Best Of Tucson®

Best Outdoor Aesthetic Spectacle That is Not Art

309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group, aka the Boneyard

Ever wonder where airplanes go to die? Lots of them go to Tucson, since our dry, clear and (relatively) smog-less climate minimizes corrosion. If you want to see these resting airplanes, head over to the east side of the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base (there's a ramada to sit at on Escalante Road), and prepare to be tripped out. On the other side of a tall, barbed-wire fence are rows and rows of enormous plane carcasses, stretching out as far as the eye can see, across a vast expanse of flat dirt. It's a humbling site—kind of like the open ocean, but a lot creepier. The planes come from many different eras, are in many different states of disrepair, and come in many different sizes (mostly huge). But for some reason, a bunch of them are named "The Rock."