iStockphoto / DigtialStorm
A private aircraft sales and leasing company out of Palm Beach, Florida, is selling a fully functioning F-16 A/B Fighting Falcon. Now you can be Maverick IRL and live out your Top Gun dreams (Before you get bent out of shape, I know that Tom Cruise’s character flew an F-14A Tomcat in the movie).
JetLease is the self-proclaimed “largest private aircraft leasing company in the world” and has offices in Miami, Cincinnati, Detroit, New York Scottsdale, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Panama, Venezuela, Brazil, Germany, Saudi Arabia, and China. Their Palm Beach, Florida, sales office has a particularly eye-popping aircraft for sale – a fully functioning F-16 A/B Fighting Falcon.
The listing from JetLease features the 1980 multirole fighter jet and you can snag this F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter for the price of $8.5 million. I mean that you’re getting a military jet fighter. A new model from 1998 would cost $14.6 million.
This jet fighter is the real deal, it is not a demilitarized model, it is a fully functioning combat aircraft. How handy would it be to have an F-16 in your driveway? Your neighbors aren’t messing with you and they aren’t letting their dogs take a dump on your yard.
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The aircraft can reach a maximum speed of Mach 2.05, which means you can fly from New York City to Los Angeles in under two hours. The F-16 A/B Fighting Falcon has a maximum range of 2,400 miles and an initial climb rate of 62,000 feet per minute.
This F-16 is a 1980 model with 6,000 hours flown and is rated for flying at least another 8,000 hours. The older warplane has been updated with modern enhancements such as Link 16 data network, GPS-controlled weapons, a Joint Helmet Mounted/Cueing System (JHMCS) and night-vision compatible helmets.
JetLease purchased the F-16 from Jordan, which acquired dozens of secondhand F-16s from NATO allies Belgium and the Netherlands between 2008 and 2017.
According to The Drive, the sale of military planes such as this is overseen by the State Department: “The buyers must comply with and successfully navigate the strict ITARS (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) rules surrounding acquiring and operating a weapon system like an F-16, which keeps these planes out of the hands of those who shouldn’t be able to pull them apart, let alone fly them.”
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If you do purchase this beauty of an aircraft, make sure you have some reserve funds in the bank because the F-16 has HOURLY operating costs of around $8,000.
If you want to start your own Top Gun fighter jet training school or have your own air force, JetLease also has two F-16 Vipers for sale. Wanna go halfsies on one of these jet fighters?
[TheDrive]