Summary

  • Aircraft boneyards store retired planes for long or short periods, with the US having some of the largest boneyards.
  • Davis-Monthan Air Force Base has the world’s largest aircraft boneyard, storing nearly 3,200 aircraft.
  • Other famous boneyards include Pinal County Airpark, Mojave Air and Space Port, Southern California Logistics Airport, and Roswell International Air Center.

When an aircraft is retired from military or commercial service, there are many places where it could end up. Some are donated to museums and research institutes, while others are sent to boneyards. An aircraft boneyard, or graveyard, is a storage facility for aircraft that have been pulled from service for long or short periods.

Some will be scrapped of valuable parts, while others may even return to service. The United States is home to some of the world’s largest aircraft boneyards, generally located in deserts, particularly in the southwestern US. Some boneyards are privately owned and operated, while others belong to the military.

The world’s largest aircraft boneyard

The Davis-Monthan Air Force Base is home to the world’s largest aircraft boneyard. According to Airplane Boneyards, its role as a storage facility for military aircraft began after the Second World War and continues today. It is located in Tucson, Arizona, where the warm, arid climate makes it ideal for storing planes without worrying about humidity and weather damage.

Davis-Monthan United States Air Force Base

The 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG) stores nearly 3,200 aircraft and over 6,300 engines from the United States Department of Defense. According to the figures provided by WDMMA, Davis-Monthan would potentially be the world’s fourth-largest air force if all its aircraft were operational. There are many famous warplanes stored at the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, including the following:

  • Lockheed C-5 Galaxy
  • Boeing B-52 Statofortress
  • Rockwell B-1 Lancer
  • F-16 Fighting Falcon
  • Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt

By May 1946, less than a year after the end of WWII, over 600 B-29 Superfortresses and 200 C-47 Skytrains had been moved to Davis-Monthan. In 1965, the Department of Defense closed its Litchfield Park storage center in Phoenix and moved the Navy’s surplus air fleet to Davis-Monthan.

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Other famous boneyards in Arizona

Another boneyard that can be found in Arizona is Pinal County Airpark. It is located in Marana, northwest of Tucson. The dry, low humidity of the Sonoran Desert makes it an ideal location for long-term storage of retired aircraft. The airpark covers an area of about 2,080 acres (3.25 sq mi) and sits at an elevation of 1,893 feet above mean sea level. Most of Delta’s retired Boeing 747s can be found at Pinal Airpark.

Kingman Airport in Arizona is another vast aircraft graveyard. It mainly houses regional jets for airlines like Delta and United but also has several old war jets. However, some of these have now moved to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. Yet another Arizona graveyard is found at Phoenix Goodyear Airport. The airport stores a wide variety of aircraft, including the following:

  • Boeing 737s
  • Boeing 777s
  • Boeing 757s
  • McDonnell Douglas MD-11s
  • Airbus A340s.
Pinal County Airpark (MZJ)

The facility was built during World War II as NAF Litchfield Park. At its peak, it stored over 5,000 aircraft. However, the Korean conflict brought the airfield back to active duty in the 1950s, that by 1958, its aircraft inventory had gone down to 2,500 planes.

Boneyards in California

Mojave Air and Space Port

Located in the California Desert, the Mojave Air and Space Port is home to some of the world’s largest and most famous commercial aircraft. It also has over 60 companies involved in flight development, highly advanced aerospace design, flight test and research, the wind industry, heavy rail industrial manufacturing, and aircraft storage.

The Lockheed L-1011 Tristar satellite launch platform of Orbital Science parked on the ramp at Mojave airport in California.

Photo: Photofex_AUT | Shutterstock

The commercial aviation industry depends on firms located at Mojave Airport to perform inspections, storage, and part-out. With an area of about 2,998 acres (4.68 sq mi), the graveyard is one of the largest in the world. You can find the largest commercial jetliners, like the Boeing 747 and Airbus A380. In fact, Global Airlines’ first A380, which was recently flown across the Atlantic, was stored at the Mojave Air and Space Port.

In May 2024, HiFly ferried the superjumbo 5,000 NM from Mojave to Prestwick via Montreal Mirabel. Given that no jacks were available at the Mojave Desert Airport, the A380 had to be ferried to Prestwick to undergo further maintenance before returning to the skies.

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Southern California Logistics Airport

The Southern California Logistics Airport is located near Victorville, about 90 mi northeast of Los Angeles on the southwestern edge of the Mojave Desert. It measures an impressive 2,300 acres (3.6 square miles) in area and sits on the former George Air Force Base site, which was in active service from 1941 to 1992.

Southern California Logistics Airport (SCLA)

SCLA was famously one of the locations where many Boeing 737 MAX aircraft could be found when the type was grounded worldwide between March 2019 and December 2020. Aircraft maintenance and storage company ComAv operates a 24-acre open storage space at the facility, capable of storing over 500 aircraft, as well as multiple hangars to maintain more aircraft.

Roswell International Air Center

Roswell International Air Center in Roswell, New Mexico, is the graveyard of choice for American Airlines. There is an extensive collection of the carrier’s old Boeing 757s and MD-80s. On September 4, 2019, American Airlines retired the last of its McDonnell Douglas MD-80 fleet, as most of the remaining 26 aircraft had taken their final flights to their resting place at Roswell International Air Center.

The site was also the temporary storage location of Boeing 737 MAXs during their grounding. Roswell was originally a military base in World War II but now serves as a storage refurbishing facility for commercial jets and is the potential location of several alien encounters. It is home to various industries, including companies responsible for refurbishing and dismantling commercial aircraft. It can have up to 300 jetliners stored at a time.

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