When are military available for purchase??? I have seen mig-29's, mig-23's, f-100's, L-39's. When does military aircraft become purchaseable by the public (civilians) and would it still be in working order from the government?? Thanks in advance..

The Bandit

Yep. Other than the L-39, the other aircraft are hard to purchase. I hope to get a L-39 in the future!

What do you want & how much $$ do you have?

the Bloke can make it happen... for a small fee!

ROFL!

...and I know he's telling the truth too!

Airshow fan wrote:Yep. Other than the L-39, the other aircraft are hard to purchase. I hope to get a L-39 in the future!

The L-39 is a great start!.. super fun jet to fly!

You all have to remember the majority of cost is not in the purchase but in the maintanence!

A good L-39 will run you around $250,000 - $300,000, but you can spend the same again just getting your avionics up to speed! MFDs, MPDs, TCAS II, Garmin 530/430s, new Bendix King Digital Heads, Transponder, Fadec etc... Then you've got hydraulic & fuel samples as well as NDI'ing the gear legs & engine, the Hot Sections (even though it is experimental its a very sensible safety practice), seat initiators & rocket motors can set you back $140,000 a seat... i'm barely skimming the surface with this stuff!

It ain't cheap, jet "warbirds" are a VERY expensive hobby, but if you got the cash, i can get you a jet.

Note to the un-educated, don't buy MiG's they kill people VERY regularly & the State Department will hate you!
Personally, if I had the dead presidents (money) i'd get a P-51!

There are several jets that will be on the market early next year...

Controller.com is a good place to browse under "military turbine" aircraft.

You also would be wise to join the CJAA if your serious about owning jet warbirds!

not quite sure what i want yet....would you happen to know, when military aircraft that have been retired become available for purchase?? (for instance the F-14 Tomcat and when the air force is done with the F-15 Eagle) and just out of curiousity, what is the leading cause of the mig's killing people?? and why would the state department hate you??? just out of curiosity...and not sure what i would want....yet

the bandit

Just to put it into perspective, it literally took an act of congress for the Collings Foundation to aquire their F-4.

I am sure the Air Force will keep a couple of Eagles sitting around somewhere like Eglin, Tyndall, or Langley for the same reason there is an F-4 sitting at Eglin and one at Tyndall, for heritage flights and things of that nature. If I remember correctly, those Phantoms are designated QF-4 which is a target drone designation as there are still plenty of flyable F-4s out there, but, like TCBoy said its not easy to get ahold of one. Some countries would still consider that a frontline fighter.

Also remember that the USAF still used the Phatom in the SEAD (Wild Weasel) phase in Desert Storm, so they are only 15 years removed from combat. As of 2001, Egypt, Germany, Greece, Iran, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Spain, and Turkey have F-4s in their inventory. Pretty good for 1950's aeroframe design!

Sorry, I'm as passionate about the Phantom as Tailhook is about the Tomcat. My favorite T-Shirt:



BTW Bloke,
Whats a missile with a man strapped to it run these days?


Rhino

Rhino wrote:Also remember that the USAF still used the Phatom in the SEAD (Wild Weasel) phase in Desert Storm, so they are only 15 years removed from combat. As of 2001, Egypt, Germany, Greece, Iran, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Spain, and Turkey have F-4s in their inventory. Pretty good for 1950's aeroframe design!

Are you saying the F-4 Phantom II was used for 15 years?

Wikipedia.com wrote:The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II[2] is a two-seat supersonic long-range all-weather fighter-bomber developed for the U.S. Navy by McDonnell Douglas. The Phantom flew in U.S. service from 1960 to 1996; it also served with the armed forces of eleven other nations. As of 2001, more than 1,000 F-4s remained in service around the world.

So that makes that 36 years and the F-14 was in service for 34 years, so that makes them both Naval legends to me!

Kickass t-shirt by the way! But I like mine better

i took your advice Bloke...i was looking at controller.com and I spotted a L-59 on there...it said it was the big brother to the L-39. I am basically looking for something for some speed and with 2 seats to take family and friends up. What do you guys think? Any suggestions?

There are a lot of Mig-21 UBI on the market if i remember correctly. The UBI was a 2 seat trainer so that could be something feesible! But I would still go with the L-39, however I have heard some mumblings that there may be some T-2 Buckeyes coming up for sale that civilians could get their hands on, so that could be another possibility.

Rhino

I once saw a F/18 for sale an Ebay not sure of what model, but it was there for sale. I thought that it would be impossible to buy a Fighter like that??
what was funny it was Only 40,000 but the Guy that was selling it said that you would need DEEP-POCKETS to fix her up!! it didnt have any engines.
Probally not much of anything but a shell for that price?? LOL mine are kinda shallow So I didnt bid hehe!!

really??? never knew you could purchase aircraft on ebay. will have to take a look..

PhnxBndt79 wrote:really??? never knew you could purchase aircraft on ebay. will have to take a look..

Yes I even saw a Mig-21 there on Ebay too $125,000. But if you do a search you will find a Host of Planes for sale on ebay. You can just about buy Anything there on Ebay. I even once saw A Fallout shelter that was a House on top too live in, and below a Very Nice Fallout Shelter with Multiple levels really large living space above and below.

It was so Isolated there was Only 2 ways there WALK or FLY in it had it's own Runway. it was in UpState New York for ONLY $25Million. it was Really cool tho just to have would be cool Fly your Friends in for the weekend what a Blast.

I once saw, I think it was a Cessna used in VietNam that had Rocket Racks and was used mainly for recon. I will ask my Friend what the model of it was and if in fact it was a Cessna.