Blue Angel for sale

Military aircraft - Post cold war aircraft, including for example B-2, Gripen, F-18E/F Super Hornet, Rafale, and Typhoon.
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by damageinc75 » 12 Feb 2004, 14:44

Interesting....

Anyone wanna go in on this with me? We can alternate every other weekend. :lol:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... egory=4672


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by kmceject » 12 Feb 2004, 17:08

I've heard from a friend who hangs out with the maintainers of the Blues that they get the worst aircraft in the fleet, the most beat up ones. I saw this bird for sale a few years ago and asked him about it and he said it was really beat up. The photos they show are not representitive of the condition of the craft now. The pix they had up before showed a weathered bird in dozens of pieces. Canopy was off, rear fuselage separated, many missing panels. I couldn't tell if the whole thing was there.

Kevin
The Ejection Site


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by damageinc75 » 12 Feb 2004, 17:43

Thanks for the info Kevin. I was surprised to see a current US fighter for sale to the general public. (even in the condition that you stated it is in)

have you heard of any other "in service" jets being sold for civilian use before this one?


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by JR007 » 13 Feb 2004, 00:27

Kevin,

This may be the same Hornet, not sure, but the original group I saw also had an F-16, needing reassembly, for sale. The add was for a completed F-16, not the pieces.

That’s a lot of money for such a slow jet…
Burning debris never reversed on anyone…

JR


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by habu2 » 13 Feb 2004, 05:06

That’s a lot of money for such a slow jet…

LOL!!!!!
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by Wildcat » 13 Feb 2004, 19:06

Boeing's reply: Hornets are not slow, it is actually a engineering choice that enables the pilot to have more time before being close to targets, thus providing more time for him to evaluate situations :wink: .


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by Whity » 13 Feb 2004, 19:38

Former Blue Angel jet up for auction on eBay

Talk about a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. For sale, right now, on eBay, one former Blue Angel F/A-18A Hornet.

For just more than $1 million, a really handy man can become the envy of his neighbors, perhaps create a personal noise zone or two.

If you’re going to need the thing assembled, painted and certified ready-to-fly, though, it’s going to cost you another $8 million. And only legal U.S. residents can bid.

Still, that’s a bargain. An F/A-18 in 1997 cost Uncle Sam a cool $28 million, according to the Blue Angels’ official Web site.

The jet in question is in parts and came out of military service in 1994, according to Mike Landa, of Landa And Associates, the Washington-state brokerage that has listed it on the Internet auction service. He won’t identify the owner and only says that he came by it “legally.”

“This thing obviously slipped through the system somehow,” Landa said, adding that it was “released during the Clinton management era.”

Normally, the Navy doesn’t just give away or sell such advanced military equipment. It either mothballs a jet after it no longer is deemed usable or leases worn-out models to museums. Only rarely can a surplus jet be sold to a third party, a Navy spokesman said. And there are policies against reselling them or shipping them out of the country.

The Navy’s official position is that it is aware of the auction and is looking into the matter.

The FBI came out to visit Landa after he put the jet up for bidding. They wanted to know “what are you selling here,” he said. “They wanted to have the scoop on it.”

Landa said the owner has offered the government an opportunity to buy the jet back. On Thursday afternoon the Hornet briefly was listed as sold to someone who agreed to the Buy-It-Now price of $1,075,000. That pulled the jet temporarily off eBay.

Landa said he knew immediately that it was a phony bid. “Anybody who doesn’t call you when bidding a million dollars,” is a fraudulent bidder, he said.

Landa said he put the Hornet back in the auction, without a buy-it-now option to stop such non-serious bids. As of Thursday afternoon the site had recorded 50,000 visits in two days, he said.

He has no doubt that someone will surface to claim the Hornet, a model that can fly about 1,400 mph and climb 30,000 feet in a minute.

But who?

“Collectors, people with bucks,” he predicted. “Big boys’ toys. A million bucks is a drop in the bucket for many people.”

Deep pockets are a must; a Blue Angels’ Hornet can burn 1,300 gallons of jet fuel during the time it takes for a typical air show. That costs the government, which buys JP-5 fuel in bulk, roughly $1,378.

Chances are the buyer won’t fly out to California, where the jet is reportedly stored, to kick the tires before bidding.

Landa, who is in the communications business selling cell-phone towers and other equipment, has brokered aircraft for 20 years to support his own flying hobby. He’s never flown a Hornet, and joked that he might make that a condition of the sale.

Landa said that 90 percent of the people who buy an aircraft from him just look at the photos and check the log books to see if it’s right for them.

He said he is in the process of selling an F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter and Russian MiG- 29s.

But the Hornet will be special to a war-bird collector. “They can say it’s a former Blue Angel,” he said. “The only one in existence. Probably the only one that ever will be.”

Source: hamptonroads.com


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by LinkF16SimDude » 13 Feb 2004, 20:51

And the one bidder whose placed a bid has negative feedback. Good luck!

The airframe itself isn't the problem - it's a 20 year-old design. Structurally it might still be salvagable. It's the black boxes involved and what's loaded on 'em plus other armament issues that could get sticky, IMO. A working Flight Control Computer is required (it's a FBW jet) but the other stuff like the guts of the fire control radar and stores management would pique the Fed's interests.

If I'm plunkin' down 1 mil + I'd want a family model. Where do you put the wife and kids and golf clubs? :lol:


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by Whity » 18 Feb 2004, 17:02

Here's some pictures from that Hornet:
Attachments
angelbig2.jpg
(Photo US Navy)
angelbig1.jpg
(Photo US Navy)


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by elp » 18 Feb 2004, 20:45

Jeezz. One picture is worth a 1000 words :D . After reading the original thing I missed the part that mentioned the airframe had been "canned" ten times over. Not worth the money. ( not that I'm in the market ) :D

I will use that photo though in any writing I do on spare parts shortages vs. the "Peace Dividend" in the '90s. :twisted:
- ELP -


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by Loader » 18 Feb 2004, 21:11

More on it from CNN. For $9 mil, they will make it flyable for you.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/ptech/02/1 ... index.html



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