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Albania offers collectors its Communist-era airborne glory

Rogue Valley

Rogue Valley

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[url="http://www.stripes.com/news/europe/albania-offers-collectors-its-communist-era-airborne-glory-1.397788']Albania offers collectors its Communist-era airborne glory[/url]

Now a NATO member, Albania is auctioning off 40 Soviet era MiG-17 and MiG-19 jets. The hope is that collectors will purchase these for restoration projects. Bids start at $8,600-$14,800. Albania currently has not even one modern fighter jet ... its air force consists of a handful of helicopters.

Which reminds me, outside the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporozhye (820,000) is a Soviet aircraft boneyard. There must be over a hundred Soviet era jets huddled there plus several hundred old Soviet helicopters. Just outside another Ukrainian city, Kharkiv (1,470,902) is a deserted factory where they used to make Soviet era tanks. There must be 500+ tanks in various degree of disrepair parked on the premises. I've walked the grounds of the jet boneyard and the deserted tank factory. Extraordinary.
 
Simpleχity;1065641897 said:
[url="http://www.stripes.com/news/europe/albania-offers-collectors-its-communist-era-airborne-glory-1.397788']Albania offers collectors its Communist-era airborne glory[/url]

Now a NATO member, Albania is auctioning off 40 Soviet era MiG-17 and MiG-19 jets. The hope is that collectors will purchase these for restoration projects. Bids start at $8,600-$14,800. Albania currently has not even one modern fighter jet ... its air force consists of a handful of helicopters.

Which reminds me, outside the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporozhye (820,000) is a Soviet aircraft boneyard. There must be over a hundred Soviet era jets huddled there plus several hundred old Soviet helicopters. Just outside another Ukrainian city, Kharkiv (1,470,902) is a deserted factory where they used to make Soviet era tanks. There must be 500+ tanks in various degree of disrepair parked on the premises. I've walked the grounds of the jet boneyard and the deserted tank factory. Extraordinary.
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I want to go to Zaporozhye just to get something that says Zaporozhye on it.
 
Me want MIG!!!!!
The idea of flying one of these aircraft is really really exciting.
Unfortunately the costs of repairing, maintaining them will be orders of magnitude greater than the purchase costs.
heck the fuel costs will qucikly be higher than the purchase costs.
But to dream! oh to dream!

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, --and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of --Wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air...
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark or even eagle flew --
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
 
Harry Guerrilla said:
I want to go to Zaporozhye just to get something that says Zaporozhye on it.
Click to expand...
For those who speak neither Ukrainian nor Russian, I'd recommend the Four Points Sheraton Hotel. European service, boasts every amenity, is close to the Dneiper River, and the staff speaks English.

hotel.jpg

Four Points Hotel in Zaporozhye, Ukraine
 
This is nothing new, old Soviet equipment has been in the hands of civilian collectors for decades now.

And these aircraft are literally antiques, Korean War era equipment.

In fact, the only nation on the planet that still uses these in active service is North Korea, Madagascar, Mali, and China (as a trainer).
 
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