Long before I was a car nut, I loved airplanes. Each year the local RC club would put on a fly-in and it just happened to always land on my birthday. Obviously, you can imagine where I wanted to be each year! It was fun to see the RC planes, but it was the full-sized special guests that I always loved. Whether it was watching the Blue Angels doing stunts or exploring the massive hold of a C-5, I was mesmerized! Eventually I discovered fast cars and my love for planes waned, but I still have an appreciation for these winged machines. Hence why these finds caught my attention! The seller has two prewar planes that have been in long term barn storage and a cold war era MIG21R, which is flight ready!
First up is this MIG21R, which you can find here on eBay in Reno, Nevada with a current bid of $56k. I can’t see any reason for actually buying a supersonic fighter jet, other than the absolute awesomeness of owning such a craft! Of the three planes currently listed by this seller, the MIG is the only one that’s currently capable of flying. The seller has all the maintenance records and the current FAA Spec Ops approval, so it is ready and roaring to fly!
Now for the planes that I would say are actual barn finds! This 1931 Curtiss Junior is an older restoration, but looks to be in good shape. It’s currently sharing a hanger with a 1934 Aeronca C-3, but more on that in a minute! The Junior hasn’t been flown in quite some time, so it will need to be cleaned up and have any faulty systems repaired to pass inspection. Compared to the MIG, this thing is as simple as it gets and hopefully it won’t take much to get it flying again! Find it here on eBay with a current bid of $6,500.
The Aeronca is said to be in good shape and comes with its log books and paperwork, which should make getting it certified for flight a bit easier. It sure is a beautiful little plane and a cool piece of aviation history. The seller was able to get the engine running again, but I’m sure it will still need to be gone through before it will be safe to fly. You can find it here on eBay in Northern California with a current bid of $12k. So which of these aircraft would you want to fly? I’m not aviation expert, so if you know more about what it might take to get either of these vintage planes back in the air, please chime in!
From personal experience, the fastest thing on that MiG21 is the gas gauge.
Gotta bucket full of green? Buy a Mig, and that bucket will evaporate stat.
At least you can brag at the next neighborhood bbq that you have a MIG…
The cool factor is high but how useless it is; honey you wanna go somewhere for the weekend? Uh sorry no room…
According to the ad, the plane can be disassembled at current location for shipment worldwide. Wouldn’t it be cheaper and easier to fly it somewhere?
Typical is 600+ miles per tank of fuel. That’s 658 gallons.
Do the russkies know one of their planes is missing?
that 56 K would for the mig would
buy you just a few hours worth of fuel. No kidding.
The MIG is one of the worst consumers of fuel that you can think of. Very fast with a not so efficient engine. If that were not bad enough the visibility of the plane is horrible. It also has numerous handling vices and you need serious training to learn how to fly one without killing yourself and anybody else.
The only reason these come up for sale is that the Russians made so many of them. Very basic is some ways, very advanced in others. But consumption is staggering at normal power and just a very few minutes on afterburner will empty the fuel tanks and this thing is a horrible glider. Some rocks can do better. Keep it in flying condition but for the most part this belongs in a museum for safety sake if nothing else. The other two are amazingly kool and I would love to see them back in flying condition.
Awwww, the MIG 21 may have it faults, but, imagine this; In a dog fight with an F4D Phantom. The D hot on the MIGs tail, the MIG does a hard port, the D right with it, MIG, hard starboard, D right with it, MIG levels, D locks on, D fires and puts the MIG out of it misery, ahhhh poor MIG. Just gotta love the ‘D’…
Charlie: Excuse me, Lieutenant. Is there something wrong?
Maverick: Yes ma’am, the data on the MiG is inaccurate.
Sorry, I had to stick this somewhere.
I would not want to own any plane and especially a fighter plane identical to those which took the lives of American pilots in air combat.
Just like guns, planes don’t kill people…
I have a friend in Rockford TX with a Mig 15 sitting in front of her antique store as a static display in very poor condition. I think she told me she paid 8K or something like that for it. She also has 2 old iron jail cells right next to it. She told me that the Mig draws the men to stop and look and the women go in the store. LMAO
That’s a Czech AF MiG. They were all built in the then Czechoslovakia. I was a USAF Czech linguist. I spent 20 plus years dealing with them. Fun little scooters I bet
Oh…if it’s a MiG-21R it was for reconnaissance or recce as we called it. It could fight if attacked but not well.
I love planes but would be wary of Ruskie Cold War era aircraft. The Czechs hopefully had better QC, but still not comforting. FWIW I’m trusting 72 year old American quality on Thursday when I’m going up in North American B-25 bomber built in 1944.
Just recalled these were capable of being launched with two minutes notice with no ground crew and could operate of a grass runway. Now that is practicality exemplified!.
Impressive too.
Here is a video of this plane flying >> https://youtu.be/NaS3baDQ2Dc
It actually looks like the guy is having some serious fun. Funky looking from the outside but looks like a cool experience from the cockpit.
I would never buy this no matter how much $$ I had. If I had big $$ I’d keep it to fast cars.
Speaking of fast cars, I’d sell my ’57 BMW Isetta. Zero to 50 mph in one minute flat!