F-8 project for sale

[p51]

20 years is 1/5th of a century ago. Not exactly yesterday.

Sure seems like yesterday, though.
I saw one of these F-8s when I was on active duty (Army) once, but I can't go into the details as I think what I was there for is still classified. I couldn't have a camera with me at the time and I still wish I could have gotten photos of it. I did a double take and didn't believe I'd seen it until it came around again and I was sure (it never got lower than about 500 feet or so AGL but it was not moving at full throttle at the time). It took a long while before I could find out what the deal was with it, in a time when the internet didn't have much content on such things to look up.
A F-117 was also buzzing around there the same day (it flew right over my Humvee at less than 100 feet), the only time I ever got really close to one in the air.

[sandiego89]

Knowing the complexities and legalities of actually flying ex-military jets, I do wish we had more ground runners/taxi aircraft in the USA. While still complex and costly, surely cheaper than keeping flyers going. A few groups in the UK like those at Bruntingthorpe seem to have a good thing going, with semi-annual fast taxi runs of cold war jets and bombers (and an occasional accidental hop in the Victor a few years back .)

I would love to see, smell and hear more American iron on a start up and taxi/fast taxi, 1950's Navy and USAF types, A-4, A-6, Harrier, F-8, F-4's, F-100's, 102, 104, 105, B-58!, B-52, etc, etc...

Maybe I could buy that old B-52 base near Glasgow Montana....

[eze240]

I would bet on a combination of cost and availability of spares.... I don't know if anyone follows it much, but there's a couple of operations of some sort in Britain that sell various for RAF and RN aircraft...the one has a couple of F-4's and the other has a complete Tornado for sale... Neither seems to be moving these aircraft very quickily...presumably due to the asking price and the cost to operate them...
How many people anymore have that kind of money?

[Mark Sampson]

How many people ever had that kind of money? How many governments ever had that kind of money without enormous subsidies from the USA or USSR? WWII aircraft are far simpler and less expensive to run- and I'll guess easier to fly. As a pilot friend once said to me, when transitioning from turboprops to a Lear, "things happen a lot faster in a jet."