All Hokie, All the Time. Period. Presented by First Bank & Trust Company

agray123 agray123 OP
Jun 10, 2025 at 07:17 AM ET
Airplane nerds -alert. Rare flyover in tribute of Col. Gail "Evil" Peck
Founder of the Constant Peg program, redesigner of Tonopah field, and an all around bad ass. @F4EHokie - hope you stop by for this!

10 Replies

E
EDGEMAN
Is that a Mig-21 and a Mig 29?
Whatever they are, they are just classified as "targets."
agray123 agray123 OP
Yah - I think Paul Allen owned a lot of cool stuff
E
EDGEMAN
He could definitely afford them...lol
MP4VT2004 MP4VT2004
TIL - wealthy civilians can own decommissioned military aircraft.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised - civilians can own tanks. But a privately-owned Mig fighter jet seems like it could be problematic in the wrong hands.
vthokieq vthokieq
Same as with a tank...the aircraft is demilitarized. .
But I guess if someone is a real super villain they'd find a way. ;-) ** Edited by vthokieq at 6/10/2025, 4:31:09 PM
MP4VT2004 MP4VT2004
Thanks for summarizing my post! Ha
My point was that an aircraft, if "re-weaponized", could potentially cause more widespread damage more quickly than a tank. But yes, either would be very expensive to re-arm and would require some real "super-villainry".
vthokieq vthokieq
Which was my point.
It’s actually not problematic that it is legal. Super villains wouldn’t care if it was legal or not. 😉
E
EDGEMAN
They would have to be very wealthy just to afford the maintenance...
...required, not to mention the fuel it burns. Heck, it takes really well off millionaires to own P-51s, and I doubt many in that crowd could afford to operate a decommissioned tactical jet. Now I have heard of a logger who bought most of an AH-1 Cobra at a government auction, and proceeded to find the remaining parts to make it flyable. He used it in his business to "survey" forests.
agray123 agray123 OP
And I complain about maintenance on my 2016 Cayenne
The pipeline for spares of a MiG-21 must be a nightmare. But if you have that $$ you just buy the technical docs and manufacture your own.
E
EDGEMAN
Or modify it to use a GE or P&W engine that you can find here.
But I'm thinking you can probably find unused Mig-21engines still in their crates in places like Vietnam...