Navy Jet Fighter Is for Sale on EBay

JEP

Does It Really Matter....?
Staff member
Feb 16, 7:33 AM EST

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) -- You can now have your very own Navy F/A-18A Hornet jet fighter - but some assembly may be required.

The price for the jet, which formerly belonged to the Navy's Blue Angels aerial demonstration team, is just over $1 million on the auction firm eBay, or about $9 million for a buyer who wants it assembled, painted and certified ready-to-fly.

Only legal U.S. residents can bid. The auction is scheduled to end Thursday.

An F/A-18 in 1997 cost the military $28 million, according to the Blue Angels' official Web site.

Mike Landa, of Landa and Associates, the Washington state brokerage that has listed the fighter on the Internet auction service, told The Virginian-Pilot that the jet is in parts and came out of military service in 1994. Landa wouldn't identify the owner, but said he came by it legally.

"This thing obviously slipped through the system somehow," Landa said

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

Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
 
I seriously doubt the validity of the sale. The only way the Navy would sell it is after it has been de-militerized, the a/c was can no longer fly and is stricken from the records, which means that the aircaraft was crashed and can never be flown again. I highly doudbt that the aircraft was turned over by the Navy. NADEP San Diego ( F\A-18 Depot level maintenance facility),does a pretty good job on repairing major structural damage. I saw a NFWS F-18 that crashed on landing in Fallon NV. It was beat to hell. The fixed it up really nice and sent it back looking brand spankin new.
 
eBay publicity stunt?

They're getting lot of free press! It's one of the most emailed stories at Yahoo and even mentioned on a talk radio station out here in PHX.
 
I didnt even see a line that states you can come and view the aircraft before bidding. Too lazy to put the actual pictures up in the auction and a mistake at the bottom referring to an F-16 Hornet? Heh. It would be great if he were trying to screw somebody over and they were a deadbeat bidder.
 
This is actually the real deal, I remember seeing a clip about it aprox. a year and a half ago in "FLYING." I forget the name of the company, but they are one of those warbird restoration places. Not only do they have the -18 on ebay, they are in the process of restoring a -16 for somebody that has already put down his/her $100,000 down payment.
 
People with enough money, can buy just about anything they want one way or another.
Man, I bet the maintenance/upkeep on that sucker costs more in a year, than I'll make in a lifetime.
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I don't think it's too far fetched- theres private owners of older fighter aircraft like F-4's, F-5's and a few T-38's out there. I wish I could afford it!
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I remember reading something about that too, but that was a while ago. You think these are the aircraft and they are just getting around to selling them?
 
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So say someone like us buy's one of those suckers...how in the world do you get certified to fly it?!

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Need an LOA from the FAA if no civilian designation/inspection ever accomplished on them. No type rating if no civilian designation (ie- Cessna T-37 is Cessna model 318). Some proof of some sort of training would be necessary. Other than that, you could fly one with a PVT-AMEL as a minimum including the above.
 
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
So say someone like us buy's one of those suckers...how in the world do you get certified to fly it?!

[/ QUOTE ]

Need an LOA from the FAA if no civilian designation/inspection ever accomplished on them. No type rating if no civilian designation (ie- Cessna T-37 is Cessna model 318). Some proof of some sort of training would be necessary. Other than that, you could fly one with a PVT-AMEL as a minimum including the above.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hmmmm I'm thinking it would be frickin' hillarious to base this thing out of SDL ....

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[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
So say someone like us buy's one of those suckers...how in the world do you get certified to fly it?!

[/ QUOTE ]

Need an LOA from the FAA if no civilian designation/inspection ever accomplished on them. No type rating if no civilian designation (ie- Cessna T-37 is Cessna model 318). Some proof of some sort of training would be necessary. Other than that, you could fly one with a PVT-AMEL as a minimum including the above.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hmmmm I'm thinking it would be frickin' hillarious to base this thing out of SDL ....

grin.gif


[/ QUOTE ]

We already know there's no problems operating them out of SDL.
 
I remember on a TV show about flying an owner of a jet-fighter was talking about the aircraft, and mentioned there was atleast one F-18 privately owned and operated in the US.
 
I have heard rumors of a guy here in town getting an F-18 in the next couple of months. He already owns two F-5s and a couple Gulfstreams he uses personally and for charter. I guess he made all of his money in the cement business...who da thought?! I need to go make friends with this guy.
 
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Wait a minute is this right?? It's up to almost $100 million now!

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I don't think someone is actually going to pay $100 million for a Mig 29. I can already see the highest bidder backing out of the deal.
 
WTF- it was only 5.9 million a few minutes ago, now some used car salesman jerkass from Philidelphia has put in some bogus 90 Million bid!

You would think people selling extremely rare and expensive fighter aircraft would come up with somthing a little better than ebay, so they don't have to deal with all the dumbass bogus bidders!
 
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