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Be the First in your Neighborhood to own

22WRF22WRF Member Posts: 3,385
edited February 2004 in General Discussion
A Blue Angels FA/18 Hornet

The only F/A-18A in private ownership in the world.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3077361636
The rest of the story
PUBLISHED THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2004
Blue Angel for sale
Navy plane shows up on eBay

Nicole Lozare
@PensacolaNewsJournal.com

After almost 50,000 hits in two days, no one is buying what Mike Landa is selling on eBay.

Everyone just wants to know how he acquired the Navy Blue Angels' F/A-18 Hornet.

Landa and Associates of Washington state is selling the jet for $1,050,000 - some assembly required. It's a bargain compared to the jet's usual $18 million price tag.

A former Blue Angel F-18 Hornet is for sale on ebay. Click here to view the sale.

"It has been acquired legitimately," said Landa, who said he was visited by the FBI on Tuesday, a day after he posted the jet on the popular Internet auction site.

Landa, an aircraft and telecommunications broker, is keeping a tight lip on the owner's identity. He met the owner in California while purchasing airplane parts.

Wednesday afternoon, Blue Angels spokesman Mike Blankenship confirmed the aircraft's heritage.

"According to the bureau number, it was a Blue Angels plane flown in the early '90s," said Blankenship, who has no clue how Landa acquired it. "It was stricken from the Navy's inventory in 1994."

According to the Department of Defense, the Navy's planes are not usually sold to private citizens.

When an aircraft is retired, officials determine if it should be kept for wartime reserves.

If the aircraft doesn't pass muster, it is demilitarized - military insignia and sensitive equipment, such as ejection seats, are removed. The aircraft is then sent to a boneyard.

"The Navy has programs where this aircraft is leased to museums," said department spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Cappy Surette.

"Occasionally, it can be sold to third parties on a case-by-case basis. But Navy policy prohibits reselling of these aircrafts."

The official word on eBay's Blue Angels jet?

"We are aware, and the matter is being looked into," Surette said.

Officials at the National Museum of Naval Aviation had the same response.

Landa's eBay site claims the aircraft was "never demilled, not cut ever," and comes with bomb racks, drop tanks and pylons.

The aircraft, which has not been flown in years, is stored in California. Landa said there must have been "a screw up" for the owner to acquire a demilitarized aircraft.

He is optimistic that a buyer will step up _ probably a private collector who he hopes to talk into leasing the aircraft back to the government for some photography work.

Landa has a pretty clean eBay record. A member since 1998, he has a 97.3 percent positive feedback from more than 400 buyers.

But the Blue Angels jet is just small potatoes. Landa is also selling a new aircraft "that climbs straight up" for $10 million.


There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism.
[Teddy Roosevelt]
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