Summary
- Minot AFB, ND is a prime spot for plane spotting with B-52s in action.
- Luke AFB, AZ offers views of F-16s and F-35s, not X-Wings or TIE fighters.
- Lackland AFB, TX is a key C-5 base with a mix of fighter and military transport aircraft.
If you’re an avid plane spotter interested in US military aircraft, Simple Flying has compiled the perfect plane spotting list for you to plan your next US Air Force base visit.
Many people enjoy the hobby of birdwatching, not only the flesh-and-blood avians but also the mechanical warbird variety. The US Air Force has many bases that offer plane spotting opportunities. Here are our top 5 picks.
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Minot AFB, North Dakota (ICAO: KMIB)
One of two homes of the “BUFF” B-52 Stratofortress
We’ll start immediately with a base that I can personally vouch for from firsthand experience, not to mention a base that hosts one of my top two favorite warplanes.
Minot AFB – located 13 miles (20 km; 11.29 NM) north of the city of Minot – is, along with Barksdale AFB, Louisiana, one of the two homes of the mighty “BUFF” (“Big Ugly Fat Fellow”): the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress strategic bomber. Minot AFB was the first operational assignment of my active-duty USAF career, from February 2000 to July 2001, when I was an Airman 1st Class/E-3. Though I was on the 91st Space Wing (now officially the 91st Missile Wing, AKA the “Rough Riders”), safeguarding Minuteman III nuclear ICBMs, rather than the 5th Bomb Wing side of the house, I still got to see the bombers take off and land on a regular basis.
There’s also the base’s Northern Neighbors Airshow, which takes place every summer. I attended this show back in the summer of 2000 and watched a B-52 do a simulated bombing run, complete with actual explosions (explosive charges planted on the ground rather than actual air-dropped munitions).
A member on the Airliners.Net forum “superbizzy 73” has this to say:
“By far the best places to see the B-52 would be Barksdale AFB in Louisiana and Minot AFB in North Dakota.”
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Luke AFB, Arizona (ICAO: KLUF)
Home of two badass US 4th Generation fighter jets
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Luke AFB certainly belongs on this list of great US Air Force Bases for plane spotting. This is the location of the featured image atop this article:
Located in the state of Arizona, 15 miles (24 km; 13 NM) from the city of Phoenix, Luke AFB is named after a real-life American military aviation hero, the late 1st Lt. Frank Luke Jr. (May 19, 1897 – September 29, 1918), champion balloon-buster extraordinaire.
On the base, you can spot two of the USAF’s and Lockheed Martin’s most badass fighter planes: the 4th Generation F-16 Fighting Falcon AKA “Viper” and the F-35 Lightning II.
There are plenty of opportunities to see other US military birds, as noted by Jake Youngs, Cole McAndrews, and Nick Nelson for the Spotterguide website:
“You can frequently see other aircraft types such as C17s, C130s, and more. Another major base aircraft is the Airborne Tactical Advantage Co. (ATAC) Dassault Mirage F.1s.”
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Lackland AFB, TX (ICAO: KSKF)
“The Gateway to the Air Force”
Here’s one other base on this list that I can personally vouch for from firsthand experience. Lackland AFB is part of Joint Base San Antonio (JBSA), an amalgamation of Fort Sam Houston, Randolph AFB, and Lackland AFB. They merged on 1 October 2010. It is known as “The Gateway to the Air Force” because all enlisted USAF Basic Trainees earn their stripes there via Basic Military Training (BMT). I went through BMT at Lackland from September 8, 1999, to October 22, 1999. So do a fair number of commissioned officer trainees, as at least some Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (AFROTC) trainees do their summer Field Training.
In terms of plane spotting opportunities at Lackland, we turn again to Spotterguide, in a segment authored by Severin Hackenberger in cooperation with Marcos Perez Sanchez and Ricardo Mungarro:
“It is one of the four C-5 bases in the US next to Dover, Travis and Westover. So if you are looking for C-5, Lackland AFB is a good place to be! Apart from that, there are some fighter aircraft based here as well as. In addition, you may see some US military transport aircraft from other air bases like C-17s or also very few C-13os or similar and rarely you can also astonish foreigh [sic] air forces or some US military ‘passenger aircraft’ like VIP/GA aircraft such as LJ35s…Last but not least, Prime Air shows up regularly at SKF as well and Boeing likes to use SKF for parking B787s in the east on the ramp, too – so do not be confused that there are some very few civil aircraft/movements here as well.”
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Langley AFB, Virginia (ICAO: KLFI)
Home of Air Combat Command (ACC).
One good Lockheed Martin 5th Generation fighter base deserves another, right? Having already covered an F-35 base (Luke), let’s look at an F-22 Raptor base. Langley AFB opened in 1916 and was named after the aviation pioneer Samuel Pierpont Langley. It merged with Fort Eustis to become Joint Base Langley–Eustis back in October 2010. It was the home base for the first Raptor to score an air-to-air kill: the shootdown of that infamous Chinese spy balloon on February 4, 2023.
Turning yet again to Spotterguide with Severin Hackenberger and Michael Ganoe Jr as authors, we get this nugget of information:
“It is home to F22 raptors [sic] and T-38s nowadays, but in addition, from time to time there are some random NASA plane movements.”
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Dyess AFB, Texas (ICAO: KDYS)
One of the homes of the B-1
We started with a strategic bomber with a strategic bomber base, might as well come full circle and wrap up with another. In this case, a supersonic bomber: the Rockwell B-1B Lancer (AKA the “Bone”).
Dyess AFB is located about 7 miles (11 km; 6.08m NM) southwest of downtown Abilene, Texas, and 150 miles (240 km; 130.3 NM) west of Fort Worth, Texas.
On Spotterguide, Severin Hackenberger and Garrett Heller had this to say:
“Nowadays, Dyess hosts a part of the US Rockwell B1 Lancer fleet today with the 7th Bomb Wing. In addition, Dyess also hosts a handfull [sic] of the based 317th Airlift Group C130J with Texas banner on the tail. They also do fly regularly here and may appear on short final during a spotting session sometimes, too. East of the air base you can astonish the USAF’s history at the air base museum/visitor gate where you will find some preserved aircraft from previous decades.”