Celebrate New Mexico: Roswell Air Center
"The airlines have a different reason to store aircraft all the time. A lot of times it's because they're getting older," said Scott Stark, director of the Roswell Air Center.
"The airlines have a different reason to store aircraft all the time. A lot of times it's because they're getting older," said Scott Stark, director of the Roswell Air Center.
"The airlines have a different reason to store aircraft all the time. A lot of times it's because they're getting older," said Scott Stark, director of the Roswell Air Center.
For many, the future is air travel.
That's at least the motivation for the Roswell Air Center, which is considered one of the largest commercial aviation industries in the southwest.
"We're trying to be as close as we possibly can to a birth of airplanes to a death of airplanes," said Scott Stark, director the Roswell Air Center.
The facility is known as "the boneyard" because it's often a place where airplanes are stored and disassembled.
However, that's not all staff do. Stark said maintenance also plays a big part.
"They take things apart, then ship it to another place," he said. "They bring it back and put it back on the airplane, but that includes all of the heavy maintenance. That includes all engine maintenance [and] storage."
Staff can also test various aircrafts parts, particularly when it comes to tires and brakes.
They have the potential to do a different type of testing here that is not available in other parts of the world. Primarily, it's brake testing, or a wet test.
Sometimes, they're coming out and just testing new concepts on how their aircraft operate when they land," said Jenna Lanfor, the property manager at Roswell Air Center.
With a 13,000-foot-long runway, the location is ideal for holding hundreds of aircraft.
For both domestic and international companies, such as American Airlines.
On July 6, Stark noted under 300 planes stored at Roswell Air Center. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were 515 airliners at the center.
"They're not just from the United States," Lanfor said. "Some of them are from Europe and other parts of the country. They can stay here for a certain amount of time. And then if they're sold to a secondary market, they leave from here."
Elvis' 1962 Lockheed JetStar is also stored at the facility. Staff said the actor and singer got the plane several months before he died. It's still not know if Elvis ever flew it.
When it comes to aircraft storage, weather conditions need to be favorable — such as in Roswell, where it's often hot and dry.
"Wet tends to make corrosion on all of the moving parts and parts that might break down. Those types of corrosion are really the enemy of an airliner when it's stored," Stark said.
While the COVID-19 pandemic had helped Roswell Air Center earlier on, staff are now dealing with shortages of pilots and mechanics.
Yet despite the trouble, the center's expansion plans are not stopping.
In hopes of bringing even more business to the facility and to the city of Roswell.
"We have already added an additional company that's coming in. They're building a large two-phase hangar project on the air center currently, and we look to have them open next year," Lanfor said. "So we'll be bringing more jobs into the area."
ROC also offers an aviation maintenance program, in partnership with Eastern New Mexico University-Roswell. There, students can get firsthand experience and training by working on actual aircraft.
To learn more about the Roswell Air Center, visit its website here.