Privately owned SU-27 in US

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cantstopme82

New Member
Does anyone know the whereabouts of the 2 SU-27 that were sold by Pride Aviation in the past year or two?

FAA registration shows them belonging to a company registered to Wilmington, Delaware but there is nothing to be found about this company or any further mention of the FLANKERs after Pride sold them.
 
Haavarla

Haavarla

Active Member
Its a fake address.
Why all the cover up..
Those two Flankers belong to USAF now.
Pride's got a sweet deal, through some funny company and then re-sold em to USAF.
Those whereabouts are unknown.
And whats more strange, what to do with them...:confused:

Granted the two Su-27UB was in very god condition, but they are outdated.
The Engines are AL-31F.
Avionics suite was removed before the arrival to US.
 
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cantstopme82

New Member
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  • #3
Very possibly. I was hoping they were going to show up at a museum or an air show. Maybe eventually.

Had to run that thread to ground just in case it is a private owner...Wilmington is also where a private company that has air-worthy MIG-21 and MIG-23 operates out of.
 
Haavarla

Haavarla

Active Member
I could be wrong.. but who have ten million $.
And the service cost are VERY high, if they are meant to fly in any privat civillians hands..
Perhaps they will be used in some Hollywood production.;)

Seriously, there is something fishy going on here..
 
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cantstopme82

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If the government did buy them, they'll show up over the Nevada Desert at some point. Either that or some reporter will see them on a tour of some base - they've already let a few journalists and researchers onto Nellis Air Base to look at the MiGs used for training.

10 million is a lot of money but there's a couple thousand people who could afford it, especially if its for corporate or contracting use.

Plenty of Hollywood types could afford it, but for all their promotion of action movies, most have little interest in real war machines.
 
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cantstopme82

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Everyone is always trying to get their hands on the other guys' equipment, both to examine the technology for reverse-engineering or for training. Its much more effective training for your own aircraft if they can practice against what likely opponents will be using.

It went on all through the cold war. US and Allies offered $100,000 for any communist pilot to defect and bring their aircraft with them...they got a few MIG-15's that way. After the cold war, the US bought a few MiG-29s from Moldova. Officially this was to keep them from being sold to Iran, which may very well be true, but at the same time those Fulcrum's were put to use in training.
 
Y

youpii

New Member
Haavarla said:
I could be wrong.. but who have ten million $.
And the service cost are VERY high, if they are meant to fly in any privat civillians hands..
Perhaps they will be used in some Hollywood production.;)

Seriously, there is something fishy going on here..
Click to expand...
Maybe for Top Gun II... :)
 
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StephenBierce

New Member
Meridican Inc. appears to be a large consultancy/lobbying corporation. My guess is that one of the company big shots bought them and registered them as company assets for tax purposes.
 
Haavarla

Haavarla

Active Member
If i remember correctly, there was some spare parts that followed to Pride's deal.

But nevertheless, it makes no sense for USAF to keep these aircraft flying around for any aggressor purpose.
They will all too soon run out of spares.
 
ngatimozart

ngatimozart

Super Moderator
Staff member
Verified Defense Pro
cantstopme82 said:
If they're going to make another Top Gun with tom cruise, he'd be flying a MiG-15 Fagot.
Click to expand...
Jeez mate you've only made 5 posts and you've already managed to upset a moderator and a supermod to boot. Methinks you're up certain creek in a barb wire waka (canoe) without a paddle. A little decorum and some manners are kinda expected here.
 
BigShooter

BigShooter

New Member
StephenBierce said:
Meridican Inc. appears to be a large consultancy/lobbying corporation. My guess is that one of the company big shots bought them and registered them as company assets for tax purposes.
Click to expand...
Paul Allen from Microsoft bought a Mig 29 this year, so it is not an impossible theory. With all of Meridican's ties to the U.S. military, I would not be surprised if they are leasing them to the government or using them to develop a technology that they plan to sell to the United States.
 
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nealoc187

New Member
I've got some pictures of one of the Flankers from the Rockford Air Show 2 years ago before they were sold (or at least delivered) to Meridican. Also saw them flying a couple times over the west suburbs of Chicago (DeKalb area).
 
L

lucinator

New Member
Haavarla said:
Its a fake address.
Why all the cover up..
Those two Flankers belong to USAF now.
Pride's got a sweet deal, through some funny company and then re-sold em to USAF.
Those whereabouts are unknown.
And whats more strange, what to do with them...:confused:

Granted the two Su-27UB was in very god condition, but they are outdated.
The Engines are AL-31F.
Avionics suite was removed before the arrival to US.
Click to expand...
I've got to say that seems unlikely. Those fighters are out of date and several countries have already given the US government several flankers, with avionics and the works. Also deals like that are usually much more hush hush, with no or little paper trail.
 
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