Post by davebasing on Apr 17, 2020 15:51:56 GMT
Part 5
As threatened, this part will be the first installment of the day long tour of MASDC (re-titled AMARC in 1985) in October 1980. Over time these became half day tours, then half day with no exiting the bus, then shortened again to miss out the active flight line, then reduced to the fairly short (but still worthwhile and very much appreciated) bus tours run from the Pima Museum. Didn’t do the overflight that year but did so on my next visit in 1983 and all subsequent trips, and this remains the only way of seeing and appreciating the vast scale of the entire base (almost 3,000 acres). If requested, such flights can also take in the civil aircraft storage field at Marana (usually with a landing and backtrack) and the likes of Avra Valley.
In 1980 there were just under 4,000 aircraft there, reduced from a peak of over 6,000 at the end of the Vietnam War. While some aircraft come and go quite quickly, a few are known to have spent 40 odd years there primarily as spare ships where a type is still in service or held for possible museum requirements. I see that one of the F8 Crusaders I saw there in 1980 (and which had then been there for 6 years) finally left AMARC in March 2020. WB57F 53-13295 was there in 1980 having arrived in 1972, it left AMARC in 2011 becoming NASA 927 and flying again after 39 years of desert storage. Some types could be seen in vast numbers (e.g. just short of 1,500 Phantoms passed through) but there are also distinct one-offs (e.g the gondola of Goodyear ZPG3W 144243 which arrived there in 1989 and is still present. It was the largest non-rigid airship ever to be built for the military) and oddballs like a handful of Migs and a couple of former German AF Tornados. Back then the base was surrounded by (the now much reduced) civilian storage/smelting yards which contained vast numbers of aircraft. For example the Allied yard on South Wilmot that day in 1980 contained, amongst other types, some 180 Sikorsky H34s (S58s) while a further 30 odd of the type were noted scattered around the other yards. Adjoining the base is of course the superb Pima Air Museum which benefits from having had almost one of every type towed across the road from the base.
But first a trio from the Air Guard down the road at Tucson IAP the evening before, then operating the A7 Corsair. The pilot of the F106 had flown in from California for a golf tournament!
To keep it manageable I’ll start MASDC with the transport types, leaving the others for the next part. Pistons still abounded in the store then. No excuses for the number of Connie photos, such a lovely looking aircraft. 37 of which were logged there that day.
ac 260 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
ac 238 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
ac 235 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
ac 259 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
ac 237 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
ac 239 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
ac 249 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
ac 267 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
ac 266 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
ac 271 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
ac 272 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
Of the Daks, rather remarkably given its condition 49786 was later sold on the civil market and fitted with turboprop engines. The ‘roundel’ on 859 still shows the faded orange outline marks of the South Vietnamese Air Force from where it escaped at the end of the war. She also survived and became a turboprop water bomber. 348415 (also ex Vietnamese) is now preserved inside a gate at Lackland AFB, Texas.
ac 247 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
ac 262 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
ac 256 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
ac 245 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
ac 246 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
The 5th production Hercules, NC130A 53-3313 spent it’s life as a test & development aircraft and was retired in 1976 with just 5136 hours on the clock. She was subsequently broken up in the National yard adjoining MASDC. C123K 54-0677 was later sold in Mexico and was written off there in a fatal crash in 1996 while hauling lobsters.
ac 275 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
ac 268 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
Also there at the time was the prototype Boeing 707. Stored for the Smithsonian it arrived in 1976 before departing to Seattle for restoration 14 years later and is now preserved in the NASM at Washington-Dulles.
ac 229 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
Just one transport example from the yards that year is this C133 Cargomaster 64-0137 which had arrived in MASDC in 1971 and left for the yard in 1976. It lingered until quite recently when it was sadly finally broken up.
ac 300 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
As threatened, this part will be the first installment of the day long tour of MASDC (re-titled AMARC in 1985) in October 1980. Over time these became half day tours, then half day with no exiting the bus, then shortened again to miss out the active flight line, then reduced to the fairly short (but still worthwhile and very much appreciated) bus tours run from the Pima Museum. Didn’t do the overflight that year but did so on my next visit in 1983 and all subsequent trips, and this remains the only way of seeing and appreciating the vast scale of the entire base (almost 3,000 acres). If requested, such flights can also take in the civil aircraft storage field at Marana (usually with a landing and backtrack) and the likes of Avra Valley.
In 1980 there were just under 4,000 aircraft there, reduced from a peak of over 6,000 at the end of the Vietnam War. While some aircraft come and go quite quickly, a few are known to have spent 40 odd years there primarily as spare ships where a type is still in service or held for possible museum requirements. I see that one of the F8 Crusaders I saw there in 1980 (and which had then been there for 6 years) finally left AMARC in March 2020. WB57F 53-13295 was there in 1980 having arrived in 1972, it left AMARC in 2011 becoming NASA 927 and flying again after 39 years of desert storage. Some types could be seen in vast numbers (e.g. just short of 1,500 Phantoms passed through) but there are also distinct one-offs (e.g the gondola of Goodyear ZPG3W 144243 which arrived there in 1989 and is still present. It was the largest non-rigid airship ever to be built for the military) and oddballs like a handful of Migs and a couple of former German AF Tornados. Back then the base was surrounded by (the now much reduced) civilian storage/smelting yards which contained vast numbers of aircraft. For example the Allied yard on South Wilmot that day in 1980 contained, amongst other types, some 180 Sikorsky H34s (S58s) while a further 30 odd of the type were noted scattered around the other yards. Adjoining the base is of course the superb Pima Air Museum which benefits from having had almost one of every type towed across the road from the base.
But first a trio from the Air Guard down the road at Tucson IAP the evening before, then operating the A7 Corsair. The pilot of the F106 had flown in from California for a golf tournament!
To keep it manageable I’ll start MASDC with the transport types, leaving the others for the next part. Pistons still abounded in the store then. No excuses for the number of Connie photos, such a lovely looking aircraft. 37 of which were logged there that day.
ac 260 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
ac 238 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
ac 235 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
ac 259 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
ac 237 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
ac 239 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
ac 249 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
ac 267 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
ac 266 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
ac 271 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
ac 272 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
Of the Daks, rather remarkably given its condition 49786 was later sold on the civil market and fitted with turboprop engines. The ‘roundel’ on 859 still shows the faded orange outline marks of the South Vietnamese Air Force from where it escaped at the end of the war. She also survived and became a turboprop water bomber. 348415 (also ex Vietnamese) is now preserved inside a gate at Lackland AFB, Texas.
ac 247 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
ac 262 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
ac 256 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
ac 245 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
ac 246 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
The 5th production Hercules, NC130A 53-3313 spent it’s life as a test & development aircraft and was retired in 1976 with just 5136 hours on the clock. She was subsequently broken up in the National yard adjoining MASDC. C123K 54-0677 was later sold in Mexico and was written off there in a fatal crash in 1996 while hauling lobsters.
ac 275 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
ac 268 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
Also there at the time was the prototype Boeing 707. Stored for the Smithsonian it arrived in 1976 before departing to Seattle for restoration 14 years later and is now preserved in the NASM at Washington-Dulles.
ac 229 by dave tompkins, on Flickr
Just one transport example from the yards that year is this C133 Cargomaster 64-0137 which had arrived in MASDC in 1971 and left for the yard in 1976. It lingered until quite recently when it was sadly finally broken up.
ac 300 by dave tompkins, on Flickr