Big Military Surplus Helicopter Sale Starts At $14,000
Andrew P Collins
Wednesday 7:55pmFiled to: Helicopters
http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/big-military-surplus-helicopter-sale-starts-at-14-000-1765288238 Big Military Surplus Helicopter Sale Starts At $14,000
“Some assembly required.” (Image: MOD Sales)
As the U.K.’s Royal Navy and Royal Air Force continue handing off search and rescue operations to private firms, they’re paring down their fleets of Sea King helicopters. Why buy a nice, running car when you could put a six-ton derelict helicopter on your lawn?
Forget That Old Surplus MiG, Someone Needs To Buy This Very Lightly Used Tornado F2A
It is always interesting to see what surplus military hardware ends up on the private market. While …
Read more
The choppers are being sold off by Witham Specialist Vehicles Limited, which hocks surplus equipment for the British Ministry Of Defense (MoD) just like GovPlanet does for the American military over here.
A fleet of about 30 Sea Kings, which can carry 27 people and lift about 5,000 pounds on slings, are now sitting at the unused Grantham airfield in conditions ranging from potentially-flyable to “lawn art only” according to the Telegraph.
But what lawn art! Witham’s Managing Director Paul Southerington says the “hulks” could be bought for £10,000 to £20,000 ($14,000 to $30,000) while “working” helicopters would be over $200,000.
So far it looks like they’ve only listed this three-pack of Sea King HC4 Commando MK 4 variants that were designed to run in the mountains of Afghanistan. You can buy them directly from military storage for £150,000 ($211,723.52) with all necessary paperwork, but you’ll have to provide your own engines to get them off the ground.
Apparently “more than 20" in the sale are airworthy, the bargain hunters will have to fight over the other ten. Witham has reported “a lot of interest,” and why not? Any piece of property would be improved dramatically with a dead helicopters plopped on it. One of these babies would make an epic guest house, man cave, smoking den, ect. And it’s all aluminum, so don’t sweat the rust!
Hat tip to James!
Andrew P Collinsandrew@jalopnik.com@andr3wcollins
Reply107 replies
Andrew P Collins’s Discussions
All replies
iCowboy
Andrew P Collins
3/16/16 8:12pm
That’d be Great Britain’s Royal Navy and Royal Air Force, not England’s Royal Navy and Royal Air Force.
There are plenty of people from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland serving alongside their English counterparts.
25
Reply5 replies
Andrew P Collins
iCowboy
3/16/16 9:34pm
Of course, fix’d.
3
Reply
SlabSheetrock
Andrew P Collins
3/16/16 8:14pm
Checkmate, Tavarish.
37
Reply4 replies
AWD_OWNZ_U
Andrew P Collins
3/16/16 8:27pm
The sales even includes a “Yellow Rose of Texas” edition! I assume that one is the most sought after.
