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benburch Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-13-06 08:14 PM
Original message
Want to see a picture of trillions of dollars?
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JuniperLea Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-13-06 08:15 PM
Response to Original message
1. We live in the most wasteful nation in the world
And that is only going by what we know...
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JesterCS Donating Member (627 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-13-06 08:39 PM
Response to Reply #1
6. Alot of those
are there for a reason. the agreement with Russia after the cold war. They have to sit out.. on display, all in neat rows showing that they arent being used , so that we dont intend to beef up our airforce secretly to attack them.. cold-war era crap =P
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babylonsister Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-13-06 08:16 PM
Response to Original message
2. But...but...most of these planes are there because they're
beyond old and useable, right? BTW, awesome pic.
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rockymountaindem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-13-06 08:18 PM
Response to Reply #2
3. It still makes me sad
Those planes could all make cool displays in small towns and cities across the country if places and people would just spring to make them so.
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ewagner Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-13-06 08:21 PM
Response to Original message
4. That place saddens me
for two reasons:

the waste for certain.....France refurbished the Mirage line over and over again and improved it each time....

and also because I was raised around an old crew chief who used to get tears in his eyes whenever "his" plane that carried him across oceans, into combat and through terrible weather got sent off to the boneyard....it was like "putting down your favorite old dog".
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tridim Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-13-06 08:37 PM
Response to Original message
5. You have to admit, they're organized very neatly
Wonder if Bush's obsolete plane is there?
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rusty_parts2001 Donating Member (728 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-13-06 08:44 PM
Response to Original message
7. Davis Monthan AFB is a warehouse
The aircraft there are used, in some instances, for replacement parts (i.e. the B-52 line has been shut for almost 40 years) so lots of parts are removed from the bone yard birds and used on the B-52s.

The other big collection of aircraft are F-4 Phantoms, no longer flown except as drones, and the bone yard provides aircraft and parts for that mission.

Some of the other aircraft are still in active duty like the F/A-18, F-14s, and F-15s so parts are used from them as well, although to a lesser extent. The classic planes like the SR-71, B-47s, B-36s, and U-2s are stored in a museum on the premises and are protected from the elements.

The cut-up B-52s, which are in the photo, are the result of the Arms Limitation Treaties wherein the US was required to reduce the fleet of strategic bombers and allow Russian satellites to take pictures to verify their destruction.

For a plane buff, Davis Monthan AFB and the Pima Museum close by are like a big candy store for a chocolate addict.
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Generic Other Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-13-06 08:49 PM
Response to Original message
8. Now right there was enough room to house the entire Gulf Coast
Sheesh. That graveyard represents our sweat and blood. All of us!!
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A Simple Game Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-13-06 09:09 PM
Response to Original message
9. Remember that picture. In a couple of months
we will probably be seeing pictures of the Iranian Air Force that look an awful lot like it.
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gristy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-13-06 09:16 PM
Response to Original message
10. How do you figure trillions?
What is the new cost of the planes in the picture? What is their scrap cost? Could either of those add up to $1,000,000,000,000?
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benburch Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-13-06 11:58 PM
Response to Reply #10
12. If you scan out from there you see many hundreds of aircraft.
Each of the F-111s cost about $25 million in the 1960s.

Each one of the F-14 Tomcats was about $40 million.

Each one of the B-52 bombers was $74 million.

Each F-15 about $30 million.
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gristy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-14-06 01:54 AM
Response to Reply #12
13. many hundreds x $50million = 300 x $50million = $15billion
Not trillions.
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benburch Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-14-06 11:45 AM
Response to Reply #13
19. I haven't counted them...
But I am guessing that there are far more than 300.

In any case, you are analyzing too deeply a posting that just supposed to make you go WOW.
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gristy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-14-06 10:18 PM
Response to Reply #19
21. OK, so next time someone says that the national debt increased by
TRILLIONS under GWB, should I also assume that person is exaggerating to make a point? That it may have only been a few tens of billions? If I did, I would be wrong.
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benburch Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-15-06 01:27 AM
Response to Reply #21
22. BTW, Actual count is 4500...
According to a web site.
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NYC Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-13-06 09:19 PM
Response to Original message
11. Housing for the homeless?
Can these planes be converted to apartments? It would be somewhat like living in a trailer. (theoretically movable)
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LibertyorDeath Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-14-06 04:20 AM
Response to Original message
14. The The F-22 Raptor costs between 2to3 hundred million $ a copy
Think i'll say it again cause it's so fucking obscene

The The F-22 Raptor costs between 2to3 hundred million $ a copy

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benburch Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-14-06 11:36 AM
Response to Reply #14
18. Well, none of those are in this picture! :-) nt
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obxhead Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-14-06 04:26 AM
Response to Original message
15. I have seen this with my own eye....
what was your point though?
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benburch Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-14-06 11:35 AM
Response to Reply #15
17. My point? It's a cool picture!!! nt
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donheld Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-14-06 07:54 AM
Response to Original message
16. Would to god it was 100x bigger
Then we could put all our implements of war into it and stop the waste of human lives.
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Beelzebud Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-14-06 11:49 AM
Response to Original message
20. Actually this is a picture of trillions of dollars:
Edited on Tue Mar-14-06 11:52 AM by Beelzebud
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Area+51&t=k&ll=37.235795,-115.810661&spn=0.049201,0.107288&t=k

And this is a picture to make mother Earth weep:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Area+51&t=k&ll=37.131856,-116.056137&spn=0.098537,0.214577&t=k

The first is Area 51, where we develop our experimental aircraft. (Think Stealth, not E.T.)

The second is about 15 miles from Area 51 where we tested over 300 nuclear bombs. Tell me that had no effect on our environment and health.
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