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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? |
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D21 recon drone in storage at Davis Monthan
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? |
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D21 recon drone in storage at Davis Monthan
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! | |
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D21 recon drone in storage at Davis Monthan
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D21 recon drone in storage at Davis Monthan
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." |
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D21 recon drone in storage at Davis Monthan
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 |
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D21 recon drone in storage at Davis Monthan
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 |
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D21 recon drone in storage at Davis Monthan
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 |
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D21 recon drone in storage at Davis Monthan
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 |
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