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Anecdotes
Retired B-52s at the Davis Monthan Air Force Base.
While most of the aircraft here are waiting to
get back into the air, chances for a comeback
are slim for the airplanes parked in the
desert. Since the terrorist attacks on
September 11, 2001, and the deep crisis of
many airlines, especially U.S.-based, the aircraft
parking lots and graveyards in the
American deserts are experiencing an unexpected
boom: while in the ’90s, 700 to 1,000
of the 15,000 commercial transports existing
worldwide were mothballed, that number
rose to 2,400 about a year after the attacks,
which compares with the 2,000 or so still
parked today. Apart from Marana, Arizona
has two more major parking lots: in
Goodyear near Phoenix and in Tucson. At
times, some 400 jobless transports congregate
there. A very impressive sight also is the
site of the Davis Monthan Air Force Base
south of Tucson, where thousands of surplus
military aircraft are assembled, plus
large fleets of commercial veterans, like
Boeing 707s.
At Evergreen in Marana, the first make-orbreak
test came during the Asia crisis in the
late ’90s: “At that time, we temporarily had
30 brand-new jets sitting around here,
among them many Boeing 747-400s of
which airlines like Philippines, Korean Air,
Asiana and Garuda had not taken delivery,”
said Wally Flannery, a 35-year veteran with
Evergreen. He went on to explain: “With
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Boeing, we have the status of an official
delivery center, which means we can transfer
such planes directly to new takers.” The fortunes
of the global aviation economy, then,
reflect very much in the inventory sitting on
the 185-hectare Evergreen grounds before
the background of the jagged Sawtooth
Mountains. Nowhere in the world have as
many aircraft ever been parked as here, and
scrapped, too: a total of 1,500 planes since
the ’70s. And still counting: so far, each year
some 180 airliners are being stripped worldwide,
many of them in Marana. During the
past ten years, the share of first-generation
widebodies among scrap candidates—early
Boeing 747 models, as well as DC-10s,
Lockheed TriStars and Airbus A300 and
A310s, most recently also Boeing 767s—has
been growing.
Often, the engines are worth more than the
old aircraft themselves, and Evergreen is still
cashing in as much as half a million dollars
on the sale of a single jet engine, tested and
recertified, naturally. The operators profit
from the investments made in advanced
engines and innovative maintenance. The
majority of the 150 jets, no less, that were
parked at Marana after 9/11 and went back
into revenue service from there had engines
with MTU content. The Evergreen people are
not only parking and wrecking aircraft, they
are also doing all types of modification. Most
Awaiting metal recycling are veteran engines stacked up near Tucson, Arizona.
On a retired DC-10, the rear engine has already been removed.
prominent customer is the NASA space
agency, which continually has one of its two
Boeing 747 shuttle carrier aircraft overhauled
and serviced here. “It’s a cool job and
what’s more, there’s money in it,” enthuses
Al Sharif of Evergreen Marketing.
Even if only ten percent of the Evergreen Air
Center’s revenue comes from storing aircraft,
it’s a very special business nonetheless.
Ambient conditions are ideal: the dry
desert air and only very rare summer rains
just about preclude corrosion, a fuselage’s
worst enemy. But still, there’s more to it than
just parking an aircraft and waiting for it to
be sold or wrecked. In accordance with customer’s
instruction, landing gears are covered
with foil, and windows and all openings
are taped over. That keeps the intensive sunshine
from damaging the cabin interior, and
owls, rattlers and swarming bees from setting
up house in the aircraft. To keep the
temporarily grounded Marana fleet airworthy,
a definite maintenance schedule needs
to be observed. At certain intervals, the
parked jets are moved to keep their tires
from deteriorating. Also, workers are regularly
actuating stabilizers and flaps and starting
the engines. Importantly, the doors are frequently
opened to circulate the air inside.
“You can park a widebody for 1,000 bucks a
month, and we get a 750-buck monthly standard
charge for a smaller aircraft,” Flannery
says, allowing a small grin to creep across
his face. “It costs you more to park a car in
downtown New York.”
Wrecking is not an overly gentle job: a grab
swings and tears large metal chunks out of
the fuselage. When cannibalized, a jumbo-
transport yields a respectable 68 tons aluminum
and other waste metal to be recycled
and perhaps turned into beer cans. “In a
matter of three days, we’re turning a Boeing
747 into 20 containers of metal scrap,”
explains Flannery. “They fetch about 20,000
dollars from a scrap dealer.” Each year, some
two dozen widebody aircraft end their lifecycle
in Marana. Add to that just as many of
the smaller jets. “It’s sure to break the
hearts of visiting pilots,” Flannery says.
For additional information, contact
Sabine Biesenberger
+49 89 1489-2760
This article is available online at:
http://www.mtu.de/107Graveyard
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