B-52 Stratofortress – NOT FOR SALE

Excuse me, I’d like to buy your B-52 | Oddly Enough | Reuters

MOSCOW (Reuters) – A wealthy Russian tried to buy a U.S. B-52 bomber from a group of shocked American pilots at an airshow near Moscow, a Russian newspaper reported Friday.

This has got to be one of the most entertaining things I’ve heard in quite some time. From the perspective of someone who grew up during the Cold War and who remembers the fall of the Berlin Wall, there are a few things about this story which have spun my brain around a few times. First, there’s the thought of having a B-52 on display at an airshow in Russia. Then there’s the fact that a Russian citizen has $500,000,000 to drop on something like this. Sorry, but there’s times when I still think of communism.

Of course, the B-52 isn’t for sale. Try buying a somewhat recently retired military aircraft from the U.S. government as a U.S. citizen – it’s nearly impossible due to federal law. The Collings Foundation got an F-4 Phantom and a TA-4 Skyhawk out of AMARC, but that took an act of Congress. There are plenty of former military jets in private hands in the U.S. – they just weren’t obtained from the U.S. government.

A B-52 would be cool, but I still want my F-14 Tomcat !