Home to more than 4,000 planes, the Boneyard isn't just a junkyard or cemetery for military aircraft.
"Every one of these stored aircraft is a warehouse for parts," said Rob Raine, a workloader at the Boneyard.
The Boneyard, formally known as the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG), was established in 1946 to store surplus World War II aircraft. It is the largest aircraft storage and preservation facility in the world.
AMARG has six major mission areas, including aircraft storage and preservation, parts reclamation, and aircraft regeneration.
Each of the planes Raine says, has it's own story. There is a C-130 that crashed in Antarctica in the mid-60's.
"It basically sat on the ice for 17 years, sunk it's way down into the ice, and then got a new engine flew for another ten years then retired," Raine said.
Also housed at AMARG, a B-52 that lost it's tail mid-flight in 1964.
"The airplane was flying along, doing some testing evaluation, the entire tail ripped off the airplane," Raine said. "And they managed to fly it around for six hours with no tail."
In the last fiscal year, AMARG reclaimed 7,415 parts, preserved 4,231 aircraft, and demilitarized 417 aircraft and engines.
The Pima Air and Space Museum provides tours of the Boneyard to the public.
