Privately owned ex-military jets
Privately owned ex-military jets
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Voldemort

Original Poster:

7,540 posts

307 months

Friday 26th July 2013
quotequote all
I was told that there's a phantom in private ownership parked at Duxford but that they are not allowed to fly it as it is still 'too modern'.

Can anyone confirm/elaborate?

If I become richer than reality what is the fastest, most modern ex-mil jet I could buy and then fly in the UK?

anonymous-user

83 months

Friday 26th July 2013
quotequote all
Too modern? Quite the opposite I suspect.

IanMorewood

4,309 posts

277 months

Friday 26th July 2013
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The Phantom (nose) owner that I spoke too at Waddington said that only the big museums stood any chance of keeping one in the UK. Wiki says 6 exist in the UK (2 at Duxford), One though had been intended to fly but thats 5 or more years ago that I last heard about that.

eharding

14,648 posts

313 months

Friday 26th July 2013
quotequote all
Voldemort said:
I was told that there's a phantom in private ownership parked at Duxford but that they are not allowed to fly it as it is still 'too modern'.

Can anyone confirm/elaborate?

If I become richer than reality what is the fastest, most modern ex-mil jet I could buy and then fly in the UK?
I gather the RAF are going to be selling off the Sentinels before too long - take off the luggage carriers and you've got a Global Express. Ticks the fast and modern boxes, but probably not what you've got in mind.

If you want something that used to be front-line, then apart from the odd Sea Vixen or Vulcan, the CAA balks at anything newer than your Grandmother's Hunter. The most modern training airframes you could operate are probably the Hawk or an L-39.

But seriously, if you need to dispose of that much cash then you'd probably have more fun taking 80% of it into the back garden, covering it in avgas and setting fire to it - and spend the rest on an SBach/Extra/Yak/Pitts and lots of coke and hookers.

JW911

936 posts

224 months

Saturday 27th July 2013
quotequote all
eharding said:
But seriously, if you need to dispose of that much cash then you'd probably have more fun taking 80% of it into the back garden, covering it in avgas and setting fire to it - and spend the rest on an SBach/Extra/Yak/Pitts and lots of coke and hookers.
... and make sure you don't waste any on anything else!

Alternatively, for £10000 you can do this....

Lurking Lawyer

4,535 posts

254 months

Saturday 27th July 2013
quotequote all
eharding said:
I gather the RAF are going to be selling off the Sentinels before too long
I thought they only came into service a few years ago. Why are they being sold off so soon....?

eharding

14,648 posts

313 months

Saturday 27th July 2013
quotequote all
JW911 said:
eharding said:
But seriously, if you need to dispose of that much cash then you'd probably have more fun taking 80% of it into the back garden, covering it in avgas and setting fire to it - and spend the rest on an SBach/Extra/Yak/Pitts and lots of coke and hookers.
... and make sure you don't waste any on anything else!

Alternatively, for £10000 you can do this....
If you see GE tomorrow, ask him about the time back in the wild-and-woolly days when he and and another Waltham mate (sadly no longer with us) were rocking around in a 52 somewhere in deepest rural Russia in a not-entirely-authorised fashion, and they were bounced by a Fulcrum sent specifically to stop this not-entirely-authorised rocking around in a Yak behaviour, having been fitted with absolutely no sense of humour whatsoever.

Poor old Ken in the front, unable to understand the riot-act being read to them in Russian over the radio thought this was wonderful, and wanted to stay and play with the Mig - GE in the back understood exactly what was being said, and had to explain to Ken quite how badly wrong things were going to go if they didn't land immediately, if not sooner.

mph1977

12,467 posts

197 months

Saturday 27th July 2013
quotequote all
Lurking Lawyer said:
eharding said:
I gather the RAF are going to be selling off the Sentinels before too long
I thought they only came into service a few years ago. Why are they being sold off so soon....?
they were a UOR purchase ...

Lurking Lawyer

4,535 posts

254 months

Saturday 27th July 2013
quotequote all
mph1977 said:
they were a UOR purchase ...
So are they just leased then?

If not, and they were bought, it makes little sense to sell them off - doubtless at a substantial loss- when the general concensus seems to be that even after we leave Afghanistan they remain operationally useful.

Eric Mc

125,606 posts

294 months

Saturday 27th July 2013
quotequote all
mph1977 said:
they were a UOR purchase ...
AER (Acronym Explanation Required)

mph1977

12,467 posts

197 months

Saturday 27th July 2013
quotequote all
UOR = urgent operational requirement

means they don't have the full logistics and support package etc - sometimes they are commercial off the shelf stuff and not fully adapted to UK systems and norms or subject to minimal UKisation ( e.g. while the C17 and Rivet Joint aren't UORs - E.G. the fact they can only boom refuel is a sign of their original status as leased planes (C17) and a quick procurement with minimal UKisation (Rivet Joint)- where the D model Sentry purchase in the 80/90s included fitting them with booms for P+D AAR) and the apache purchase is a bespokely British model - partially marinised ,UK spec sub systems, Different engines ( common with Merlin with the beneficial side effect of better hot and high). That said some UORs have been taken into core equipment.

Edited by mph1977 on Saturday 27th July 10:59

Voldemort

Original Poster:

7,540 posts

307 months

Saturday 27th July 2013
quotequote all
eharding said:
If you want something that used to be front-line, then apart from the odd Sea Vixen or Vulcan, the CAA balks at anything newer than your Grandmother's Hunter. The most modern training airframes you could operate are probably the Hawk or an L-39.
Why do the CAA object? Assuming the planes are unarmed, is their objection to the speed of these things?

Eric Mc

125,606 posts

294 months

Saturday 27th July 2013
quotequote all
mph1977 said:
UOR = urgent operational requirement

means they don't have the full logistics and support package etc - sometimes they are commercial off the shelf stuff and not fully adapted to UK systems and norms or subject to minimal UKisation ( e.g. while the C17 and Rivet Joint aren't UORs - E.G. the fact they can only boom refuel is a sign of their original status as leased planes (C17) and a quick procurement with minimal UKisation (Rivet Joint)- where the D model Sentry purchase in the 80/90s included fitting them with booms for P+D AAR) and the apache purchase is a bespokely British model - partially marinised ,UK spec sub systems, Different engines ( common with Merlin with the beneficial side effect of better hot and high). That said some UORs have been taken into core equipment.

Edited by mph1977 on Saturday 27th July 10:59
OK Now explain P+D and AAR.

Can't you military or industry chaps NOT talk in initials?

This is a general forum - populated by people like me who have a genuine interest in the topics being discussed, But the use of in-house jargon is a real turn off - and actually quite rude as it serves to exclude those of us who aren't up to speed on these acronyms.

My clients would not appreciate me talking to them in "accounting" or "tax speak" - of which there is plenty.

eharding

14,648 posts

313 months

Saturday 27th July 2013
quotequote all
Voldemort said:
eharding said:
If you want something that used to be front-line, then apart from the odd Sea Vixen or Vulcan, the CAA balks at anything newer than your Grandmother's Hunter. The most modern training airframes you could operate are probably the Hawk or an L-39.
Why do the CAA object? Assuming the planes are unarmed, is their objection to the speed of these things?
It boils down to having sufficient engineering support available to operate the aircraft safely - a side effect of this is that pretty much any high-performance military jet designed after roughly the mid-1950's is sufficiently complex that there is neither the expertise nor the incentive amongst civilian engineering companies - at least those whom the CAA deem credible - to support their operation.

mph1977

12,467 posts

197 months

Saturday 27th July 2013
quotequote all
Eric Mc said:
mph1977 said:
UOR = urgent operational requirement

means they don't have the full logistics and support package etc - sometimes they are commercial off the shelf stuff and not fully adapted to UK systems and norms or subject to minimal UKisation ( e.g. while the C17 and Rivet Joint aren't UORs - E.G. the fact they can only boom refuel is a sign of their original status as leased planes (C17) and a quick procurement with minimal UKisation (Rivet Joint)- where the D model Sentry purchase in the 80/90s included fitting them with booms for P+D AAR) and the apache purchase is a bespokely British model - partially marinised ,UK spec sub systems, Different engines ( common with Merlin with the beneficial side effect of better hot and high). That said some UORs have been taken into core equipment.

Edited by mph1977 on Saturday 27th July 10:59
OK Now explain P+D and AAR.

Can't you military or industry chaps NOT talk in initials?

This is a general forum - populated by people like me who have a genuine interest in the topics being discussed, But the use of in-house jargon is a real turn off - and actually quite rude as it serves to exclude those of us who aren't up to speed on these acronyms.

My clients would not appreciate me talking to them in "accounting" or "tax speak" - of which there is plenty.
do you always expand VAT ? never refer to P38s ( yes i know they are now obselete) / P45 / P46/ P60 / P11D ?

AAR = air to air refuelling

there are fundamentally 2 types of system

- 'flying boom' which is what the US Air Force use and by extension many of the operators of aircraft designed originally for the USAF - this has potentially faster fuel transfer but the tankers are generally only single point

or
'probe and drogue' which is what the RAF, US Navy etc use and although it has a lower theoretical flow rate you can have 2 or 3 point refuelling and can refuel 2 small(er) aircraft at once ... there is a retractable hose with a 'drogue' on the end which the reciever flys his 'probe' into

it is possible to have tankers which have both a flying boom on the centreline and one or two hose units for Probe and drogue on the wings

RobGT81

5,229 posts

215 months

Saturday 27th July 2013
quotequote all
mph1977 said:
- 'flying boom' which is what the US Air Force use and by extension many of the operators of aircraft designed originally for the USAF - this has potentially faster fuel transfer but the tankers are generally only single point
Bit OT but the flying boom does give opportunities for some great pics and videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M28B19QvDQE

Ginetta G15 Girl

3,220 posts

213 months

Saturday 27th July 2013
quotequote all
Sentinel was planned to be binned at the end of 2015 as part of the SDSR slash and burn. Primarily because, as mph said, it was bought under a UOR for the Afghan campaign. Additionally if it's not directly supporting the Pongoes then the RAF don't need it - after all they've got all those nice shiny useless Typhoon thingies. rolleyes

However, after Cameron got us involved in Libya, he and his merry men found out just how useful an intelligence gatherer it really is.

The a/c was subsequently recently detached to Mali to support the French operations there.

So it looks like there has been a re-think about Sentinel and that it may well be kept post 2015.

JW911

936 posts

224 months

Saturday 27th July 2013
quotequote all
mph1977 said:
.... never refer to P38s ( yes i know they are now obsolete)
I know but God they're good....

aeropilot

40,530 posts

256 months

Saturday 27th July 2013
quotequote all
Voldemort said:
I was told that there's a phantom in private ownership parked at Duxford but that they are not allowed to fly it as it is still 'too modern'.
If by the term 'modern' you mean it would be almost certainley classified in the 'complex' category by the CAA, then yes it's not allowed to fly because it's too 'modern'.

It's also not in private ownership either as it now belongs to the IWM. It was originally in private ownership.

Mojocvh

16,837 posts

291 months

Sunday 28th July 2013
quotequote all
RobGT81 said:
mph1977 said:
- 'flying boom' which is what the US Air Force use and by extension many of the operators of aircraft designed originally for the USAF - this has potentially faster fuel transfer but the tankers are generally only single point
Bit OT but the flying boom does give opportunities for some great pics and videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M28B19QvDQE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnoF1AJXokM