These are two of NASA’s KC-135s at Ellington Field in Houston, TX and another in the Pima Air Museum in Tucson, AZ used for its Reduced Gravity Research Program 1995 and 2004. NASA prefers the nickname Weightless Wonder for public relations reasons. [wikipedia link]
Contributed by Kevin.
Here is the World’s Tallest Fountain in Fountain Hills, AZ. The plume of water rises from a concrete water-lily sculpture in the center of a large man-made lake and is driven by three 600-horsepower pumps. When all three pumps are on under zero wind condition, the fountain can reach over 560 feet in height. [wikipedia link]
Contributed by Kevin.
The Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center (AMARC) is an aircraft storage and maintenance facility at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona.
AMARC was established shortly after World War II to house B-29 and C-47 aircraft. Davis-Monthan Air Force Base was chosen because of Tucson’s low humidity, infrequent rainfall, and alkaline soil. The hard soil makes it possible to move aircraft around without having to pave the storage areas. [ wikipedia link ]
Special thanks to Kevin for putting together such a comprehensive post!
__________
Bombers
In accordance with the START I treaty, AMARC was tasked with eliminating 365 B-52 bombers. The progress of this task was to be verified by the Russians via satellite. Initially, the B-52s were chopped into pieces with a 13,000-pound guillotine.
Lots, lots more after the break…
Continuing with the planes in flight theme, here are several great shots of military aircraft caught in flight:
C-5 Galaxy, the largest American made airplane, flying into San Antonio, TX.
KC-134 Stratotanker flying into Mesa, AZ.
C-130 Hercules flying into Fort Worth, TX.
C-130 Hercules flying out of Mesa, AZ.
C-130 Hercules landing at Palmdale, CA.
And two consecutive shots of the same C-130 Hercules approaching Palmdale, CA.
Contributed by PDunn and Parabellum.
Scene of the movie Can’t Buy Me Love - filmed on site at Tucson High School, AZ.
Contributed by Erik Jorgensen.
