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To: sukhoi-30mki

.
Why not sell them?


10 posted on 03/03/2010 8:39:56 PM PST by Touch Not the Cat
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To: Touch Not the Cat
Why not sell them?

Air show rides in older jets get about $100-$200 a pop.

Why not disable any ability to weaponize and sell for a few hundred grand?

12 posted on 03/03/2010 8:45:48 PM PST by freedumb2003 ( Tagline lost -- anyone seen it?)
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To: Touch Not the Cat
Yeah. The Iranians wheo have been trying to buy parts fro our old ones.
My parents watched one of the last flights off a carrier into Oceana. My mom said she got teary eyed.
They were beautiful in a bulky aort of way.
13 posted on 03/03/2010 8:47:01 PM PST by JSteff (It was ALL about SCOTUS. Most forget about that and HAVE DOOMED us for a generation or more.)
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To: Touch Not the Cat
Why not sell them?

Nobody would want them. Metal fatigue and lack of spare parts unique to the plane make them close to being flying coffins. That's why so many of our own planes are sitting in the boneyard waiting to be scrapped.

I read an article somewhere about what it took to maintain one of those things. The swing wings are attached to a massive aluminum casting that provides pivot points for the wings. After so many flight hours the planes have to be torn apart to get that casting out and onto a work bench. Then they spend days hand sanding off all the paint and primer to get it down to bare metal, and then hand sand it for days more to make the surface smooth as glass. This is the only way to retard the growth of surface fatigue cracks, and there are no more of those casting in existence except in those airplanes.

This would be like once a year tearing your car apart to separate everything from the frame. Then, hand sand the whole frame until it's smooth as glass, reprime and repaint it, reinstall everything you took off, and you're good for another year or so.

17 posted on 03/03/2010 9:07:02 PM PST by Dumpster Baby (Truth is called hate by those who hate the truth.)
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To: Touch Not the Cat

De-mil a few of them and donate them to museums. There is one in Charlotte that would love to have one.


21 posted on 03/04/2010 4:02:16 AM PST by wally_bert (It's sheer elegance in its simplicity! - The Middleman)
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