is it legal to buy jet fighters?

Yes it is legal. They have to be disarmed of course. As far as how you'd go about it... not a clue. A few have cropped up on Ebay. :shrug: There are some aviation enthusiasts here who can probably give you more on that count.

 

I don't really follow it much anymore but here are the bits and pieces that I gather. It's pretty much impossible for civilians to own modern jet fighters in the US. There are a number of fairly high performance aircraft around but you will not be able to buy a (newish) fighter aircraft. I have been told that Larry Ellison (CEO of Oracle) tried to bring a Mig-29 over but was not able. Bill Gates owned an F-5 for a while but it was kept at a military base and he payed for military pilots to take him up for supersonic rides. I have read that there is a F-4 that is owned by a retired General, though I really don't know any details. There are several F-104 Starfighters owned by civilians, they are hardly modern jet fighters and though they are beautiful machines with breathtaking performance they are used mainly for airshow demonstration type flying and are subject to strict limitations.

 

I used to envision a day when all people could own an F-15/16/18 or so if they had the desire and the means to do so.

Then I envisioned MarkPDX doing reheat over Gentry's house at 50 feet, and I realized that rules are rules, and people that put them into place are much wiser than myself.

I like my shingles on the roof of my house, and not spread out over a 2-mile radius.

...and not having my house air lifted to China is a nice bonus to keeping people like Mark in Corvettes instead of real hardware.

 

There was an employee at I believe it was called Ahmes Research Center in the SF bay area that flew his F5 to work ocasionally. The F5 shown in Dragnet with Dan Akroyd is privately owned and last I heard it was living in LA. There is a well known collector of Mig's in Maine who keeps his 15, 17, 19, and 21 at the Bangor airport. The 17 of his I saw was painted dark blue with red star markings. There was or is a company in Reno at Stead airport (site of Reno air races) that imports Mig's. I heard of a 25 (Foxbat) for sale about 8 months ago. A friend of mine who is ex Navy fighter pilot and current 747 captain was considering importing a Mig 21. They are actually not all that expensive but all the import regs would have cost as much as the airplane. That part is what discouraged him. The US military has an absolute ban on selling flyable airframes to the public unless they are for nonflying display only. Many other countries are not so restrictive.

As far as use restrictions IIRC my pilot friend said they have to be registered as experimental's and are only subject to the rules governing exp class aircraft.

 

I have no idea what you are talking about. I would do no such thing. What is reheat? Sounds dangerous, I would have nothing to do with it. Corvette is just like a Honda, but safer, my grandmother drives one. What do you mean by "That's a negative Ghostrider, the pattern is full." ??????????

 

Yes you can own them, but they're exceptionally expensive and VERY hard to get. They have to be demilled (no weapons). As I understand it, there's some sort of contractual provision or law prohibiting US companies or the gov't from selling planes to the public. Some how, one legal F-18 slipped through the cracks in a very famous ebay moment. Most modern fighters come from overseas, many from former eastern bloc countries where the gov'ts would rather have the cash, or where the commanding officers and/or pilots have personally "liberated" them. I don't think very many frontline fighters pop up, because they're very expensive and still being used, but I've seen a Mig-29, F-4s, F-5s, T-38s, Mig-15-17-21s, F-104s, F-105s, A-37s, Fouga jets (mod?), L-39s (very popular) for sale. You can find many of these occasionally popping up in the "Warbirds" section of Trade-a-Plane, a yellow newsprint-style classifieds publication. Sort of like Gun List, but for planes. Some of them are pretty cheap; some of the Migs can be found in the tens of thousands of dollars. On the other side of the spectrum, I think the F-4s were going for several million dollars. Keep in mind, get checked out in these planes and care and up keep for some of them can be very expensive. The L-39s and older Migs are the most popular.

 

its all about the money. you would be surprised at some the stuff that is here in private hands. the biggest problem is the demill work. some of it is so permanent that new sections of wing and flight surfaces have to be custom made and still meet type design requirements. this is VERY expensive and the work cannot be done by just anybody. the paperwork is mindboggling. i deal with it everyday, and thats is just for what we touch. the upstairs folks handle the rest of it. prop aircrafta re easier to deal with, modern jets are heavily regulated and the Government agencies are not thier to help you at all. best bet would be to have a place out of the USA and maintain you toys there. a common dream many a&p mechanics share ( at least i do ) is do be hired by a customer and work privately overseas on thier toys. it does happen from time to time. this is the main reason why i am single, as i want to travel and play with this stuff. i would reccommend contacting your local area FAA FSDO ( FLIGHT STANDARDS DISTRICT OFFICE) and schedule and appointment to ask these specific questions.


cool thread. best, Michael (General Dynamics)

 

GM's Bob Lutz owned a jet that he flew out of the Ann Arbor, MI airport. I saw it at an airshow but, since I'm not much of an airplane afficianado, I don't remember what it was. I believe it came from an Eastern Bloc country, but that's all I know.

 

Here ya go: http://www.classicjets.org/faq.html

There's a message board on there too, populated by owners of classic military jets.

As mentioned above, the L39 is a very popular jet, try http://www.l39.com/index.html for info on it.

 

Up in CT there was a guy who had a grogeous black Mig I think it was a 17 w afterburner & a big red commie star on it Ive heard of some guys who own Phantoms & 1 F104 Starfighter then there are a few early 50s jets like the Red Baron & I just saw two L39s down in the Florida keys last month. I heard Larry Ellison got a nice toy, not sure if it was an F16 or a Mig 29.

Still, Paul Allen, Burt Rutan, & Richard Branson have the nicest toy of all, a private space shuttle

I definately think getting a place out of the country is the way to go though.
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Actually it is not at all difficult to get an ex-military machine. You can get a 1958 DeHavilland Vampire for about $150,000 all the way up to a Mig 29 for about $10,000,000.00

The demill scenario is not as bad as people think. The companies that sell them usually can take care of this or know of people who can deal with it.

A very popular plane is the Czech L29/L39 set of trainers. The L39 is very zoomy looking, 2 seater (This is the Bob Lutz plane) and reasonable on costs.
Expect $200,000-$300,000 on initial buy plus $50,000 to $100,000 for upgrades and engine rebuild and then $50k a year in maintainance.

Incidentally, I have a share ownership in an L39. Lots of fun but the expense/flying hour for me is pretty high. Probably will opt out unless I hit lottery. The concept of having a jet fighter is much more fun than the actuality of owning one.

Check out globalplanesearch.com for more info.

 

Just within the past week I saw 5 private jet fighters at the airport where we hanger our plane. I think that they were all L-39's but not sure. The one in the individual picture was in incredibly beautiful shape. I resized the pictures so some of the resolution may be lost.

My understanding is that they can only be flown to and from airshows. That is, you can't just blast around the countryside at Mach 2. Regardless, the pilots say that they love their planes. It was awesome watching them land and take off in formation. Beautiful sight.
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Here are a few groups that fly jets in airshows, for instance:

Starfighters: F-104's
www.starfighters.net

The Collings Foundation: F-4D
www.cfwest.ne

Jet Warbird Training Center: Various
www.jetwarbird.com

Chuck Thornton: T-38, F-5, S211
www.thorntonaircraft.com

There are other companies outside the US where you can get rides in Mig-23, 25, 29, Su-27, Bucaneer, Lightining, etc.

Getting a ride is no big thing if you have the means, but owning and operating is another thing. You would need to be pretty committed to fly a high performance jet on a regular basis simply because they tend to be a bit less forgiving. I think that a high performance prop aerobatic plane such as a Edge 540 or Extra 300 would be much more exciting in everyday use as well as cheaper.

YMMV,

Eric

 

I doont think it is. A guy I know bought 2 Russian jets that were disarmed.


Antony

 

I don't think Gates ever owned one, you may be thinking of Paul Allen. He bought a 2-seat version of the F5, not the trainer, but an Israeli aircraft. More thrust and performance than the trainer. He kept the airplane at Van Nuys in So Cal, where several privately owned jet warbirds are hangared.

Gary

 

Actually, at the EAA fly in last year they had several jets for sale, and prices were WAY low...

The one that caught my eye was a "Starfighter" listed for 40,000$!!! Now I have no idea what shape this thing was in, but it somehow flew down to the show. This thing was HUGE. Just the fact that you can buy a jet of that size, for so little money, blows my mind. Geesh, I thought about getting it and putting it in my back yard for the kids to play in !

They had an L39 for 150k or so, which of course looked much nicer....

 

I want a Harrier because I don’t have a landing strip.
I do have a landing pad though. I’m trying to place
an order but there is a 3 years waiting list and they
are no longer taking deposits. F…ing Harrier of Seattle (

 

lol, post of the day.

 

The F/A-18 Blue Angel jet that was on Ebay slipped through the system. It was purchased for ~$15,000 at a scrap metal auction at a Georgia airbase. The procedure for a plane to be auctioned requires the plane's fuselage being cut as specific points, which will deem it unairworthy. The F/A-18 never had this done. The guy realized it after he bought it and quickly left. Before you start to think he got a great deal, the plane really didn't even look like one. The "deal" he got would only be good if he plans to sell it to some rich guy, which he did I believe for about $1m.

Here's the auction of the plane with real pictures of the airplane at the bottom: http://img239.exs.cx/img239/5254/mig29afa186lk.jpg

Here's the Mig 29 that was also on Ebay: http://img167.exs.cx/img167/7741/mig293ox.jpg (sorry about my printscreen skills in Paint )

I personally want an F-14 Tomcat I'm trying to get an internship this summer at Grumman because I think their work is awesome. Maybe one day I can somehow own it. Maybe I could buy one from Iran since they have a few F-14s, who knows?

Oh, the coolest F-14 Tomcat in my opinion, is the VX-4 (the evaluators' plane). It has an awesome paint scheme. http://img167.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img167&image=tomcat80jo.jpg (Jolly Rogers looks cool, too)

Edit: The F/A-18 is being restored right now: http://www.blueangels.org/Aircraft/Stick/FA18/973/973.htm

 

A few airframes have slipped out that way. Screw up's in the paperwork. Uncle Sam thought thought they were deMiled and they weren't. One of the T38's got out that way. But all you get is an airframe you still have to buy all the expensive parts.

 

Exactly. I don't know if you saw the picture of the real F/A-18 that was sold, but it doesn't look much like an airplane. They said it would take $9 million to get it to fly again. Then another $500k a year for fuel/landing fees/maintenance, etc. A very expenisve hobby indeed.

 

Fighter jets may slip through the cracks in the system, but don't look for a
B-52. Years ago, the government outlawed the sales of aircraft with "intercontinental capability". In other words, they didn't want some lunatic millionaire buying a surplus B-52 and flying halfway around the world and starting WWIII. There was a guy who managed to get some gigantic scrap pieces of a B-36 bomber and he continued to collect other parts for many years. But I don't think that his intention was to ever actually be able to piece together a flying aircraft. The concept would be an astronomical endevour both logistically and monetarily.

 

Where do you even begin to find parts for an F/A-18? The wait? Could you imagine how hard that would be.

I say just stick to an R/C jet; they're cheaper and you can have the same fun minus the risk of killing yourself if you dont know how to fly. I saw a really cool one on the "DIY" channel a few months ago.

 

Frozen,
You'd have to be Bill Gates to own, operate one. Working on F-16's, and F-15's the maintenance up keep is rediculous. An F-5 is a pretty reliable fighter, and would be the cheapest to keep flying, but the parts are still really expensive, fuel cells, turbines, niggling electrical problems. If you're talking a Mig fighter off of Ebay, it would be a nightmare to maintain. Any Mig, would. The parts would be astronomical, and the russian fighters are the least reliable of the bunch.