TU-95MS – Soviet Bomber

[Luc]

It took me only a few seconds to find on Google Maps: https://maps.google.com/maps?ll=46.921164,32.083704&spn=0.00...

Looks like it has a few siblings, so what you're getting is not as exclusive as you might think...

That explains the pictures on the eBay auction appearing to be from different fuselages - they actually are (the two rightmost ones on Google Maps).

EDIT: Hmmm, maybe not. Perhaps it's the same plane in different locations, I can't be sure.

[thearn4]

I found the source of the photo: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/27416195

Not convinced that the auction is legit.

By the way, the American version (military aviation graveyard) of this is pretty fun to look around at too:

https://www.google.com/maps/@32.1572109,-110.8374108,4128m/d...

[Evgeniuz]

Wow, this is my city! What you found is military airfield Kulbakine, it is functioning (I hear/see jet training flights from time to time).

[joshmlewis]

Do you have something that helps you search Google Maps or are you just good at doing it manually?

[neurotech1]

I see only two are actual Tu-95s intact and one more in pieces. The others are probably IL-76s.

It could be that only one is legally for sale.

[dav-]

How did you find this?

[etjossem]

I love the restrictions in Shipping and Handling:

"Ships worldwide. Excludes: Africa, Central America and Caribbean, Oceania, Southeast Asia, South America, Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan Republic, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Georgia, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russian Federation, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, Yemen, Bermuda, Mexico, Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Republic of, Cyprus, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Hungary, Latvia, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia."

[Flammy]

I scanned the list to see if North Korea was on there... its not. Great deal for aspiring dictators and human rights violators!

[kachnuv_ocasek]

I wonder why, for example, Slovakia and Hungary are excluded while Czechia and Poland are not.

[peeters]

An ad for a Soviet Bomber, with the description in Comic Sans, followed by a verbatim dump of the TU-95MS Wikipedia page.

But the seller has an excellent rating, so it's probably legit.

[darklajid]

And a German mobile number to contact for any questions you still have, even after reading the copy/pasted Wikipedia article, if you're really daft.

[United857]

"The airplane is not ready to fly. It is necessary to make a technical service and prolongation of the data limit."

Guessing something got lost in translation. In any case. as aircraft maintenance isn't my area, any idea how viable/costly it is to get airworthy? Could you even get spare parts anymore?

[TylerE]

Spare parts are probably attainable (there's a reason retired aircraft are mothballed rather than scrapped), and the major companies that the built the engines, etc, are still around.

Out of 500 or built ~60 are still in service. Getting parts as a civilian operator might be touchy though. It's probably being sold more as a museum piece.

In terms of doing a restoration Russian stuff is usually pretty viable since mechnically they're fairly straightfoward and rugged, and not much in the way of computers or microelectronics of any kind. Even with all that said, it would probably be a $10M+ (quite possibly +++) to get it airworthy again, and even if you did it would be very expensive. Fuel burn on those things is about 2000 gph, and Jet-A is currently ~$6/gal, so you're looking at $12k/hr just in fuel expenses. Maintenance will probably at least double that hourly figure.

[650REDHAIR]

I volunteered for an Air Force museum and even non-operational/replica parts were expensive and hard to find for aircraft. I would imagine getting this certified/flyable would cost nearly as much as the purchase price when the dust settles.

[Aloha]

its an open-ended question/answer, honestly.

[fiatmoney]

"Our partner in the Ukraine have acquired an aircraft..."

Seems legit.

[jedmeyers]

Yep, especially "THE Ukraine" part.

[nateberkopec]

The best part of this listing is that they accept "Cash in person".

[jackhammons]

"Our partner in the Ukraine have acquired an aircraft of type the TU-95"

Hopefully the auction ends before it's repossessed by its "original owners" who are closing in fast....

[trhway]

there is a reason why US and the others were rushing for Ukraine to give up its nuclear weapons 20 years ago :) See Lord of War too.

Interesting how recent developments continue to show the difference between how countries are treated when they have nuclear weapons vs. when they don't have, like North Korea vs. Iraq. Looking at Ukraine i wonder what Iran think :)

[staunch]

For anyone else who was curious: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contra-rotating_propellers

[the_af]

- Seller writes "u" and "dissamble" in "We can therefore dissamble the Plane so u can get one or all of the turbines exclusively"

- Price tag of US $3,000,000.

Well, I'm convinced. Here is my credit card!

[jdbevan]

Sorry, cash in person only.

[masklinn]

Did people raid the Poltava Museum of Long-Range Aviation? According to wikipedia it has the only Tu-95 in Ukraine (as well as a Tu-160, in case you want a supersonic strategic bomber)

[trhway]

on the former USSR territories it is called "privatization". Sooner or later it happens to anything there...

[vl]

Well, there are 3 Tu-95s on the Google Maps link in the top comment.

[izzydata]

Item specifics Condition: Used

Seemed funny to me.

[imadethis]

I too often buy military surplus hardware from ebay sites in Comic Sans.

[bovermyer]

If I bought this, I would totally convert it into a bar.

[Evgeniuz]

You can't beat museum opened inside a nuclear silo. And that one is 2-3 hours from where I live :)

[erobbins]

a good rule of thumb for warbirds is that however much it costs you to buy it is about how much it will cost you per year afterwards to keep it flying.

[allochthon]

I have a vague sense of playing Eve Online when I see a Soviet bomber for 3M on EBay.

[3327]

That is a fine piece of hardware. what would restoration cost? How do you even restore it ? spare parts, technicians on the Tu-95MS are probably not in ample supply.

[ChrisBland]

One main issue with owning aircraft like this is not the cost to get it ready to fly from its current state but maintaining it to fly. In the air-force you normally have large mechanic teams that are dedicated to the aircraft. As soon as it lands its taken to the hanger and the teams get to work on it. These are not your normal cessnas where you land, tie down, then come back a week later and throw gas in and go. As soon as these planes land, there is stuff that is broken or needs fixed/tuned each time. You will end up employing an entire team to keep this air worthy. This is the same issue you find with older migs for sale and why they are so cheap.

[Zikes]

I would imagine that as far as expertise goes, a seasoned mechanic in that field could work nearly as well with this aircraft as any other, much the same way our own expertise in computer hardware might translate across varying brands and models, gotchas and idiosyncrasies aside.

[fredgrott]

More info:

MS stands for Maritime Strike

http://www.ausairpower.net/APA-Bear.html

[trhway]

when Tu-95 were flying out on patrol in Atlantic, the US underwater listening stations (for submarines) installed on the Greenland-Iceland-Norway line were registering the planes too.

[nickmccann]

"The plane was manufactured in 1987 and has been flown 454 hours and 24 Minutes of the estimated 5000 hours it is capable off."

Anyone know why there is a 5000 hour limit?

[ars]

The aluminum skin and wings fatigue.

It's more a certain number of takeoff and landings rather than flight time. After that the metal is too weak and unsafe.

Each time the cabin pressure changes the skin moves. Each time it takes off or lands the wings flex. They probably flex during flight as well.

First link I found: http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2011/04/aircraft_fati...

[chiph]

The maintenance service costs at that number of flight hours probably exceeds it's economic value.

[hristov]

They are probably referring to the engines. Engines are rated in hours.

[edwhitesell]

Probably before the next round of maintenance.

[sswaner]

454 hours of flight time seems low for a military plane built in the 80's. That is not very many flights from the Soviet Union to off the U.S. coastline.

[Perdition]

Many Soviet vehicles and aircraft weren't of great build quality so they tended to have training vehicles that would be used by many crews until they fell apart, and vehicles reserved for combat.

This aircraft was built in '87, by which time the Soviet economy was in serious trouble and training was at reduced levels. The Bear always projected a scarier image than was reality.

[fredgrott]

there is a TU variant with swept wings, var geometry, and jet engines that replaced this plane that most Russian republics use