This Man Owns The World’s Most Advanced Private Air Force After Buying 46 F/A-18 Hornets

[Ombligo]

Carnos Jax wrote:
I’ve always fantasized about owning my own F-16 or F 18 to go tooling around in

Not quite as maneuverable, but you can buy a Mach 2 F4H Phantom for $1.5 million or if you are on a budget, a similarly fast Mig-21 can be purchased for less than $100,000 (you will need to reassemble it and pay to ship it from France)

https://www.hangar67.com/aircraft-for-sa...d-military

[Carnos Jax]

jdc wrote:
[quote=Carnos Jax]
I’ve always fantasized about owning my own F-16 or F 18 to go tooling around in...

T-38 for me. purty. and figure maintaining it would be far far less $$ than anything more modern. gas, parts, etc. still has plenty of capabilities.
I wanted to go straight up supersonic, lol. But yes I thought of the T-38 as well being the practical solution.

[rgG]

Carnos Jax wrote:
[quote=jdc]
[quote=Carnos Jax]
I’ve always fantasized about owning my own F-16 or F 18 to go tooling around in...

T-38 for me. purty. and figure maintaining it would be far far less $$ than anything more modern. gas, parts, etc. still has plenty of capabilities.
I wanted to go straight up supersonic, lol. But yes I thought of the T-38 as well being the practical solution.
Practical, I do not think that means what you think it means.

[Will Collier]

Carnos Jax wrote:
He’s pretty much doing this stuff (I took a quasi-deep dive into the guy after reading the article yesterday) with the blessing of the US government and all necessary approvals. I do believe he has some planes that are capable of firing live ammo as well.

Oh yeah. Most if not all of those jets are going to live somewhere just north of Las Vegas from now on.

[btfc]

Close to my Idaho place:

https://tetonaviation.com/museum

[Paul F.]

Carnos Jax wrote:
[quote=jdc]
[quote=Carnos Jax]
I’ve always fantasized about owning my own F-16 or F 18 to go tooling around in...

T-38 for me. purty. and figure maintaining it would be far far less $$ than anything more modern. gas, parts, etc. still has plenty of capabilities.
I wanted to go straight up supersonic, lol. But yes I thought of the T-38 as well being the practical solution.
My preference would be "old school"... I'd want a Navy F-8 Crusader, like my father flew off Vietnam.
"The last of the gunfighters".
Plus, they're supersonic.
Of course, they also had pretty poor "maintenance hours vs flight hours" ratios... which is why the Navy retired them in the early 80's.
Still, if I had a pilots license, and the necessary ratings, and wheelbarrow loads of money... if there are still any FLYING F-8's, I'd very much love to fly one.
Of course, I'm just short a pilots license, medical certificate, jet rating, type-rating on an F-8, and loads and loads of money.

[pqrst]

The U.S. government has it’s own collection of stuff.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/43...g-facility

[Will Collier]

pqrst wrote:
The U.S. government has it’s own collection of stuff.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/43...g-facility

I've been there. It's cool.

[Harbourmaster]

My dad, a long time Avionics engineer at Douglas (later Boeing), used to work with a fellow whose license plate was F4S4EVR.

[jdc]

rgG wrote:
Practical, I do not think that means what you think it means.

LOL, yea. :biggrin: