Saw this MiG-29UB Fulcrum B

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xXSkeezyboiXx@reddit

TIL you can own fighter aircraft privately America is wild

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Ehhhh that's debatable. He owns the aircraft as part of his Draken contract to supply boogies for air force training. The fact that he and his wife fly one seemingly just to go out for a nice dinner is secondary.

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RobinOldsIsGod@reddit

He owns the aircraft as part of his Draken contract to supply boogies for air force training.

This Fulcrum has nothing to do with Draken. Rook bought this MiG-29UB from the estate of Paul Allen after he sold Draken in 2019

Draken never operated MiG-29s. Draken operates ex-RNZAF F-4s, L-159s, and Mirage F-1s. Draken lost their USAF contract at Nellis AFB to provide contract Red Air during the annual Red Flag training exercises a couple years ago.

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Spudsicle1998@reddit

A-4s not F-4s

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RobinOldsIsGod@reddit

D'oh. Thanks.

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fictionary@reddit

So Paul Allen originally owned the Mig-29?

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signuporloginagain@reddit

Debatable? Why do people pull stuff like this out of their asses? The two previous owners of this particular jet had nothing to do with military contract flying.

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KinksAreForKeds@reddit

I'm not pulling it out of my ass, dude. The only way you're going to own one of these is if you can get through all the regs, and the only one you're going to do that is by throwing a hell of a lot of money at it or by having a government contract. And that's just owning one. There are currently only a handful of people who are rated for this aircraft, and the only way you're going to get rated is, again, throwing a hell of a lot of money at it or having a government contract. Not mention the maintenance, which again, requires a hell of a lot of money or a government contract. Paul Allen was rich, he threw a lot of money at it. Jacob is rich, but had a government contract... and an entire company set up specifically to maintain his squadron.

You aren't taking one of these up with you PPL, and you ain't owning one unless you have a hell of a lot of money... or a government contract.

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packtloss@reddit

So what you’re saying is….if you have enough money you can very much own fighter jets as a civilian?

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KinksAreForKeds@reddit

A *ridiculous amount of money. Like, I could own a nuclear submarine if I had enough money. But bringing it back down to reality, you're never going to have that much money, so no, you can't own a nuclear submarine.

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Derek420HighBisCis@reddit

TIL “ridiculous amounts of money” doesn’t equate to “buying your way into flying the jet”. STFU moron

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packtloss@reddit

Speaking of ridiculous….

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-burnr-@reddit

Not debatable. You can very much own/fly former military fighter jets as a private citizen.

There are many privately owned & flown warbirds in the US.

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reddeagle99@reddit

Aren't warbirds not jets by definition? Don't get me wrong, you can privately own fighter jets but I thought warbirds are WW2 era.

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-burnr-@reddit

Warbirds are any ex-military, not just WW2.

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Frog_Prophet@reddit

The only reason the FAA allows him to fly it is because he has a ton of hours in the L-39 and had an airshow certificate before he ever thought about a mig-29. Put simply, no you can’t literally buy your way into a mig-29. You have to convince the FAA you can safely fly it.

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lordtema@reddit

I mean what you said is basically the same as you can buy your way into one. You just have to go through serious training first and rack up enough jet hours and have a plan for getting a typerating on the thing.

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Frog_Prophet@reddit

“Buying your way into it” has the connotation of just plopping a big bag of money on the table and walking away with a fighter jet.

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Helpful_Equipment580@reddit

The privately owned Harrier (with functioning VTOL) blows my mind. I can't imagine the maintenance cost of such a bespoke system.

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DrSmasher@reddit

This was formerly in Paul Allen's museum

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Anonymous_Koala1@reddit

keep in mind, getting bombs and missiles as a civilian, is not so easy... or possible for that matter.

and so, without thoes, a fighter is just fancy stunt jet

same goes for tanks,

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ChevTecGroup@reddit

Possible, just far from easy and far from available.

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Orlando1701@reddit

Being one of the richest men on the planet helps.

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TheRealtcSpears@reddit

Yeah, with a tad bit of money anyone can buy one

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WLFGHST@reddit

Where was this? I thought he brought it back home.

This is Jared Isaacman’s privately owned MiG-29 based in Bozeman, Montana and used for airshows with his 3 Alpha Jets and 4 L-39s known as ‘Ghost Squadron’ as of this year.

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