$5 Million Will Buy You Your Own Russian Jet Fighter (Flight Training Extra)

$5M Buys the Ride of Your Life -- Autopia

The Russian Sukhoi SU-27 has a top speed of Mach 1.8 (more than 1,300 mph) and a thrust-to-weight ratio greater than 1:1. In other words, it can accelerate while climbing straight up. It was designed to fight the best the United States had to offer, and it can be yours for the cost of a mediocre used business jet.

Last week, we told you about a cool DIY jet. If you like the idea of a jet but not the thought of doing it yourself, John Morgan has you covered. He’s got a pair of beautifully restored Sukhoi SU-27 Flanker jets. They’re first-rate pieces of Soviet-era hardware designed to go head-to-head with the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle. They’re for sale, joining a very elite group of former military fighter jets offered for private ownership in the United States.

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My Comment: My dream has always been to fly a P-51 Mustang. But to fly a SU-27 .... sighhhh .... I will need a lot of Google clicks to get that bird.

The Dubai Airshow As Seen From Orbit

Dubai Airshow 2009 : Courtesy GeoEye (See it bigger!)

From Popular Science:

Our friend the GeoEye-1 satellite, which tirelessly photographs the world at half-meter resolution from its constant orbit, swung by the Dubai Airport the other day and took this snap of the Dubai Airshow, in progress this week. Thanks, GeoEye-1!

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My Comment: The enlarged version is incredible.

Supersonic Sales Call

The Eurofighter Typhoon, armed for sales combat, will take on
Boeing’s F/A-18 Super Hornet. (Craig Pelleymounter)

From Air & Space Smithsonian:

If you want a customer to spend $10 billion on your jet fighters, you gotta bust some Mach.

Ricardo Traven, Boeing’s chief corporate test pilot for the Super Hornet, was physically in a briefing room at Naval Air Station Cecil Field near Jacksonville, Florida, one sweaty day last June. But mentally, as he prepared to fly a practice routine in the F/A-18E/F, he was eight months ahead and 10,000 miles away at Aero India, a corporate airshow at Air Force Station Yelahanka, near Bangalore. As he moved the imaginary control stick between his knees, he was flying at 550 mph 200 feet off the ground, competing for one of the biggest fighter contracts in history: 126 aircraft valued at $10 billion.

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