By Andrew Liszewski
A Cessna might be the affordable choice when it comes to personal aircraft, but if fun ranks high on your feature list you’re probably not going to do much better than this pair of Sukhoi Su-27 Flankers which can be yours for just $4.5 million a piece. They were brought to the U.S. by Pride Aircraft, who acquired them from a company doing high-altitude research that went bust, and each have been completely restored and now feature zero-time airframes and engines. (Minus test flights.)
Both aircraft are de-militarized, with all weapons and military hardware having been previously removed, and Pride Aircraft has gone to the trouble of relabeling all the dials and gauges in the cockpit in english, and adding updated IFR U.S. instrumentation and avionics. Now even though modern aircraft like the F-22 Raptor eclipse the Su-27 when it comes to capabilities, there’s still a lot of fun to be had here thanks its top-speed of over 1,300 mph and its 1:1+ thrust-to-weight ratio. And I particularly like that serious buyers can contact the seller, John Morgan, via his @aol.com email address.
[ Pride Aircraft – Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker – For Sale to Discriminating Owners – $4.95 million each ] VIA [ Wired ]
Between this and the space shuttles going up for $28.8 million apiece (http://is.gd/6wycn), I am having a hard time deciding what to fill my future aerospace museum with. I think I'll probably just get a pair of these and get a friend to fly sorties with me, outer space be damned!
Frankly, this is one of the coolest things I've seen this year. Think they'll take a cheque?..
But then i'd have to spend money on classes to learn to fly it…
But then i'd have to spend money on classes to learn to fly it…