Pima Air & Space Museum

When you get out of the car in Tucson, you notice the heat first and the scale second. On the outdoor grounds of the Pima Air & Space Museum, bombers, transports, fighters and airliners stand in long rows under the desert sun as far as you can see. Right next door lies Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, home to the most famous aircraft storage site in the world. Pima isn’t a museum you squeeze in between two airport spots – it’s a destination plane spotters keep a whole day free for.

A museum from the desert

The museum opened on May 8, 1976 – with 48 aircraft at the time, most of them standing outdoors. The location was no accident: in southeast Tucson the grounds border Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, where the US armed forces have stored retired aircraft since the end of World War II. The dry climate, the low humidity and the hard ground made the area an ideal place to park aircraft even then – and, as it turned out, to display them.

The museum is run by the nonprofit Arizona Aerospace Foundation. The foundation also looks after the Arizona Aviation Hall of Fame, which has been housed in the museum since 1991, and the Titan Missile Museum in Sahuarita, south of Tucson. Pima is funded mainly privately, through admissions, donations and memberships.

Over the decades, the original open-air collection has grown into a large complex. The first exhibit hangar was finished in early 1982, with more following in 1987, 1992 and 1994. The Spirit of Freedom Hangar was added in 2007. Today the museum speaks of more than 400 aircraft and spacecraft on about 80 acres, or just over 32 hectares – the figures vary slightly depending on the source and how things are counted.

Hangars and outdoor area at a glance

Pima consists of two worlds: the halls, where delicate and especially valuable aircraft are kept under cover, and the huge outdoor area, where mostly large aircraft are parked. Three of the six exhibit hangars are devoted to World War II. There is also the independent 390th Memorial Museum, which is included in admission.

The table is a rough guide. Exhibits move between the halls and the outdoor area, get restored or are temporarily closed off. If you’re traveling for one particular aircraft, ask the museum beforehand.

The highlights for spotters

Cold War bombers

Nowhere else do you get so many strategic bombers in front of your lens in one place. Pima shows no fewer than three Boeing B-52s. The best known is the NB-52A 52-0003 “The High and the Mighty One”: at Edwards Air Force Base it was the carrier aircraft for the X-15 rocket plane. Alongside stand a B-52D named “The Lone Star Lady” and a B-52G “Valkyrie,” which by common accounts took part in the secret operation “Secret Squirrel” at the start of the Gulf War.

Even rarer is the Convair B-36J 52-2827 “The City of Fort Worth” – the last B-36 ever built. With six piston engines and four additional jet engines, it is one of the most impressive aircraft of the early Cold War. The aircraft belongs to the National Museum of the US Air Force and is on loan to Pima, where it was restored and reassembled. If you missed the B-36 in Dayton: the National Museum of the US Air Force shows another example of the type.

In the main hangar waits the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, and next to it an A-10 Thunderbolt II – fitting for a museum whose neighboring base was associated with the type for decades. From World War II come, among others, a B-29 Superfortress, a B-24 and the B-17G in the 390th Memorial Museum.

Presidential aircraft

Two exhibits tell history from the White House. The Douglas VC-118A 53-3240 served John F. Kennedy as Air Force One until the VC-137C with tail number 26000 became the primary aircraft in 1962. It stayed on afterward as a backup and is considered the last propeller aircraft of the presidential fleet. Technically it is a military variant of the Douglas DC-6.

Next to it stands the Boeing VC-137B 58-6971, a VIP version of the Boeing 707. It became known as “Freedom One” because in 1981 it brought the US hostages released from Tehran back home. How the 707 shaped the jet age is told in the article on the Boeing 707.

Prototypes and test aircraft

For airliner fans, Pima is a treasure trove, because aircraft that made type history stand here. In 2015 Boeing handed the museum the second Boeing 787 ever built, a test aircraft painted in the colors of All Nippon Airways – ANA was the Dreamliner’s launch customer. Also on display is the first Boeing 777-200 ever built, with the registration B-HNL, which after testing at Boeing flew for Cathay Pacific. How to tell the two types apart is shown in the article How to tell the Boeing 777 and 787 apart.

More rarities: the Aero Spacelines Super Guppy with its bulging fuselage, built to carry large space hardware, the engine test bed N747GE based on a Boeing 747, and a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 that the aid organization Orbis used as a flying eye hospital and donated to the museum in 2016.

SOFIA: the flying observatory

Since December 13, 2022, the collection also includes SOFIA, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy run by NASA and DLR. The converted Boeing 747SP carried a telescope with a 2.7-meter mirror built into the fuselage and flew above the clouds to observe in the sky what is barely visible in the infrared from the ground. For spotters it is doubly interesting: as one of the few surviving 747SPs and as an example with German involvement. You’ll find more on the type family in the article on the 747 variants.

Philippine Mars: the last big flying boat

The most spectacular recent arrival is the flying boat Martin Mars “Philippine Mars.” In February 2025 it took off in Canada for its final flight, made a stopover in San Francisco Bay and landed on Lake Pleasant in Arizona. Because Tucson has no suitable body of water and the flying boat has no landing gear, it was taken apart and brought to the museum on lowboy trailers. The hull arrived in May 2025, and by fall 2025 the aircraft was reassembled and open to visitors; work on details continues. It is one of the largest aircraft in the collection – and a subject you won’t find anywhere else anytime soon.

And the boneyard?

For many, the neighboring Davis-Monthan Air Force Base is the real reason to travel to Tucson. The US Air Force operates the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG) there, popularly known as “The Boneyard.” On roughly 2,600 acres stand, by common accounts, around 4,000 aircraft – stored, preserved, used as a source of spare parts or prepared to return to service. The dry climate, little rain, the alkaline soil and the elevation of about 2,550 feet slow corrosion, and the hard ground carries the aircraft without any anchoring.

For many years the Pima museum was the starting point for bus tours through this site. These tours no longer exist. The museum states on its website that the trips to AMARG have ended permanently and will not return because of changed US Air Force security requirements. Travel portals and older guidebooks still list the tour in some cases – don’t let that fool you.

What you can do instead: treat the museum visit itself as the main program. The topic of aircraft storage and recycling is covered in more depth in the article Aircraft graveyards and boneyards, which also covers civil storage sites in the desert.

Photography in the desert

Pima is an open-air museum under a merciless sun. That brings advantages – almost always clear weather, plenty of room around the aircraft – and a few typical problems.

Light and time of day

At midday the sun in Arizona is high, shadows fall short and hard, and light-colored fuselages blow out quickly. The best conditions come in the first hours after opening, when the light still comes in lower from the side. Because the aircraft on the outdoor grounds are spread out in every direction, it pays to work out in advance, for the most important subjects, which side is lit when. How to do that is shown in the article on the sun position at the photo spot.

Heat and haze

The air shimmers over the heated ground – with long focal lengths over greater distances, the image goes soft. Get closer and work with standard and wide-angle zooms rather than the super telephoto. Tips are in the article Avoiding heat haze.

Outdoor area and halls

Outside, the aircraft often stand with enough space around them to fit the whole aircraft in the frame – with a B-52 or B-36 you still need a wide-angle lens or plenty of steps backward. In the hangars it is tight, and light comes from changing directions. Watch for barriers and signs; you’re not allowed to walk all the way around every aircraft.

What else to watch out for in the heat is covered in the article Plane spotting in summer. If you want to identify the old types with confidence, read Recognizing vintage aircraft in the sky, and if you want to not only photograph museum aircraft but help preserve them, you’ll find ideas in the article on Volunteering in aviation museums.

Planning your visit: tickets, hours, getting there

Opening hours: According to the museum website, Pima is open daily. From October to May it is 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. with last admission at 3 p.m., from June to September 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. with last admission at 1:30 p.m. The museum is closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day, and shortened hours apply on Christmas Eve.

Admission: In October 2026, the website lists $22.50 for adults aged 13 and up for one day and $29 for two days; discounts are available for military members, seniors, children and Pima County residents, among others. Children up to age four are free. You can buy tickets on site or book ahead online through the museum website. Prices change – check them before the trip.

Tours: The public tram tour runs on a loop of a good two kilometers through the outdoor area past more than 150 aircraft and costs an extra $10 according to the museum. There are also private walking tours on topics such as World War II or the Cold War, which must be reserved in advance, as well as audio guides.

Getting there: The museum is on East Valencia Road in southeast Tucson, not far from Tucson International Airport. A rental car is by far the easiest solution – both for the museum visit and for continuing your trip. General tips on rental cars, entry and spotting routes are in the article A plane spotting trip to the USA.

Pima in the network of the big US museums

If you fly across the Atlantic for Pima, you’ll usually combine the visit with other destinations. The largest collection on the history of the US Air Force is at the National Museum of the US Air Force in Dayton. In Seattle, the Museum of Flight awaits with the first presidential jet and a Concorde, and in Oregon the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum with the flying boat “Spruce Goose.” On the East Coast are the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Washington Dulles Airport, the National Air and Space Museum in Washington and the Intrepid Museum on an aircraft carrier in New York.

For airline traffic in the Southwest, side trips to California and Nevada make sense. Los Angeles Airport sees long-haul aircraft from all over the world; the article Plane spotting in Los Angeles shows the best places. At Las Vegas Airport, Sunset Park is a classic, with more in the article Plane spotting in Las Vegas. You’ll find the spot guide for the museum itself under Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson.

Conclusion

The Pima Air & Space Museum is a must-visit for anyone who wants to experience aviation history on a grand scale. Three B-52s, the last B-36, Kennedy’s Air Force One, “Freedom One,” the second Boeing 787, SOFIA and the flying boat Philippine Mars – you won’t find this mix anywhere else. That the boneyard tours are history hurts, but it doesn’t change the fact: the museum alone easily fills a day.

Come in the cooler months, be there at opening, take the tram tour for the overview and save the halls for the midday heat. Then you’ll take away from Tucson a collection nobody in Europe can match.