News for 'MD-80'

Where planes go to die

Have you ever wondered what happens to aircraft after they become too old? They are put to rest -- they undergo funeral-esque rituals known as 'pickling'; their engines are removed, the windows covered and the fluids drained. But of course these giants are too big to bury. In the parched deserts, where a dry climate is an old machine's best ally, aircraft, young and old, lie nose to tail, row after row like fallen soldiers in the secluded airplane boneyards. And these airplane graveyards become the perfect playground for photographer Troy Paiva.