Seen from the air at dawn, the last remaining B-52 bombers from the Cold War-era are laid out in grids across the arid desert near Tucson Arizona. These retired aircraft whose air frames are too old for flight are being recycled, their aluminium worth more than their sum total. In the nuclear arms treaties of the 80s, Soviet satellites proved their decommissioning by spying the tails had been sliced apart huge guillotines and set at right-angles. This is a scene of confrontation, with opposing forces apparently facing each other in the way that Soviet and western armies fought the war of propaganda. Picture from the 'Plane Pictures' project, a celebration of aviation aesthetics and flying culture, 100 years after the Wright brothers first 12 seconds/120 feet powered flight at Kitty Hawk,1903.
February 15, 2010 - A U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress aircraft leads a formation of two F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft, two Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) F-2 fighter aircraft, two U.S. Navy EA-6B Prowler aircraft, and a JASDF E-2C Hawkeye aircraft over Guam during exercise Cope North. The U.S. Air Force and JASDF conduct Cope North annually at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, to increase combat readiness and interoperability.
Seen from the air at dawn, dozens of F-4 Phantom fighters from the Cold War-era are laid out in grids across the arid desert at Davis-Monthan Air Forbe Base near Tucson Arizona. These retired aircraft whose air frames are too old for flight are being stored then recycled, their aluminium worth more than their sum total at this repository for old military fighter and bomber aircraft. They sit in neat rows in low light, their shadowy wings are blue in colour but their fuselage are stripped of markings, being taped up against the dust. This is a scene of once-great flying machines relegated to sad scrap, long-after the Soviet Union's own demise when western armies fought a war of propaganda.