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Bye, Bye, Vista-Jets!

  

February 19, 2006 - For over five years, retired US Airways DC-9-30s have been a common sight at Mojave. Most of the fleet came here as they retired, and some went on to other carriers, while many were scrapped in batches. The final group is now being cut up by Alameda Metals. Dubbed "Vista-Jets" by the marketing folks at US Airways' predecessor Allegheny Airlines, the entire fleet carried N9xxVJ registration numbers. A few days ago I was able to spend a couple hours out in Alameda's yard watching as Shear-Maestro Julio did his thing to N974VJ.

The final batch sat for a couple of years awaiting their fate (2/05).
Their time almost up, they were dragged to the back of the airport (4/05).
Alameda's yard isn't that big, and it was clear all 15 airframes wouldn't fit (5/05)!
So the answer, of course, was to cut the wings and tails off (9/05).

Once in the yard, the tubes were propped up and the landing gear was removed. All useable components are stripped off to be sent for overhaul and further life on active DC-9s.

Tube without a tail number is N974VJ, which we will see more of in a minute.
DC-9 on left is N970VJ, the very first jet Allegheny owned.
Yes, the place is complete with a junkyard dog...
...who loves to chase the shear.

All that's left of N960VJ (c/n 47505), a 1970-model DC-9-31. Cockpits are usually saved, and become the chassis for simulators. Below: Julio carefully moves the cockpit so he can work on 975.

N967VJ (c/n 47375), a '69 model...contemporary with some of the best Mustangs and Camaros!
Anyone wanna practice some unusual attitude recoveries???

A forlorn and dying N974VJ (c/n 47130).
Originally ordered for Bonanza Airlines, they cancelled and Allegheny grabbed it
N974VJ was delivered new on August 12, 1967...it almost made it to 40!

The process works like this: cut a piece of airplane off, stuff it into a dumpster. The aluminum will be trucked to Palmdale, transferred into an ocean container, and end up in a smelter in China, of all places.

Then, it's on to the next piece of fuselage, or "canopy". Julio cuts one side up through the emergency exits, then through the other

Overhead bins and all....

Left: Crew members removed insulation, wiring, and anything else that's not scrap aluminum.
Right: The center-section is the strongest part of the plane, where the wings attach to the fuselage, and is the next section to be cut.
Note that the plane is still sitting on its main gear legs, as Julio begins clipping.
A shove from Julio's shear and the keel breaks.

Left: The center section is pulled away, with leading-edge slats still attached. Some control surfaces have value, some don't.
Right: Cutting through the main gear wheel well keel.

Landing gear components are overhaulable, and are quite valuable. But removing them by hand it time consuming, due to poor access. No problem, Julio just cuts them out.

While Julio is off cutting out the main gear legs, the rest of the Vista-Jet awaits his return. By the end of the day, only the cockpit section will remain. What took thousands of people tens of thousands of man-hours to build in Long Beach, takes one man to deconstruct in a day. And if this was a Disney blog, we'd all now break into singing "It's the Circle of Life".