Without its growing fleet of unmanned aircraft, the Air Force would not be as effective. It's why Predators, Reapers and Global Hawks are in such demand on the battlefield.

Airman Magazine is published bi-monthly by the Air Force News Agency for the Secretary of the Air Force Office of Public Affairs. As the official magazine of the U.S. Air Force, it is a medium of information for Air Force people.

10 Aircraft Cannibals
Thousands of aircraft wait under the hot Arizona sun for an opportunity to serve a piece at a time.
18 GotchA supercomputer
A gamer’s dream computer may give convoy commanders real-time views of the streets they travel and the location of the dangers ahead.
20 Hot helmet: cool effects
The pilot wearing this helmet can see through walls, at least the walls of the aircraft he’s in.
24 experimentAl explosives
Legacy bombs are getting a new precision lease on life thanks to these Florida Airmen.
30 Depot maintenance
How to give a C-130 Hercules its scheduled flight physical, one piece at a time. Airmen at Warner Robbins keep aircraft fit to fly.
34 Afmc is in the fight
With an eye to the future, AFMC is keeping the Air Force on the leading edge through research and development of new tools and methods.
38 Acquisitions: A closer look
Lessons learned from the past now get technology to the field on time and within budget.
40 high velocity
Nestled in the hills of Tennessee is the largest wind tunnel testing complex in the world.

Download Airman Magazine, January/February 2010

PDF format, 12MB, 52Pages.

On the Cover
The new F-35 Lightning II helmet literally plugs the pilot straight into the aircraft. The direct connection puts flight information directly in front and lets the pilot see through the hull of the aircraft.

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Aircraft Cannibals
Thousands of aircraft wait under the hot Arizona sun for an opportunity to serve a piece at a time.

As a young boy Bill Amparano thought working at a place where thousands of old aircraft are stored sounded like a dream job. After his first childhood visit, he said he knew this was where he wanted to work someday. About 30 years later, he started living out his dream under the hot sun near Tucson, Ariz.

The number of retired and excess aircraft stored on the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group's 2,600 acre desert facility rivals the number of aircraft in the active Air Force inventory, including more than 4,000 aircraft from different services, agencies and countries. Among them are planes flown by World War II aces and 9/11 first responders.

While some aircraft are stored here until they can be returned to service, others will never be flown again, but are still useful as parts for today's Air Force. Aircraft mechanics like Amparano are assigned to reclamation teams that pull these parts to help sustain today's active fleet. In fiscal 2009, 309th AMARG reclamation teams at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., pulled more than 18,000 parts, saving the Air Force about $633 million compared with the cost of purchasing new ones. ...

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