D21 recon drone in storage at Davis Monthan

Recently visited Davis Monthan and Pima air museum. Couldn't help but
notice tucked in among all the manned aircraft a D21 recon drone all
sealed up and weatherized. The guide said nothing about it. Davis
Monthan stores aircraft for parts, potential redeployment, or for lack
of a better description target practice. I know there are a number of
D21's on static display around the country but these will never fly
again . Anybody here have any idea what the plan would be (or is)
with this airframe?

ucked in among all the manned aircraft a D21 recon drone all
sealed up and weatherized. The guide said nothing about it

Ahh did you ask?

In article ,
R Neutron wrote:
Recently visited Davis Monthan and Pima air museum. Couldn't help but
notice tucked in among all the manned aircraft a D21 recon drone all
sealed up and weatherized... I know there are a number of
D21's on static display around the country but these will never fly
again . Anybody here have any idea what the plan would be (or is)
with this airframe?

Almost certainly, there is no plan -- it's simply being saved against the
faint possibility that there might be a use for it in future, in the same
way that a few Blackbirds were saved when the bulk of the fleet went to
museums and NASA. (Actually, if it's properly protected, that's better
treatment than the Blackbirds got...)
--
MOST launched 1015 EDT 30 June, separated 1046, | Henry Spencer
first ground-station pass 1651, all nominal! |

(R Neutron) wrote:

Recently visited Davis Monthan and Pima air museum. Couldn't help but
notice tucked in among all the manned aircraft a D21 recon drone all
sealed up and weatherized. The guide said nothing about it. Davis
Monthan stores aircraft for parts, potential redeployment, or for lack
of a better description target practice.

Davis-Monthan also stores aircraft that are to be scrapped.

I know there are a number of
D21's on static display around the country but these will never fly
again . Anybody here have any idea what the plan would be (or is)
with this airframe?

Very likely it's just been forgotten.

D.
--
The STS-107 Columbia Loss FAQ can be found
at the following URLs:

Text-Only Version:
http://www.io.com/~o_m/columbia_loss_faq.html

Enhanced HTML Version:
http://www.io.com/~o_m/columbia_loss_faq_x.html

Corrections, comments, and additions should be
e-mailed to , as well as posted to
sci.space.history and sci.space.shuttle for
discussion.

(Hallerb) wrote in message ...
ucked in among all the manned aircraft a D21 recon drone all
sealed up and weatherized. The guide said nothing about it

Ahh did you ask?

If I had been able to I would have

EDW has at least a pair of D-21s laying around outside; I've seen two on small
trailors, similar to engine stands, and one that was literally laying on the
ground under a small awning. When I first saw them, I just about spit out my
coke. EDW has *the* most amazing toys!

v/r
Gordon
PS, Mary, if you read this [waving]
====(A+C====
USN SAR Aircrew

"Got anything on your radar, SENSO?"
"Nothing but my forehead, sir."

On 09 Oct 2003 18:41:46 GMT, nt (Gordon) wrote:

EDW has at least a pair of D-21s laying around outside; I've seen two on small
trailors, similar to engine stands, and one that was literally laying on the
ground under a small awning. When I first saw them, I just about spit out my
coke. EDW has *the* most amazing toys!

Dryden got four D-21s in the last great share-out. All on the little
carts. One went to Blackbird Park and the other three sat down in the
boneyard on the shore of the lakebed beyond the Shuttle hangar. Those
are the three you saw.

PS, Mary, if you read this [waving]

Waving back madly.

I've been back out to Dryden _once_ since we finished cleaning out
almost all of our stuff. We still have a little more to go, and Ken
is finishing a document that he'd started before retiring, so we
haven't exactly turned our backs on it.

Anyway, they moved the fence to enclose everything in one perimeter
except the cafeteria and visitor registration. It looks very
defensive with so much chain-link fencing and barbed wire around the
place and the route to some of the parking lots is very circuitous.
(It must be a madhouse at starting and quitting time.) But the main
effect for visitors to EDW is that now you can't sneak into that far
parking lot and see the airplanes like the F-16XLs parked on the ramp.

--
Mary Shafer Retired aerospace research engineer

R Neutron wrote:

I know there are a number of
D21's on static display around the country but these will never fly
again . Anybody here have any idea what the plan would be (or is)
with this airframe?


Maybe they want to keep one around in case they want to study it's
construction techniques and materials at some future point; if the F-117
was anything to go by; Lockheed may have destroyed most of the data that
went into it's design and construction for security reasons; did it have
any markings on it, particularly a two digit number? Was it's rocket
booster for B-52 launch stored with it?

Pat
P.S.- Anybody wanting to see where a lot of your tax dollars ended up at
can play reconnaissance photo interpreter at home via the Terraserver
site's zoomable 1992 aerial photo photo of Davis-Monthan AFB.
How many B-52's and F-4s can _you_ find? Can you spot any D-21s? I may
have, but am not sure....
This should get you in the ballpark, and you can zoom from the left hand
control panel from the
http://terraserver-usa.com/image.asp...=4448&z=12&w=1

Hallerb wrote:

ucked in among all the manned aircraft a D21 recon drone all
sealed up and weatherized. The guide said nothing about it



Ahh did you ask?


After the Patriot Act, would you dare?

Pat

Gordon wrote:

EDW has at least a pair of D-21s laying around outside; I've seen two on small
trailors, similar to engine stands, and one that was literally laying on the
ground under a small awning. When I first saw them, I just about spit out my
coke. EDW has *the* most amazing toys!

There were a couple of Bomarcs (sans ramjets...maybe they ended up in
some of the D-21's) and a JB-2 "Buzz Bomb" copy laying around in the
middle of nowhere at Lakland AFB in 1975.

Pat