get up close to examine these airplanes. There are a few hundred of them including all the big bombers, transports and fighters ever used by our armed forces. Unfortunately you cannot climb inside any of them.
Then there is the bone yard tour on the base where hundreds of aircraft are parked. Some are destined to be cannibalized for parts and some are sealed up and in storage awaiting their fate. A few of these will be called back into action, some will be sold to our allies and some will get taken apart for spare parts to keep their kind flying. Both the museum and the bone yard tour come with your admission price but you need to sign up at the desk to reserve a spot on the tour bus for the bone yard tour. This bus tour takes you up and down rows of aircraft stored here and the guide has information about every type of aircraft plus some interesting stories about a few individual aircraft. This is a very enjoyable tour even though you have to stay on the bus. There is no way you could do the tour on foot anyway because this bone yard must cover about a square mile or more. I’m talking about thousands of airplanes out here.
Allow at least four hours to do justice to this place.
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