Misleading premise. Imagine what the local scrapyard would be worth if they used the original sticker vehicle prices. The concepts of price and value are frequently interchanged at the whim of the media to bolster whatever the point du jour happens to be.
Give them to the Iraqis as pipeline surveylance planes.
What a shame. Seems like they could overcome the liability problem with legal disclaimers of some sort. Ain't that what we pay lawyers for?
I know I would have loved to buy one of the old Jeeps like we had when I was in the National Guard but I was told that they also were sold as scrap because of the rollover problems they supposedly had. Before they sold them, they reportedly ran them all over with some piece of heavy equipment to render them beyond fixing.
It's only our money. Not to worry.
Why is everybody eatin' up with a bad case of dumb ass?
They would sell like hot cakes if sold "as is" and each buyer signed an agreement that the planes were not to be used for flight.
Give one to me. I can fix it and sell it.
Don't just scrap them.
--X--
Ping.
so the Air Force is outsourcing its pilot training now? In my mind that's taking things several steps too far.
Yeah, Give me one, Ill take it off yer hands fer nuthin.
The whole T-3A program was a waste from the beginning. The program exists for a good reason -- to screen potential officers and see who might be pilot material (and who had better be assigned to fly a desk). They used to do it in Cessna 172s, a popular trainer. (Actually, a version of the 172 with only two seats and a slightly more powerful engine). The 172 is still in production, but the USAF wanted something more "high speed, low drag," especially for their pampered Academy kiddies.
A committee of Air Force officers got the idea that it would be better to have a plane that was more like a modern fighter. So they found this British company that made a trainer with a nice bubble canopy... and then began forcing the doubtful Britons to add more and more to it. Twice the power; a big heavy engine; beef it up for more Gs and more weight.
The result was, not surprizingly, an airplane designed by committee. And with that big, powerful (and heavy) engine way out in the nose, it had ugly spin characteristics, unlike the nimble, glider-derived trainer it descended from.
Finally, the combination of these planes, that the pilots who flew them daily feared for good reason, and the occasional young instructor pilot who had a personal grant of immortality in his pocket, was a bad one and they established that the only effective way to recover from a spin gone flat was to hit the ground... which stops the spin, of course, but also kills the passengers in the plane.
For passengers is what they were once the spin developed and flattened. Passengers on the express elevator to hell.
After the first crash and the second the planes were grounded for a while and the recriminations began. After the third crash the USAF parked the planes and the recriminations went into high gear. I mean, these crashes weren't killing just anybody, but the Academy anointed -- that's serious business.
Those responsible -- all of them blue-suit Air Force officers -- successfully dodged blame, and the poor Brits who didn't want to build the plane like this but were told, "Shut up, we know what we're doing," were on the receiving end of most of the finger pointing.
The bozosity now set climb pitch and METO power. They just lined the planes up on a ramp... didn't cover them... didn't oil or ever inspect them... while they debated for years over what to do with them. Air Force lawyers (you know, military lawyers, the same traitors that brought you 200 Taliban standing in a formation giving a Predator the finger) insisted that the liability was too great to sell these airplanes or even the parts for them. Meanwhile, it became a moot point as the sun, the elements, birds and rodents, and especially corrosion went to work on the carelessly abandoned planes.
Had they removed and pickled the engines alone, they are worth $25-35k each. Each plane has over $30,000 in instruments and radios, on the salvage market. These components also are supposed to be destroyed.
The lawyers who pull Air Force commanders' strings these days feel good about it. After all, it's not their money -- you taxpaying chump.
With characteristic foresight he USAF isn't even keeping one for the museum. They don't want to be reminded of a screw-up this colossal. (Which just about guarantees that they will do it again).
At least one Academy cadet has died in a crash in the new, revised program using civilian planes and instructors. Her instructor flew into a powerline while making a show-off job out of a routine demo flight. What was he doing that low? He died instantly, so he can't tell us. She, on the other hand, took a week to die in indescribable agony.
Like every large organisation, including the other services, the Air Force has many extremely capable people, a few thundering dunderheads, and no institutional ability to tell the two apart. This may be an extreme and easily grasped example of the waste that happens, but it's only one example.
The real amazing thing is that as messed up as the military may be, it's still the most efficient of government agencies. I mean, nobody even reports waste like this at Education or Health and Human Services because everyone understands that every dollar spent on them is wasted. When the military does it, it's news.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
Government at it's best....LOL...Whatta waste.