GUY NORRIS / VICTORVILLE

The post-11 September 2001 flood of jet aircraft flying into desert storage has unearthed some definite trends in the mothballing business, with new sites emerging and older areas fading into the background.

The bulk of the world's newly stored jet airliner fleet lies in two sites in California, and a smattering of locations around Arizona. The California sites at Mojave and Victorville house around 650 aircraft between them, while major sites in Arizona, including Marana, Goodyear (near Phoenix), and Tucson host around 350.

A well-spread group of other sites in Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico also provide homes to stored aircraft. In Arizona, these include Avra Valley, Coolidge, Deer Valley, Eloy, Mesa, Phoenix Skyharbor, Phoenix Williams Gateway, Ryan Airfield and Kingman, which was first established as a major storage site for surplus military aircraft after the Second World War. Nevada's main civil storage area is Las Vegas McCarren International Airport, while another major storage site is Roswell in New Mexico.

The emergence of Victorville as a major storage site is the most noteworthy development since the last major phase of airliner grounding in the 1990s. Formerly known as George US Air Force base, the huge site now plays host to almost 300 airliners. Most of its current residents have arrived since 11 September, and the bulk of almost 150 Boeing 727-200s stored there are United Airlines owned. The field has also become home to 44 Lockheed L-1011 TriStars, most of which are ex-Delta aircraft in search of new owners.

Since becoming a commercial airfield, Victorville has provided storage for almost 400 airliners, the earliest arrivals being in 1998. Unlike many of its contemporaries, the main companies at the site, BAE Systems and Southern California Aviation, are focusing on storage of aircraft destined for return to service. However, it is clear that at least 50 of the older aircraft at the site will be parted out.

A five-minute, 727 flight away is Mojave, where more than 700 jet airliners are registered as having been stored, and sometimes scrapped, since the late 1980s. While Victorville boasts the world's largest fleet of stored 727s, Mojave holds the record for Boeing 737s, with around 80 on the ground at the beginning of January. This includes the complete US Airways/Metrojet 737 fleet as well as Continental and Delta aircraft. The line-up includes US Airways McDonnell Douglas DC-9s, Fokker 100s and 727s. Hawaiian's McDonnell Douglas DC-9-50s fleet, now replaced by Boeing 717s, also accounts for part of a tally of more than 50 sister aircraft. The site also supports a large fleet of 33 McDonnell Douglas DC-10s, many of them former Continental owned, as well as 12 Lockheed L-1011s, mostly ex-Delta aircraft.

The mix of equipment at Mojave and Victorville also reveals the sudden onset of the latest downturn. Among the older, more obviousstorage candidates have been new Boeing 737-700s and -400s - some so new that they arrived in primer.

At Mojave in early January, as if to underline this, the Metrojet fleet was lined up in front of nine factory-fresh Southwest 737-700s. More modern aircraft at Victorville also included six United Boeing 747-422s, stripped of their engines.

Marana, near Tucson, Arizona, remains the world's largest site for stored 747s, with more than 60 now on site. Operated by Evergreen Air Center, the field is thought to have seen the storage and scrapping of more commercial airliners than any other site, with 1,130 passing through since the 1970s. In contrast to the California sites, however, Marana does not appear to have seen quite the same influx, with many of the 150 plus aircraft registered there resident before 11 September.

Goodyear, near Phoenix, is another site to have seen more recent growth, being used principally by American, America West, Delta, Emery and United. Of around 130 aircraft on-site, 50 are predominantly Delta 727s. Goodyear also houses 40 737s, in a mix of American West, Delta Express and others, ranging from Aerolineas Argentinas to TAESA. The airfield is one of the few to feature Airbus A320s and Boeing 767-300s, while around 30 DC-10s are also stored.

While the future of the latest harvest of "desert flowers" is undecided for many, the sheer volume of aircraft and the need for retrofit, security upgrades and re-activation will keep the south west storage airfields busy for years to come.

Source: Flight International