During July 2000 a large number of Sikorsky H-34 helicopters where purchased from the Bob's Air Park on South Wilmot Road and were moved to their new home 2 miles away (See Bob's departure list). These aircraft had been stored in long rows at Bob's for many years and before that they were resident in the Allied yard just down the road in East Drexel Road. Over 120 Army H-34 and US Navy variants were purchased by Jack's Government Surplus with a view to sell them on to private collectors, organisations, museums and even film companies.
Jack's Government Surplus has a small premises split over 2 locations. The storage yard was seperate from the main office and contains the majority of the helicopters, with only one or two examples in the yard attached to the office.
Jack's Government Surplus is located on E.Cindrich Road, which is a portion of a road which leads between the Pima Air & Space Museum (the road exits onto Valencia just opposite the West side of the museum) and the large powerstation which sits on South Alvernon Way. This road zig-zags through many car scrapyards and past the road leading to DMI Aviation. If you travel from the Pima Air & Space Museum end, the storage yard can be found on the left about half a mile past Jack's main office which is located on the right hand side of the road.
Many of the H-34's were in poor condition after being in storage for such a long time, many no longer had visible markings making it extremely difficult to identity them. Some examples in the listings on this web site could only be identified using the faded MASDC inventory numbers or manufacturers id plates. To add to the problems the helicopters were closley packed into the yard making it difficult to see what was in there even if you are given permission to have a look around. From the outside the yard, at ground level, very few helicopters could be seen.
Over the years only a few of the helicopters appear to have been sold, including 2 delivered to a paint ball adventure centre called Command Post at Maricopa, Phoenix, AZ. Pictures of these aircraft can be seen on their web site., they were ....
| Serial No. | PCN | Code | Aircraft Type | CN |
Arrived / First Noted |
Last Reported |
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132 | JUL-00 | 27-SEP-00 |
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431 | JUL-00 | 27-SEP-00 |
In December 2010 the whole of Jack's helicopter stock was advertised as being for sale and any that were not sold were to be scrapped. An advert on the Barnstormers web site read ...
SIKORSKY • AVAILABLE FOR SALE OR FOR PART OUT • 114 (that's not a misprint) Sikorsky H-34 S-58 airframes full of parts. Parts, airframes or entire lot. No Engines, records on most. LOCATED in TUCSON. Lost lease on lot. All must go by February 28, 2011. Will assist in loading. Custom Goose neck trailer available for sale that will haul 2 at once behind a heavy pickup. 9 more and more parts in Everett WA. 1 of the 9 in restricted and is close to flying. 1 complete but needs airframe repair. Scrap man offered 1000 each but I hate to see them scrapped •
It is understood that by September 2011 the helicopters were disposed of with most being shredded on site, although a few with some noteworthy service history were saved including UH-34Ds 148115 and 150255. 150255 went to the Wings and Rotors Museum, French Valley airport, Murrieta, CA. where it has been restored.
Google Earth does show six H-34 still stored in the yard. They are sitting at the very back behind the many Government surplus vehicles that now take the helicopters place. The serials of these remaining (if indeed they still remain) is not known.
Minden Air Corporation run by Len Parker and Janet Shepardson are specialists in the aerial fire fighting business. In support of their operational fleet of Lockheed P-2 Neptunes they operate a yard on East Drexel that contains several P-2 and various other types of aircraft. It is a small yard and all of the aircraft in it can be seen from outside the premises. Click here to see an aerial view of the yard which will give you a good idea to its layout. The yard is dominated by two C-130 Hercules fuselage's that are positioned next to the fence.
In 2000 two HU-25 Retrievers that were originally at Bob's Air Park moved to here. I believe one of them to be 130027 but the other is unknown at present.
Compound A backs on to the Western International yard and can be best viewed from South Wilmot Road. If you go on a tour of the Western International yard you can get good views of the back of this compound and can also get good photographs by using a long zoom/telephoto lens.
The 2 A-4 Skyhawks are just forward fuselage sections but are still standing on their undercarriage. 8 of the E-2 Hawkeyes face towards the back of the yard, they are tailess and missing the majority of their wings. The other 3 E-2s are whole and facing Wilmot Road. These left AMARC more recently and were stated as being destined for Egypt. However they were replaced by new build Hawkeyes fresh from the factory that were allocated identical serial numbers as the ones they replaced in this deal.
Most, if not all, the S-2 Trackers in this compound are for the US Forestry Service\Californian Department of Forestry (CDF). They are gradually being delivered to Marsh Aviation who have a conversion/production line at Mesa-Falcon Field Airport, Phoenix, AZ.
The A-7 Corsairs are just tailess fuselage sections, the majority of their other parts lay beside them and in large piles around the rest of the yard.
Compound A. Summary Table as of 12 July 2001.
| Aircraft Type | No. Resident |
|---|---|
| Douglas A-4 Skyhawk | 2 |
| Grumman E-1 Tracer | 1 |
| Grumman E-2 Hawkeye | 11 |
| Grumman S-2 Tracker | 14 |
| Vought A-7 Corsair | 11 |
Compound B is to the West side of the property and good views can be obtained from both Wilmot and Drexel Road. This compound is extremely tightly packed and viewing the inner positioned aircraft is difficult, see the picture below to get an idea of the problem of aircraft blocking out aircraft!
The F-8 Crusaders, A-7 Corsairs and T-2 Buckeye's have been sectioned and are all in poor condition. Between 2000 and 2001 all of the F-8 Crusasers were moved to a new location right next to the Drexel Road fence. This makes it much more possible to identify them with the use of the AMARC park codes that are stenciled onto the fuselages. The tails of these aircraft, with some serial numbers on them, are located along from the fuselages but are obscured by piles of fuel tanks and containers.
The 2 C-130E Hercules are the newest arrivals, the nose of 64-0553 can be found in the DMI yard. The F-8 Crusaders were moved to make way for these 2 aircraft.
Compound B. Summary Table as of 12 July 2001.
| Aircraft Type | No. Resident |
|---|---|
| Douglas A-4 Skyhawk | 1 |
| Grumman E-1 Tracer | 48 |
| Grumman S-2 Tracker | 74 |
| Lockheed C-130 Hercules | 2 |
| Rockwell T-2 Buckeye | 17 |
| Vought A-7 Corsair | 25 |
| Vought F-8 Crusader | 19 |
Last Updated : December 2001
Sitting behind the Specialized Aircraft Maintenance yard, on East Drexel Road was the Allied Aircraft storage yard. Over the years Allied was the largest receiver of aircraft out of MASDC and AMARC, with many hundreds of them passing through to other customers, being sold for scrap or being stored on the premises. At some time just before 2010 the final aircraft were disposed of by scrapping and the land taken over by the adjoining metal processing company HVF West LLC. HVF have taken over from where Allied left off and are now the largest receiver of aircraft from AMARG, although these will be smelted down for recyling instead of possibly finding a future elsewhere.
Allied's entrance was to it the rear of SAM's premises and this offered the only reasonable view to be had at ground level width 95% of the aircraft in this yard are not visible from outside. Of course, like all the other yards in the area, the best way of seeing them was from the air. Some aerial pictures taken when the yard became less active in the early 2000s can be found on the Aerial Gallery pages, these give you a much better understanding of the Allied yard layout.
At this time there were 43 H-37's (30 CH-37B and 13 CH-37C) in storage which had been here for over 25 years in an extremely poor state. Although most look quite complete from a distance they are described as 'scrap metal' by a local business man. One was rumoured to have been earmarked for an aviation museum in the UK but the costs and logistics oft moving the helicopter were delaying the delivery.
At one time Allied was the home to the majority of the H-34 Choctaws and H-19 Chickasaw that existed in the area. Although most of these had left to other yards there were still a sizeable number still resident sitting in several tight lines at the rear of the premises. They are not visible from outside.
The two C-140 Jetstars, 62-4197 and 62-4200,Lockheed RC-121D Super Constellation 53-0535, Fairchild C-123B Provider 54-0619 were thankfully saved when they were moved to the Pima Air & Space Museum. Another survivor was C-131D Samaritan 54-2814 which was moved the short distance into the SAM yard.
It is not known whether any of the other aircraft and helicopters were saved, but one thing for sure is that the majority were lost to the smelter!
DMI or Dross Metals as it was more usually referred to is now called ARM, Aircraft Restoration and Marketing. Located at the end of East Nebraska this yard is the largest in the area and has an extremely complicated layout. Much of the yard contains aircraft belonging to National Aircraft whose main yard is located next to the main AMARC gate on Kolb Road. The large number of C-130's and OV-1 Mohawks here all belong to National but it is difficult to work out the exact split, hence I have included them altogether for the purposes of this web site.
ARM's main business is the restoration of aircraft but it also does a considerable amount of logistical work for customers of ex.AMARC aircraft. In more recent years the F-15 Eagle and F-105 Thunderchief that have been loaned to the Duxford Air Museum, UK. by the USAF Museum came through this yard, as well as several A-10 Thunderbolt's and numerous other aircraft on their way to museums and new owners across the USA.
On a sad note, the long term resident C-133A 54-0137 has been sold by it's previous owner, an operator of another airworthy C-133 in Alaska, to HAVECO. It has been moved, is being stripped of all usable components and will (if it hasn't already) be scrapped. Following the scrapping of the Tucson Airport C-133 in 2001, this will indeed be a sad event. A picture of 54-0137 and information on its operational and scrapyard history can be found by clicking here. An aerial photograph showing 54-0137 in this yard can be found by clicking here.
As with all the other scrapyards detailed on this site, aerial photographs can be found in the 'Aerial Photograph' picture gallery which will give you a greater understanding of the layout and contents of the ARM yard.