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Navy Jet eBayed - Some Assembly Required?
madmancarman writes "The world's only F/A-18 Hornet in private ownership, formerly a Navy Blue Angel Jet, is for sale on eBay. The initial asking price? $1 million unassembled, or $9 million assembled and certified airworthy 'with your choice of paint' - more info is available via a Yahoo News story. I wonder how much it would cost to fully arm it? The same person selling the F/A-18 is also selling a 1950's T-33, and claims they'll soon be auctioning off an F-16 and a Mig-29 as well. Build your own air force for fun and profit!"
While owning a Blue Angel would be awesome, it's unlikely a civilian would actually get any flight time in such a vehicle. To fly it, you'd need a Letter of Authorization because there's no FAA type certification for this aircraft - and unless you're an ex-military pilot, you've basically got no chance of getting an LOA.
Even if you were to get an LOA, to fly it you'd have to get permission from the FAA to put it in the air every time you take off. So add your own private island to the total cost if you actually want to fly it without hassle.
So unless you're ex-military, you'd have yourself a $9 million lawn ornament.
Hmmmm. This sounds like the owner might have been Larry Ellison. There have been a number of Mig-29's available in private hands over the years as well as a couple of F-104 Starfighters. I don't know if Larry owned an F-18, or an F-16 but I talked to him at a Java conference (at least I'm pretty sure it was Ellison) years ago and he expressed an interest in obtaining fighter jets like the Mig-29. Someone told me that he recently married, so perhaps his wife would rather he not go "jetting off" and would like him to calm his lifestyle a bit?
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Interesting. Are there any sort of government oversights as to how these can be sold and to whom? I would hate for some wack-job with money to get a hold of one of these, get some armament via the black market, and use it to do something regrettable.
Most things on eBay seem to go for damn-near retail price, so I'm guessing that a MiG-29 would get bid through the roof and have a value near to that of its Western counterparts (despite its less-than competitive combat avionics). You could probably get the MiG cheaper by just going to Russia to buy it. Like the price of a Hummer H2 (~$50K), I'm guessing. Some underpaid Russian general or mobster would probably jump at the chance.
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I'll park it right in between the Bentley and the "In your dreams..."
3700 odd flight hours, many of Blue Angels type maneuvers. Probably some significant stress and wear on that airframe due to the type of flying. There probably was a good reason that aircraft was retired.
Also, the article should have read "F16 Fighting Falcon" for one of the upcoming aircraft, not "F16 Hornet"
"I wonder how much it would cost to fully arm it?"
I would guess it would cost about 5 years in camp X-ray.
According to IMDB, Michael Dorn owns (or used to) a T-33 and an F-86, among others. I wonder if it's him. Imdb link
...So they can give it to the guy that turned in all the pepsi points for the Harrier Jet.
Of course a Hornet is not quite a Harrier, but I dont think the guy will care.
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I wonder if they include a free tank of gas with the purchase....
That would be F-16 Fighting Falcon. Of course, this is Slashdot and it wouldn't surprise me if they mistakenly called it an F-16 Elbow.
I like big butts and I cannot lie.
I think I'll buy it... It's time the war against the RIAA, SCO, and Microsoft became more than just a metaphor! Warn Redmond air traffic control to expect me soon...
"If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of car payments." Earl Wilson
Being a aviation mechanic for the Marine Corps, I'm going to tell you that you want hte thing flight worthy...the assembly isn't something you would want to tackle yourself. In short: it's a bitch.
And to the person doubting you could get an LOA for it...that's crap. The question is would you want to fly it?
Derek Greene
"So unless you're ex-military, you'd have yourself a $9 million lawn ornament." I would love to have a F/A-18 sitting out on my lawn. In the fall I could use the afterburners to clear all the leaves from my yard. In the winter they could melt the snow on my driveway. I haven't thought of a use for spring and summer yet...
someone named fashionpillows. Go figure.
Listed in category: Consumer Electronics > Radios: CB, Ham & Shortwave > Ham Radio > Accessories > Antennas
For a million bucks this better get good reception.
In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane. -Oscar Wilde
Remember; eBay supports Terrorism.
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Looking at the minimun bid of $1 mil, that means that there have, so far, been 7 people willing to fork over $1,000,000 for something. Now, looking at the feedback for these people, I can't possibly see how some of them could pay for this. wtmahan has bought repair manuals for a 1995 Nissan Protege. Anybody who drives one of those, and wants to fix it him/herself probably cannot afford an F/A-18. The current high bidder has bought a bunch of shirts and a $15,000 Porche, not cheap, but not a car for a person who can spend $1mil on an airplane kit.
-twb
I'm calling it an investment. I figure when the *IAA sees my hard drive it'll be cheaper to have a kitted up fighter jet to deal with the problem than it would be to pay what they ask.
I know (or knew) a rancher who rebuilt a Mustang. He used to fly it over his cattle drives on occasion to keep an eye on things. One day the cowboys saw him fly it straight into the side of a hill. Not only was he rendered into many tiny pieces, but an irreplacable piece of American aviation history was lost forever.
Men have this fascination with warbirds - both prop and jet. The problem is that these things were designed - especially the old WWII birds - to fly just this side of stable. Airspeed, altitude, and maneuverability were prioritized over forgiveness. Even well-maintained aircraft flown by pilots with many hours all too often augered in. That was the price the military knew they would have to pay to get the job at hand done.
Now we see weekend amateurs with too much money flying these things, when they should be flying Cessnas.
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You buy it to go with this!
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You, know, I wasn't thinking of bidding on it until I saw your post. But I thought about it and maybe we can do the usual tech support thing. You know: you swing by and help me put it together. I'll provide the pizza and beer.
So, are you busy next weekend or not?
"Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."
it could possibly cost LESS for a private citizen.
I was able to buy a toilet seat for ten bucks instead of six grand.
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is tihs. Not quite flyable condition...;)
Yes, it can be put back together. But no, it's not in 'fly-away' condition.
There are several ex-military jets in private hands. F-4's, F-86's, etc. And you can just return it to weapons capable status. *All* of the fire control circuitry will have been removed. And without that, a missile won't launch in anything other than a randowm direction, if at all.
Given the restrictions on actually flying ex-military aircraft, it would be easier for a purported terrorist to drop a case of TNT out the door of a Cessna.
is, as an auto tinkerer that's been burned on this issue numerous times..
What's a GASKET SET for this puppy go for??
You'll need one in order to assemble it, yes?
I'm betting *well* in excess of $1E6.
8-P
Brak: What's THAT?
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Does anyone know if standard concrete blocks will hold this puppy up?
After the breakup of the Soviet bloc you could pick up migs for salvage or scrap from abandoned bases in Eastern Europe and East Germany. These went for thousands or mere hundreds of dollars rather than millions, and many were fully working units. Most were bought up for scap and stripped down for titanium and other resources. Many however just 'disappeared'.
Look at some figures for the armaments in East Europe pre 1989, and then see if you can find any stories which account for what happened to all that military gear. You may be slightly worried.
I'm not sure how easy it'd be to use this demilitarized, declassified F/A-18 for weapons use. The aircraft in its current state has kamikaze potential like any other, but employment of any actual modern air platform weapons would be almost impossible. No weapons fire-control software, possibly no radar, no weapons pylons (required to handle the complex mechanical and electrical linkages with weaponry, subject to great stress).
It might be possible to jury-rig some sort of home-made pylon (at great expense) for carrying dumb bombs (simple ones that do not require any type of software control, yes even "dumb" bombs have a small amount of computerized control), but then again you could do that with any aircraft. Any aircraft can be used to drop something (crop dusters, 172's, MD-500's etc.).
Of course where the F/A-18 fundamentally differs from civilian aircraft is its performance (any civilian sport aircraft could out-turn it though), but even that is of scattered use. Maneuvering performance is only useful in air to air combat, and it would be impractical for this aircraft to be converted for usage with air to air weaponry by yourself, unless you have connections with very skilled weaponry engineers and a lot of time and money. Then again, if you have those connections and funds, you could probably buy a real military aircraft from Russia and not need this F/A-18 in the first place.
Now its performance would of course increase its kamikaze potential, but due to its size, this aircraft would probably not be much more effective in that respect than a regional or business jet. And there are plenty of those around already.
After the wall fell, one of the airplane magazines had an article on one of the older MIGs (don't remember which model). At the time, you could pick them up for fairly cheap (well, cheap for being a jet). Since getting spare parts was some what difficult if even possible, the magazine recommended that if you REALLY wanted a MIG, buy two just so that you have spare parts.
Another thing that I remember from the article, the jet on that MIG had a really slow spool up time. This meant that when you pushed the throttle to full, it would take the engine a while before it produced full power. This becomes a problem if you have to do a missed approached or abort a landing. This meant that when you landed that MIG, you would push the controls to full throttle before the wheels touched down, just in case. This is the same thing that planes do when landing on a carrier. But it seemed strange to do for a ground based runway.
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Does that mean that I can finally have a flying Goatse?
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..if this person knows something. They are suddenly selling a number of jet aircraft and at rock bottom prices. I'd better go and check if Martha Stewart sold her jets today. Might be time to get rid of the Veritech.
Andrew Borntreger
Champion of cinematic disasters
This seller has a great deal of pricey stuff on Ebay. Top three, pricewise, are:
? Vi ewItem&item=2460961703&category=26442
a te gory=4671&item=3077350284
a te gory=4672&item=3078834871
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll
Some sort of dirigible, $10M
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&c
2 million feet of Corning fiber optic cable, $4.4M
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&c
Warehouse, $1.1M
Cogito ergo sum in Slashdot.
There are several ex-military jets in private hands. F-4's, F-86's, etc. And you can just return it to weapons capable status. *All* of the fire control circuitry will have been removed. And without that, a missile won't launch in anything other than a randowm direction, if at all.
...for one, pick your target. Air-to-air combat? Riiight. Even if you got one fully locked and loaded with the latest the US has to offer, a squadron of trained combat pilots would pick you out of the sky in no time flat.
Given the restrictions on actually flying ex-military aircraft, it would be easier for a purported terrorist to drop a case of TNT out the door of a Cessna.
I guess you could take out a civilian airliner or two before they manage to take you out of the sky, but hell. Despite the increased security, I'm sure there are easier ways for that still, particularly since you can sabotage landings/take-offs.
So it's basicly a bomber. What do you need? Speed? Nah. If you can reach the center of whatever no-fly zone before you can be shut down, that's good enough and they're not that big unless your target is a remote military base. Range? Nah. Just take off from the nearest feasible runway.
Payload? Yeah, I guess. But then you're better off renting a transport plane anyway. And since the plane is toast anyway, either fly it in or lock/program the autopilot and parachute out. No guidance/launch system necessary, just the navigation in any basic plane.
Basicly, this is a combat plane built to fight a war. Firepower to shoot down hostiles, range to reach enemy targets, hit fortified installations and moving targets, and return to base safely. Very little of that applies to a terrorist.
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
I have to wonder what this fellow is into that is the current high bidder.
According to his feedback he purchased a 19" roulette wheel, later 2 microsoft t-shirts, a microsoft training guide, then microsoft small business server, and finally a 1979 Porche. He's now bidding on a 1-million dollar aircraft.
It just makes me wonder what this fellow is up to... and if I should be doing it too!
It's neat to see whom actually bids on these things. Checking out the comments on the high bidder:
Perfect Transaction, Fast payment, True Gentleman, Please enjoy your PORSCHEAAA+
and another less happy:
only 1 bid & insisted that I sell him a MichaelJordan/ XP Bus Server SW for 9.99
$gt; A winning bid is a winning bid; my friend! Period! ! ! Now ship my product!!!
Quite amusing... these people live in a different world than I. Enjoy your PORSCHEAAA+ indeed
knots is a naval unit measured by a number of knots on a rope that's trailing the ship in a given time period.
Where did you hear that?
A knot is a nautical mile per hour. A nautical mile is one minute of latitude (1/60th of a degree of the Earth's circumference -- 6076 feet, versus 5280 feet for an English mile).
I knew the rohntowers.com sounded familiar... The guy (Micheal Landa) has an alleged checkered past: http://www.bishoptower.com/landa/