The World's Most Bizarre Aircraft Graveyards

[Zakis]

I love this stuff. Old abandoned buildings, vehicles, etc. Post-apocalyptic feel is awesome. I kinda want to take some of these planes and turn them into a house.
http://io9.com/the-worlds-most-bizarre-aircraft-graveyards-511526945

The World's Most Bizarre Aircraft Graveyards

Where do aircraft go to rust away after death? Often, their final resting places are more emotionally evocative than human cemeteries.
Commercial airliners at the Southern California Logistics Airport (a former Air Force base), Victorville, California

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(via Bobak Ha'Eri, Marks Flickr Page and Mike Fiala/Getty Images)
The AMARC, (Aerospace Maintenance And Regeneration Center) Davis-Monthan Air Base, outside Tucson, Arizona

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More than 4,000 military aircraft are on the base.

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(via Google Maps, Wikimedia Commons/RevolverOcelot, Senior Airman Alan R. Wycheck,U.S. Navy, planes.cz and Popular Science)
Crashed German planes in the yard of a German aluminium works at Grevenbrioch, 1945

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(by Fred Ramage/Keystone/Getty Images)
The largest graveyard for commercial passenger jets in the United States, Mojave Air & Space Port, California, 2001

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(via D. Coleman 1 - 2, Flickr/David Vienna, Google Maps, Lost America.com/Troy Paiva and Mike Fiala/Stringer)
Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, Nigeria

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Nigerian aviation officials began trying to dismantle and remove the hulks of abandoned airplanes from airports around the country in late January. Officials say there are at least 65 of them, with at least 13 at Lagos' international airport.

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(via Jon Gambrell and Sunday Alamba/Associated Press)
Pinal Airpark, Marana, Arizona

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(via John Creasey/Flickr and Google Maps)
Phoenix Goodyear Airport, Goodyear, Arizona

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(via Flickr/ZeTexYann, The Hungarian Girl and The Center for Land Use Interpretation)
Roswell International Air Center, Roswell, New Mexico

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(via Savvas Garozis/Flickr and Google Maps)
Aviation Warehouse, El Mirage Dry Lake, USA

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(via Todd Lappin/Flickr and Lost America.com/Troy Paiva)
Central Aerodrome, Moscow, Russia

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(via EnglishRussia)
An abandoned airdrome in Ukraine

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(via russos)
Abandoned Vehicle Graveyard inside the Chernobyl Zone, Ukraine

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(via English Russia and Google Maps)

 

[ToxicAsF]

I'm not gonna lie, most of these look so.... Graceful. Y'know? It's pretty soul settling to see all of these in such crisp formation.

 

[Rajax]

Those look pretty neat.

My question is...if they are out of commission, then why not salvage them instead of having so much land taken up for something that will never be used? This would also lend itself to at least some recycled parts/materials if melted down.

 

[Crake]

I'd love to go check one of these out. My dad has worked in the airline business my entire life so planes and the like have always been fascinating to me.

 

[Zakis]

To reply to both Crake and Rajax. I would totally love to go check some of these out. It appears I have to go to Arizona n such, which is doable. I would love to turn one into a place to live idk why. Rajax some of them do salvage things from them. Theres one set of pics from a military reclaimation graveyard up there where it looks like they strip everything that is reuseable. Idk about the commercial ones but there might be a reason they dont recycle them.

 

[TIG]

There is a great one down by Tuscon Arizona. Pima air museum. Been there you get to walk around and check out all the planes first hand. It's hot desert though so go when its not summer.

Most commercial planes are leased from the manufacturer for many years and by the time they are retired or sold back to the lessor the parts inside are crap and outdated. That is the main reason they aren't salvaged. Plus the cost of getting the parts out, certifying them for future use then transporting them is more than the cost of getting new stuff.

For those that don't know I work for US Airways and I have seen a few sent back to the lessor. Sometimes they fly the plane back to where its gonna sit, and sometimes they cut the wings off and put it on the back of a big rig truck and drive it out in pieces.