SU-27 FLANKER
First civillian owned and operated SU-27 Flanker, based at Rockford, Illinois (KRFD) owned by American Pride.
It made its first debut flight Dec. 10th 2009.
Track its flight here
flightaware.com/live/flight/N131SU
(For some reason, today’s flight track log, Dec. 16th 2009, it abruptly stops! Hopefully the flight made it ok and its a tracking glitch!)
Aww - now I’m going to start crying out of jealousy again! Someone tell me - I thought the FAA wouldn’t allow privately owned aircraft capable of breaking the sound barrier? And who/what is “American Pride”? How ironic is it that a company called American Pride is flying around over Chicago in a cold war era, Russian built fighter jet?
Okay, I found this article that explains it.
Basically, the aircraft are purchased by a quasi-US military group and American Pride/US Pride Air are outfitting them for US use. So, technically, they’re not really in civilian hands. Still, that would be really damn cool to see flying around.
en.rian.ru/world/20090512/121553649.html
MOSCOW, May 12 (RIA Novosti) - The United States has bought two Su-27 Flanker fighter jets to help train U.S. pilots to cope with the growing number of Russian 4th-generation aircraft sold around the globe, a U.S. online magazine said.
The two planes have been bought from a private Ukrainian company by the Reno-based Tac Air, which provides training and test support for the military.
The aircraft will also be used to test the effectiveness of new U.S. radars and electronic warfare equipment, the Strategy Page reported.
The 33-ton Su-27 is similar to the U.S. F-15, but costs some 30% less, the source said.
Su-27 fighters have been produced in Russia since 1982. They are still widely used in the Russian Air Force and are gradually undergoing maintenance repairs to extend their service life.
The Su-27 Flanker and its variant, the Su-30 Flanker C, account for a major share of Russia’s arms exports. In the past, Russia’s Sukhoi aircraft maker sold Su-27 and Su-30 fighters to China, India, Malaysia, Venezuela and Algeria.
In 2007, Sukhoi exported 50 of these aircraft, accounting for 50% of Rosoboronexport’s export revenues.
According to U.S. sources, the two aircraft, which have been acquired in a commercial variant, stripped of weaponry, are being overhauled and modified by the U.S. Pride Air company.
Wisertime07 - Thanks for posting that info. I wasn’t able to find it, and I was not sure on the complete details of it. So i did not want to post inaccurate stuff.
I don’t know if that is good or bad.
No problem frey. I was really interested in how to get one of those through anyway - now we both know!
Plus, through the link I posted, I found a weird article about these mysterious “green dogs” that somehow turned green by eating something from an illegal dump in Russia. Did anyone else see that??
N131SU photo by David Jacobson/AirshowStuff
By the way, it’s currently listed for sale for $4.950.000 Million usd