cubedweller

Fellow goon Yellowgoat and I recently made a trip out the Mojave Airport in Southern California. It was my fourth time there and his second. It's paradise for an airplane dork like me and with all of the SpaceShipOne I AM SOUTH PARK'S BITCH, the atmosphere was even better. Let's go!

The old Mojave tower, now used to pimp the fact that, yes, they fly to space now.

Let's wander around the airport first.

Oh look, a DC-10 engine, just sitting out on a FedEx palette!


This 21 year old ex-southwest plane was having major regular maintenance performed


This L-1011 is used to launch rockets and satellites.


These have been here since I first went to Mojave in 2000. A row of wingless fuselages.



This is a full-sized mockup of a business jet, outside Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites building.



Wow, futuristic! Actually it's just a movie prop.



This 747 is used exclusively for training people on how to do cargo conversions




Now let's go over to the storage area




Air Canada has had some major financial problems, so here are a bunch of their 767s


You can get pretty close to the planes


These 737-200s have some NASTY paintjobs


The green isn't much better - no wonder Zip went out of business


Here's a row of retired DC-9s, USAir and American Airlines being the primary suspects



These planes have been in "Corrosion Corner" for over 30 years


Kinda sad to see them end up like this


This Hawaiian Airlines DC-10 used to be the Oakland Raiders' team plane.


This 747 had KLM colors but Algerian Airways titles


Pretty impressive up close


This KLM 747 is in slightly better shape


This is an unusual find. Rare airline and rare livery. It was in surprisingly good shape.


This 747-200 was recently used to film the "Rebel Billionaire" promo



And that brings to a close, our tour of the most unique airport in America.