A Super(sonic) Buy?

Well, we can’t wait for this one to show up on Warbird Alley at Oshkosh. A Washington broker is selling what he claims is the only privately owned F/A-18A in the world on eBay. What’s more, the seller claims the aircraft was used by the Blue Angels in the early 1990s. The high bid (last we checked) was a bargain-basement $1.05 million for the somewhat disassembled aircraft (that cost somewhere near $18 million new). The aircraft is in pretty good shape according to seller Landa and Associates. The engines have been zero-timed and there’s a parts spare. It has less than 4,000 hours total time and, for a guaranteed price of $9 million, could be made airworthy. Since the posting went up last Monday, more than 50,000 people have viewed the posting but when we looked, only one had bid. No, it’s too early for April Fool’s jokes. Broker Mike Landa says this is the real deal. We’ll leave it to the Armed Forces … and FBI. Among those who have taken notice, however, are an FBI agent who visited Landa on Tuesday and the Blue Angels, who confirmed the plane was one of theirs and that is was stricken from the Navy record in 1994 — Blue Angels spokesman Mike Blankenship told the Pensacola News Journal he had no idea how it ended up in private hands. Landa told the News Journal the aircraft was acquired legally and has an N-number. Good luck finding it in the FAA aircraft registry. Landa says the plane is being stored in California and agrees there must have been “a screw-up” for it to end up in private hands. We’ll keep watching for it, but we won’t hold our breath.