By Kevin Baxter | Los Angeles Times
Every plane stored or scrapped at Pinal Airpark outside Tucson has a different story
Pinal Airpark is full of reminders of its secret past, including black-ops missions into Vietnam
The first thing you notice about Pinal Airpark is the noise: There isn’t any.
More than 120 massive airplanes — most outfitted with engines that, when revved, could make your teeth ache from half a mile away — are splayed on both sides of the airport’s 6,800-foot runway. Yet the place is so quiet you could hear a rattlesnake approach.
The shah of Iran’s private jet spent its last days here, parked next to aircraft the CIA used for covert missions in Southeast Asia and Central America.