Why the US Government won't sell off those surplus fighter aircraft
The US Government will not allow modern warplanes with FADEC (electronically controlled combustion) to be sold second hand into private ownership.
This means that the bad news is that you won't be able to get that F-16, F18,F-14 or F-15 you wanted as they will not be available second hand.
Engine Management Systems, FADEC
The fuel air mixture in the combustion chamber needs to be ignited at the correct moment to ensure efficient combustion and power generation by the engine. This is the job of the ignition system, be that the old fashion magneto of the good old days or a modern fully electronic microprocessor controlled FADEC system. For safety reasons the ignition system does not rely on the the aircraft electrical system and is dual and each system operates one of the two spark plugs in each cylinder.
Magneto ignition suffers from a number of problems which have long been resolved with vacuum, rpm and mechanical ignition advancing combined with memory mapped microprocessor controlled FADEC systems or sophisticated electronic ignitions.
A Full Authority Digital Engine Control (FADEC) comes to good use in combination with a fuel injection system, only then are the advantages available.
So how about something nearly as good.
There are several 1972 MCDONNELL DOUGLAS TA-4J - MILITARY available for sale.
Just US $2,000,000
Back to Index
Move to Top 
