Interest Point 4 - The Boneyard

From Interest Point 3, turn around to head north on Flight Systems Dr. until you reach the gate at the opposite end of the street, gate A15. Please note that no parking is allowed at this location.

 

Interest Point 4 provides the best view of the “boneyard”. The airliners across the airfield are parked in the area known as the boneyard. As you may have noticed, the Mojave airport is located in a remote area, away from large metropolitan areas. Due to its vast area and low-humidity desert conditions, it functions as a storage facility for airliners. The aircraft stored around the airfield are a mix of airframes waiting to be torn up into scrap metal and some which are in flyable storage. You can find Boeing, Airbus, McDonnell-Douglas and Lockheed amongst the airliners stored. The majority of the airframes are destined for scrap, only the few isolated out on the west side of the grounds are in flyable storage. Because the airframe and the engines of large airliners are typically owned by different entities, many of the aircraft here have had their engines removed.

 

Please note that email approval is required by the lessee Business Class Aviation to take pictures inside the Boneyard. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

The tower just on the west side of gate A15 in the control tower for the air and space port.

 

To your left, a large blue and white aircraft should be parked on the west side of Flight Systems Dr. near the control tower, if it is not out flying. This aircraft is thought to be the last remaining operational Lockheed L-1011 (“L-ten-eleven”). This specific aircraft is known as the Stargazer and is was operated by Orbital ATK as a carrier for the company’s Pegasus rockets. Orbital ATK has been taken over by Northrop Grumman in 2018. The Pegasus is an air-launched rocket capable of carrying 977 lbs. into Low Earth Orbit. The Pegasus is launched from the bottom of the aircraft before firing its rocket engine and delivering for example satellites to space. It first flew in 1990 and is released at an altitude of around 40,000 ft.