Military Planes for Sale

However, it is prohibited to purchase Military Aeroplanes, i.e. those fitted with either in-house or outside weaponry, military missile system such as fire guidance radar, FLIR/Designators, combat electronics, progressive power units, or any other kind of piece of equipment or system with military safety classification or associated ITAR limitations.

The sale of weaponries such as this will require the consent of Congress, although one might oddly enough claim that these limitations contravene the second amendment to the Constitution. This is why the United States has recently stopped selling and importing military excess jets. However, there are still product sells.

Recently I have seen advertisements for the sale of Panavia Tornado ADV planes which the UK is reselling to the highest bids. UPDATE -A remarkable case of a civilian trying to earn a military plane that attracted international acclaim was the Pepsi Bottling Company. The focus was on the following TV commercials for their Pepsi Points advertising campaigns.

It turned out that these "Pepsi points" could be exchanged on the open markets at that point in price (as distinct from the extra expense of purchasing Pepsi items for them), at $0.10/point. A John Leonard fund invested $700,000 to purchase the necessary 7,000,000,000 Pepsi points, then sent them to PepsiCo in exchange for a Harrier on the grounds that PepsiCo had made an offering in the ad.

and Leonard would sue. Leonard v. PepsiCo's court decided that this was not a lawful offering within the meaning of contractual rights and that the advertisement merely described the Harrier as a farce. Subsequent releases of the ad included the cost of the jets modified to 700,000,000,000 Pepsi points for additional quenching.

The Hollywood-manufacturer Donald Bellesario tried to buy a flying F-14; the sale was rejected. Some airplanes still make their way through the red tape and end up in civil hands. That' why the airplanes are still in use.