Seems like a waste of a perfectly good airplane to me.

[MGMcAnick]

What do you s'pose they spent to modify the six jets. just to blow them out of the sky?
Shucks, I'd like to have one of those mothballed jets, but I couldn't afford to fly it around the patch once a year. Some rich dudes would pay good money for the privilege.

http://video.boeing.com/services/player ... 4464741001

[datsunaholic]

This is nothing new. The Air Force has been doing this with F4s since the late 1990s, having expended 315 of them from 1997-2015 when the last one was used. The F-102, F-100, and F-106 were used by the same squadron dating back to 1981.

The QF-16 has been flown since 2013 and started the actual target role since 2015, and the expect to expend over 200 of them over the next 15 years or so.

Unfortunately for the rich and wanna show it pilots who want a retired military jet, you have go to Europe or Russia to get one. The US Military decided long ago to stop surplussing complete aircraft in serviceable condition.

[MGMcAnick]

Still seems like a waste. They only get to blow one of them out of the sky once.

No foreign government is in any danger of selling a jet to me,

[Bicycle Bill]

In a way I agree with you, MG, but consider that otherwise they were just sitting out there on the desert floor slowly rotting away.  It would be nice, though, to have saved a couple of the older ones (like the F4s) so that when some guy takes his great-grandkid to an airshow he can point to a flyable F4 Phantom, A7 Corsair, or F8 Crusader and tell the kid "That's just like the one Grandpa flew in Viet Nam".

-"BB"-

[datsunaholic]

Still seems like a waste. They only get to blow one of them out of the sky once.

They do fly them quite a bit before they expend them. It's not "one flight and boom". They still have pilot controls, and most drones have 2 versions- primary flyers, which are usually manned and The QF-4 version were allowed 300 flight hours before being expended, and non-manned ones usually have the ejection seats removed, a self-destruct system added, and are cleared for 100 flight hours. Many of the tests are "non-lethal", the drone pilots do try to evade, and if the aircraft isn't damaged it will be flown back and recovered. The QF-4 in pilotless target mode usually lasted 3-4 missions before being expended. The QF-16 might have more flight hours allotted.

It may seem like a waste, but the alternative is shredding the airframes, like the Navy did with all but a handful (static museum pieces, of which there are a couple dozen) of F-14 Tomcats. The military simply won't sell them to civilians.

[kmccune]

They still fly F-4s ? Oh well only uncle can blow money like that.

[kmccune]

Have a friend who owns a Mig-17 ,doesnt fly it often ,operating costs are pretty high .

[Jarlaxle]

Didn't Bob Lutz (former Chrysler CEO) have a MiG-19 trainer?

[MGMcAnick]

Former Soviets don't seem to have any trouble selling surplus military aircraft. I have a neighbor who has a Yak very similar to this one. https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=ht ... t=c&ictx=1
He flies it often, but it uses a lot more gas than his Super Cub.