St. Augustine Airplane Graveyard, St. Augustine, Florida

When planes reach the end of their airborne life, they often end up in junk heaps like this plane graveyard in St. Augustine, Florida. More than 15 years ago, owner Charlie White purchased and dissected nine planes from the 1960s and '70s, selling off their valuable parts to aeronautics companies. The decaying carcasses are all that's left, their skeletal remains invaded by ferns and fungus. Warning: The graveyard is private property. Anyone who enters does so at their own risk. Those concerned with staying on the right side of the law should consider Tucson, Arizona's Pima Air & Space Museum, which offers bus tours of the nearby 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group at the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. Also known as the Boneyard, these 2,600 desert acres hold more than 4,000 retired military planes and helicopters. The atmosphere is decidedly more sanitized, but there's still an eerie energy as you explore the cast-off cockpits.

St. Augustine Airplane Graveyard
4568 Avenue A
St. Augustine, Florida

Pima Air & Space Museum
6000 E. Valencia Road
Tucson, Arizona

Picture courtesy of Walter Arnold Photography

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