±Recent Visitors

Recent Visitors to Com-Central!

±User Info-big


Welcome Anonymous

Nickname
Password

Membership:
Latest: cgsimpson
New Today: 0
New Yesterday: 0
Overall: 6645

People Online:
Members: 0
Visitors: 791
Total: 791
Who Is Where:
 Visitors:
01: Community Forums
02: Photo Gallery
03: Photo Gallery
04: Community Forums
05: Statistics
06: Community Forums
07: Community Forums
08: Photo Gallery
09: Community Forums
10: Community Forums
11: Community Forums
12: Community Forums
13: Community Forums
14: Community Forums
15: Community Forums
16: Community Forums
17: Community Forums
18: Community Forums
19: Photo Gallery
20: Community Forums
21: Your Account
22: Home
23: Community Forums
24: Photo Gallery
25: Community Forums
26: Community Forums
27: Community Forums
28: Community Forums
29: Community Forums
30: Photo Gallery
31: Community Forums
32: Community Forums
33: Community Forums
34: Photo Gallery
35: Community Forums
36: Community Forums
37: Home
38: Community Forums
39: Community Forums
40: Community Forums
41: Community Forums
42: Photo Gallery
43: Community Forums
44: Community Forums
45: Community Forums
46: Photo Gallery
47: Community Forums
48: Community Forums
49: Home
50: Community Forums
51: Community Forums
52: Community Forums
53: Community Forums
54: Community Forums
55: Community Forums
56: Community Forums
57: Community Forums
58: News
59: Community Forums
60: Community Forums
61: Community Forums
62: Community Forums
63: Community Forums
64: Community Forums
65: Community Forums
66: Community Forums
67: Community Forums
68: Community Forums
69: Community Forums
70: CPGlang
71: Community Forums
72: Contact
73: Community Forums
74: Community Forums
75: Community Forums
76: Home
77: Community Forums
78: Community Forums
79: Community Forums
80: Home
81: Community Forums
82: Community Forums
83: Community Forums
84: Community Forums
85: Community Forums
86: Community Forums
87: Home
88: Community Forums
89: Community Forums
90: Photo Gallery
91: Community Forums
92: Photo Gallery
93: Community Forums
94: Home
95: Community Forums
96: Community Forums
97: Community Forums
98: Community Forums
99: Statistics
100: Community Forums
101: Community Forums
102: Photo Gallery
103: Community Forums
104: Community Forums
105: Photo Gallery
106: Community Forums
107: Community Forums
108: Home
109: Downloads
110: News
111: Community Forums
112: Community Forums
113: Community Forums
114: Community Forums
115: Home
116: Community Forums
117: Photo Gallery
118: Community Forums
119: Your Account
120: Community Forums
121: Community Forums
122: Member Screenshots
123: Community Forums
124: Community Forums
125: Home
126: Community Forums
127: Community Forums
128: Community Forums
129: Community Forums
130: Community Forums
131: Community Forums
132: Home
133: Community Forums
134: Community Forums
135: Community Forums
136: Community Forums
137: Statistics
138: Community Forums
139: Community Forums
140: Photo Gallery
141: Downloads
142: Statistics
143: Community Forums
144: CPGlang
145: Your Account
146: Community Forums
147: Community Forums
148: News Archive
149: Community Forums
150: Home
151: Community Forums
152: Photo Gallery
153: Community Forums
154: Your Account
155: CPGlang
156: Community Forums
157: Community Forums
158: Community Forums
159: Community Forums
160: Community Forums
161: Community Forums
162: Photo Gallery
163: Home
164: Home
165: Community Forums
166: Photo Gallery
167: Community Forums
168: Photo Gallery
169: Community Forums
170: Photo Gallery
171: Photo Gallery
172: Photo Gallery
173: Community Forums
174: Community Forums
175: Photo Gallery
176: Community Forums
177: Community Forums
178: Home
179: Community Forums
180: Search
181: Community Forums
182: Community Forums
183: Community Forums
184: Community Forums
185: Community Forums
186: Community Forums
187: Community Forums
188: Photo Gallery
189: Community Forums
190: Downloads
191: Community Forums
192: Community Forums
193: Community Forums
194: Photo Gallery
195: Community Forums
196: Community Forums
197: Photo Gallery
198: Community Forums
199: Photo Gallery
200: Community Forums
201: Community Forums
202: Home
203: Community Forums
204: Community Forums
205: Community Forums
206: News
207: Home
208: Community Forums
209: Community Forums
210: Community Forums
211: Community Forums
212: Photo Gallery
213: Community Forums
214: Community Forums
215: Downloads
216: Community Forums
217: Member Screenshots
218: Community Forums
219: Community Forums
220: Community Forums
221: Community Forums
222: Community Forums
223: Community Forums
224: Community Forums
225: CPGlang
226: Photo Gallery
227: Community Forums
228: Community Forums
229: Community Forums
230: Photo Gallery
231: Home
232: Community Forums
233: Photo Gallery
234: Photo Gallery
235: CPGlang
236: Community Forums
237: Community Forums
238: Community Forums
239: Community Forums
240: Community Forums
241: Community Forums
242: Community Forums
243: Community Forums
244: News
245: Community Forums
246: Community Forums
247: Community Forums
248: Community Forums
249: Community Forums
250: Community Forums
251: Community Forums
252: Community Forums
253: Community Forums
254: Home
255: Community Forums
256: Home
257: Member Screenshots
258: Community Forums
259: Community Forums
260: Community Forums
261: Community Forums
262: Community Forums
263: Community Forums
264: Home
265: Photo Gallery
266: Photo Gallery
267: Community Forums
268: Photo Gallery
269: Photo Gallery
270: Downloads
271: Community Forums
272: Community Forums
273: Photo Gallery
274: Community Forums
275: Home
276: Community Forums
277: News
278: Community Forums
279: Community Forums
280: Home
281: Photo Gallery
282: Community Forums
283: Community Forums
284: Community Forums
285: Community Forums
286: Downloads
287: Community Forums
288: Community Forums
289: Community Forums
290: Community Forums
291: Community Forums
292: Community Forums
293: Community Forums
294: Community Forums
295: Member Screenshots
296: Community Forums
297: Community Forums
298: Community Forums
299: Community Forums
300: Community Forums
301: News Archive
302: Downloads
303: Community Forums
304: Community Forums
305: Community Forums
306: Member Screenshots
307: Home
308: Photo Gallery
309: Community Forums
310: Community Forums
311: CPGlang
312: Home
313: Home
314: Community Forums
315: Community Forums
316: Community Forums
317: Community Forums
318: Community Forums
319: Photo Gallery
320: Photo Gallery
321: Community Forums
322: Community Forums
323: Downloads
324: Community Forums
325: Home
326: Community Forums
327: Member Screenshots
328: Your Account
329: Photo Gallery
330: Community Forums
331: Home
332: Photo Gallery
333: Photo Gallery
334: Photo Gallery
335: Community Forums
336: Community Forums
337: Community Forums
338: Community Forums
339: Community Forums
340: Community Forums
341: Community Forums
342: Your Account
343: Community Forums
344: Your Account
345: Community Forums
346: Statistics
347: Community Forums
348: Home
349: Community Forums
350: Community Forums
351: Community Forums
352: Community Forums
353: Community Forums
354: Community Forums
355: Community Forums
356: Photo Gallery
357: Community Forums
358: Community Forums
359: Community Forums
360: Community Forums
361: Community Forums
362: Photo Gallery
363: Photo Gallery
364: CPGlang
365: Community Forums
366: Community Forums
367: CPGlang
368: Home
369: Photo Gallery
370: Community Forums
371: Community Forums
372: Community Forums
373: Community Forums
374: Community Forums
375: Community Forums
376: Photo Gallery
377: Community Forums
378: CPGlang
379: Community Forums
380: Community Forums
381: Community Forums
382: CPGlang
383: Downloads
384: Community Forums
385: Community Forums
386: Community Forums
387: Community Forums
388: Community Forums
389: Photo Gallery
390: Community Forums
391: Community Forums
392: Community Forums
393: Community Forums
394: Community Forums
395: CPGlang
396: Photo Gallery
397: Downloads
398: Statistics
399: Community Forums
400: Photo Gallery
401: Community Forums
402: Photo Gallery
403: Community Forums
404: Downloads
405: Photo Gallery
406: Community Forums
407: Community Forums
408: Community Forums
409: Home
410: Home
411: Community Forums
412: Member Screenshots
413: Home
414: Community Forums
415: Community Forums
416: Home
417: Community Forums
418: Community Forums
419: Contact
420: Community Forums
421: Community Forums
422: Community Forums
423: Photo Gallery
424: Community Forums
425: Community Forums
426: News Archive
427: Photo Gallery
428: Community Forums
429: Photo Gallery
430: Community Forums
431: Photo Gallery
432: Community Forums
433: Photo Gallery
434: Home
435: CPGlang
436: Photo Gallery
437: Community Forums
438: News Archive
439: Photo Gallery
440: Community Forums
441: Community Forums
442: Community Forums
443: Downloads
444: Community Forums
445: Community Forums
446: Photo Gallery
447: Downloads
448: Community Forums
449: Home
450: Your Account
451: Photo Gallery
452: Downloads
453: Home
454: Photo Gallery
455: Community Forums
456: Community Forums
457: Community Forums
458: Community Forums
459: Photo Gallery
460: Community Forums
461: Downloads
462: Community Forums
463: Photo Gallery
464: Home
465: Community Forums
466: Community Forums
467: Community Forums
468: Community Forums
469: Community Forums
470: Photo Gallery
471: Home
472: Community Forums
473: Community Forums
474: Community Forums
475: Home
476: Community Forums
477: Home
478: Community Forums
479: Photo Gallery
480: Community Forums
481: Community Forums
482: Member Screenshots
483: Community Forums
484: Community Forums
485: Community Forums
486: Community Forums
487: Community Forums
488: Community Forums
489: Photo Gallery
490: Community Forums
491: Community Forums
492: Community Forums
493: Community Forums
494: Photo Gallery
495: Your Account
496: Community Forums
497: Community Forums
498: Community Forums
499: Photo Gallery
500: Home
501: Community Forums
502: Community Forums
503: Community Forums
504: Community Forums
505: Home
506: Community Forums
507: Community Forums
508: Community Forums
509: Photo Gallery
510: Photo Gallery
511: Community Forums
512: Community Forums
513: Community Forums
514: Photo Gallery
515: Community Forums
516: Community Forums
517: Your Account
518: CPGlang
519: Member Screenshots
520: Home
521: Home
522: Community Forums
523: Community Forums
524: Community Forums
525: Community Forums
526: Community Forums
527: Community Forums
528: Member Screenshots
529: Community Forums
530: Community Forums
531: Community Forums
532: Community Forums
533: Home
534: Photo Gallery
535: Community Forums
536: CPGlang
537: Community Forums
538: Member Screenshots
539: Downloads
540: Community Forums
541: Home
542: Home
543: Community Forums
544: Photo Gallery
545: Home
546: Community Forums
547: Search
548: Photo Gallery
549: Community Forums
550: Photo Gallery
551: Community Forums
552: Community Forums
553: CPGlang
554: Community Forums
555: Community Forums
556: Downloads
557: Photo Gallery
558: Member Screenshots
559: Community Forums
560: Photo Gallery
561: Community Forums
562: Community Forums
563: Community Forums
564: Community Forums
565: CPGlang
566: Community Forums
567: Photo Gallery
568: Community Forums
569: Photo Gallery
570: Downloads
571: Community Forums
572: Community Forums
573: Your Account
574: Community Forums
575: Community Forums
576: Community Forums
577: Photo Gallery
578: CPGlang
579: Photo Gallery
580: Home
581: Community Forums
582: Photo Gallery
583: Downloads
584: Photo Gallery
585: Home
586: Photo Gallery
587: Community Forums
588: Member Screenshots
589: Community Forums
590: Your Account
591: Photo Gallery
592: Community Forums
593: Community Forums
594: Community Forums
595: Community Forums
596: Community Forums
597: Home
598: Community Forums
599: Photo Gallery
600: Community Forums
601: Community Forums
602: Community Forums
603: Community Forums
604: Community Forums
605: Community Forums
606: Photo Gallery
607: Community Forums
608: Community Forums
609: Community Forums
610: Community Forums
611: CPGlang
612: Community Forums
613: Community Forums
614: Community Forums
615: Home
616: Downloads
617: Community Forums
618: Community Forums
619: Downloads
620: Community Forums
621: Community Forums
622: Community Forums
623: Community Forums
624: Photo Gallery
625: Your Account
626: Community Forums
627: Photo Gallery
628: Photo Gallery
629: Community Forums
630: News
631: Photo Gallery
632: Community Forums
633: Photo Gallery
634: Community Forums
635: Community Forums
636: Community Forums
637: Photo Gallery
638: Downloads
639: Member Screenshots
640: Community Forums
641: Home
642: Community Forums
643: CPGlang
644: Downloads
645: Community Forums
646: Community Forums
647: Community Forums
648: CPGlang
649: Downloads
650: Home
651: Photo Gallery
652: Statistics
653: Community Forums
654: Community Forums
655: Community Forums
656: Community Forums
657: Home
658: Community Forums
659: Community Forums
660: Downloads
661: Photo Gallery
662: Community Forums
663: Home
664: Community Forums
665: Your Account
666: Photo Gallery
667: Photo Gallery
668: Community Forums
669: Photo Gallery
670: Community Forums
671: Community Forums
672: CPGlang
673: Community Forums
674: Photo Gallery
675: Community Forums
676: Community Forums
677: Community Forums
678: Photo Gallery
679: Community Forums
680: Community Forums
681: Community Forums
682: Photo Gallery
683: Community Forums
684: News
685: CPGlang
686: Home
687: CPGlang
688: Photo Gallery
689: Community Forums
690: Downloads
691: Community Forums
692: Home
693: Community Forums
694: Community Forums
695: Photo Gallery
696: Home
697: Photo Gallery
698: Photo Gallery
699: Downloads
700: Community Forums
701: Community Forums
702: Community Forums
703: Community Forums
704: Community Forums
705: Photo Gallery
706: Statistics
707: Community Forums
708: Community Forums
709: News Archive
710: Community Forums
711: Community Forums
712: Community Forums
713: Community Forums
714: Community Forums
715: Home
716: Photo Gallery
717: Photo Gallery
718: CPGlang
719: Downloads
720: Community Forums
721: Community Forums
722: Community Forums
723: Community Forums
724: Home
725: Member Screenshots
726: Photo Gallery
727: CPGlang
728: Home
729: News
730: Photo Gallery
731: Home
732: Community Forums
733: Community Forums
734: Photo Gallery
735: Community Forums
736: Community Forums
737: CPGlang
738: Community Forums
739: Community Forums
740: Community Forums
741: Community Forums
742: Community Forums
743: Photo Gallery
744: Photo Gallery
745: Community Forums
746: Community Forums
747: News
748: Community Forums
749: Member Screenshots
750: Community Forums
751: Home
752: CPGlang
753: Community Forums
754: Community Forums
755: Statistics
756: Member Screenshots
757: News
758: Community Forums
759: News Archive
760: Community Forums
761: Photo Gallery
762: Home
763: Your Account
764: CPGlang
765: Photo Gallery
766: Community Forums
767: Community Forums
768: Statistics
769: Community Forums
770: Community Forums
771: Community Forums
772: Home
773: Community Forums
774: Community Forums
775: Photo Gallery
776: Community Forums
777: Community Forums
778: Home
779: Community Forums
780: Downloads
781: Home
782: Photo Gallery
783: Community Forums
784: News
785: Home
786: Community Forums
787: Downloads
788: Community Forums
789: Community Forums
790: Community Forums
791: Community Forums

Staff Online:

No staff members are online!
Building Your Own Air Force, One Mig at a Time :: Archived
A general meeting place for all pilots!
Post new topic    Revive this topic    Printer Friendly Page     Forum Index ›  Officer's Club

Topic Archived View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Uhu_Fledermaus
Aircraft Demolition Expert

Offline Offline
Joined: Nov 28, 2004
Posts: 4369
Location: Blaricum, The Netherlands ~GMT+1
PostPosted: Thu Sep 29, 2005 2:00 pm
Post subject: Building Your Own Air Force, One Mig at a Time

A lil' story I stumbled over roaming the web

Building Your Own Air Force, One Mig at a Time

How a supersonic speed freak snuck Soviet fighters out of Kyrgyzstan and started flying "enemy" jets for the Pentagon.

In a cavernous airplane hangar in Quincy, Illinois, two hours south of Chicago, Don Kirlin paces beneath the gold hammer and sickle of a large Soviet flag. Around him are the military bulwarks of the once-formidable Evil Empire: four Czech Aero Vodochody L-59 Super Albatross fighter jets, perched in two rows. In another Kirlin hangar next door sits a Soviet MiG-21 Mongol, the bane of US pilots in Vietnam. Outside, on the flight line, are seven Czech L-39s, still bearing red Communist stars. And just beyond them, almost invisible in dusky-gray and sky-blue paint, two MiG-29 Fulcrums. The pride of the hallowed -Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau, the Russian equivalent of Lockheed Martin, the Fulcrum has a top speed of Mach 2.4 - hundreds of miles per hour faster than an American F-16 Eagle or F/A-18 Hornet - and remains one of Russia's preeminent fighters.

A decade ago, only sovereign nations could afford to buy and maintain sophisticated, high-performance fighters. But Kirlin's unmarked hangars contain an air force more formidable than that of many countries. He has 30 jets in flying condition, 10 in line for maintenance, and dozens more to be delivered. His MiG-29 Fulcrums, designed in the late 1970s to go head-to-head with the hottest US planes, are the only privately owned Fulcrums in the world. Kirlin breaks into a big smile whenever he looks at them.

"Check this out," Kirlin says, leading me into a back room and opening a steel cabinet. He takes out a white cotton bag. Inside it is a pilot's helmet that connects to the plane's laser-guided tracking system. The result: A MiG-29 pilot can precisely target a missile just by looking in a certain direction. Federal regulations require all military equipment owned by civilians to be disabled, but somehow - "Can't tell you," Kirlin says - the Fulcrum's radar weapons systems are intact. The plane is no match for a US fighter's sophisticated avionics in an encounter beyond visual range. But if it can survive long enough to come within view of that fighter, the MiG-29's ability to fly at high angles of attack becomes a distinct advantage - and where the pilot's eyes aim, so does its weapon.

Kirlin's collection began as a rich man's game to own the baddest toys money can buy. Then he realized there were others who coveted the planes as much as he did. So he started a business, Air USA, to sell L-39s to doctors and executives looking for a nifty flying sports car with twin ejection seats, capable of aerobic loops and rolls and approaching the speed of sound. As Kirlin puts it, why plod about at 120 mph in a $300,000 Cessna when you can fly four times as fast in an L-39 that costs the same and looks a hundred times sexier? "Look at this," he says, whipping open the forward avionics bay in the nose of an L-39. "We strip out the old stuff, put in light American avionics, save 800 pounds, and there's enough room for a set of golf clubs!" Built to fly in and out of dirt airstrips throughout the Soviet empire, the L-39 is so sturdy, Kirlin says, "This is the only tactical jet fighter that you could - if the Federal Aviation Administration would let you - land right on the golf course, play a round, and then head home! How cool is that?"

Cool enough - but Kirlin had even bigger ideas. In the past few years, he has built an entirely new and booming business hiring out his fighter jets and pilots to the US gov-ernment for training exercises. The Navy deactivated its last full-time adversary squadron in 1996 amid shrinking defense budgets and aging aircraft, even as training demands increased. And there was Kirlin, sitting on all those former Eastern bloc fighters maintained by factory-trained mechanics. So the Navy came calling. "Iraq was flying three kinds of plane when we invaded," he says. "The L-39, the MiG-21, and the MiG-29, which are three of the four airplanes that Air USA owns." Now Navy fighter jocks train against Kirlin pilots flying Kirlin planes. With 16 aircraft available for Navy exercises, Kirlin has more fighters in the air than any of the four other companies currently flying for the Pentagon.

Kirlin owes his operation to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the elegant crudeness of its technology. "When the Soviets built an airplane, they intended it to serve for 50 years, maintained in the middle of nowhere by a kid who could barely read, using a tool kit not much bigger than a box of fishing tackle." By comparison, he explains, a US warplane is designed around one parameter - performance. Price and complexity are barely considered. "All Americans want is a thoroughbred, but the Russians, they want quarter horses. And lots of 'em. Their whole design philosophy is based on simplicity and reliability."

As an example, Kirlin rattles off the L-39's features: efficient turbo fan engines that need little maintenance and can fly for three hours on a single tank of gas; mechanical flight controls; heavy-duty landing gear and tires for takeoff and landing on unimproved dirt airstrips. Nearly 3,000 were built throughout the 1980s and 1990s, making them modern and plentiful, with an abundance of spare parts - the perfect aircraft, as it turned out, to dependably and profitably challenge the US military.

As Kirlin is talking, two men who look like they've been sent over by a Hollywood casting agent walk into the hangar. Tom Leonard and Pete Pettigrew are both in their early sixties, lean and 6 feet tall, with short silver hair. Pettigrew is a retired Navy Reserve rear admiral with 20,000 cockpit hours and a kill on a MiG-21 over Vietnam in 1972. Leonard is a retired lieutenant colonel and Navy Top Gun graduate. Both are just in from San Diego. Tomorrow they'll fly back in two of Kirlin's L-59s for 10 days of offshore operations against the aircraft carrier Vinson and its battle group. Kirlin employs a cadre of 20 similarly experienced former fighter jocks, including himself.

Some of what his air force does can be mundane - towing targets on 10,000 feet of cable for other jets to shoot down, for example - but increasingly his pilots are being called upon to pierce the air defenses of Navy aircraft carrier battle groups. The scenarios vary, but typically Kirlin's birdsdive toward the carriers from 25,000 feet up and 200 miles out, pretending either to be incoming missiles or enemy fighters. "Gone are the days and tactics of the movie Top Gun, where you had to turn and burn and get behind 'em to shoot 'em down," says Eric Petersen, adversary requirements officer at the Naval Air Forces Headquarters in San Diego. "Now we want to ID someone from 10 miles out and shoot them down before they even see us. But there are 50 different kinds of radar out there, and bandits with different radar signatures. It's getting really complex for pilots trying to figure out which plane and radar is what." Kirlin's planes can simulate those signatures. And a carrier has to be able to identify those fighters and scramble its jets off the deck within a few minutes. But at first, Petersen says, "we found our pilots a lot less ready than we thought they were." The realistic scenarios staged by Kirlin and his pilots help. "When it's a foreign aircraft like the L-59," he adds, "it's much more intense, believable, and challenging."

The Navy paid Kirlin $840,000 for 200 hours of flight time in 2004. This year, says Petersen, Kirlin is already "way beyond that." Even at that price it's a bargain, he insists. "Military assets are programmed to last a certain period of time, so why not use theirs for less challenging missions and save ours for the war?" As Air USA pilot Leonard puts it, "We show up, do the job, and go away."

Kirlin imported his first plane in 1994 as the Soviet empire was crumbling, after he spotted a photo of an L-39 in an aviation magazine. At the time, he was working as a US Airways 737 captain, though as heir to the world's largest chain of Hallmark greeting card stores he certainly didn't need the job. Kirlin likes powerful machines - he roars around Quincy in a restored 1967 Corvette convertible - and the notion of obtaining his very own high--performance war machine grabbed him and wouldn't let go. "Here was a sexy-looking, late-model current--production fighter that could go eight-tenths as fast as sound," he says. "I said, 'I'm going on a quest to get one.'"

So Don Kirlin moved to Kyrgyzstan.

Once he sets his mind to a goal, he's relentless. He soloed his first plane at 16, instructed at 18, and began flying corporate jets three years later. He flew in the Navy, got twin bachelor degrees in business and clinical psychology, and then an MBA, all from the University of Northern Colorado, and moved on to US Airways. In 1993, he asked the FAA to let him parachute from the rear stairway of a Boeing 727, like the infamous skyjacker D. B. Cooper, who disappeared over the Cascades with $200,000 in 1971. Kirlin shrugs his shoulders and grins. "I just wanted to do it because the only other person to do it was Cooper," he says. The FAA said no, unless he could prove unequivocally it was safe. A year later, he presented 6,500 pages of documents to the agency. He remains to this day the only person authorized to operate jumps out of the rear door of a 727.

So it wasn't all that surprising when in 1994 Kirlin got on an airplane bound for the poor, mountainous country tucked between China, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. Kirlin learned Kyrgyzstan was awash in planes that it couldn't afford to fly, many having logged little flight time. "It was a former USSR training base, and I heard they had the most -corrosion-free airplanes in all of the republics," he says. He bedded down in Bishkek, hired an interpreter, and got busy. It took six months and plenty of vodka-fueled banquets. "Their first answer was always 'No, it's not possible,'" he says. "When I said I wanted to buy former Soviet military hardware so people in America could fly them around as toys, they couldn't believe that I wasn't a spy for the US government! But it just takes infinite patience and money. You have to immerse yourself in their lives and get them to trust you."

After his first L-39, Kirlin wanted more. More altitude. More performance. More bragging rights. Another eight L-39s followed within a year, and then two MiG-21s (one of which was subsequently destroyed in a crash that killed the pilot). But people like Kirlin who worship at the altar of high g forces are never satisfied as long as there's some-thing faster out there. And there was: Kyrgyzstan, Kirlin heard, might have a MiG-29 or two hidden away.

"It's a mechanical meat-and-potatoes airplane," he says, leading me onto the flight line where the two Fulcrums sit. But powerful and deadly all the same. "It can take off and head straight up and accelerate through the sound barrier to 48,000 feet in 60 seconds!" he says, nearly jumping out of his ostrich-skin cowboy boots. "Once I heard those numbers I just had to become the only person to own the biggest, baddest, fastest machine in the world. Me, chasing the clouds in the purest power machine out there. I had to have one."

Wanting one and getting one were two very different things. For starters, the Kyrgyzstanis insisted that they didn't have any MiG-29s. "'Well, if they did exist,'" Kirlin recalls asking, "'what do you think they'd be worth?'" In late 1994, after months of negotiations with the ministry of defense, military officers led him to an underground bunker at an airfield in Bishkek, where they showed him two Fulcrums in surprisingly mint condition.

"They were beautiful," he says. One had flown only 40 hours, the other 110. The bargaining continued for another two years, with Kirlin shuttling in and out frequently for sometimes tense negotiations involving large amounts of cash. "You sit with your briefcase between your back and the back of the chair. You're 1,800 miles from Moscow, and they could kill you any second."

It took two more years to complete the deal, for a sum he won't even ballpark (Russia sold MiG-29s to Malaysia and Peru in 1995 for nearly $16 million apiece). "All cash," Kirlin says, pawing through a box of photos in his spartan office overlooking the hangar. He pulls out shots of him eyeing the two warbirds, surrounded by guys in uniform. "It was the beginning of a dream that turned into a nightmare."

Kirlin and his crew dismantled the Fulcrums and packed them in custom-made steel crates with covers of rough-hewn wood labeled as farm implements. They even built a bridge across a river at the back of the base so they could be towed to the train station. Then something went wrong. Kirlin is coy about exactly what - it seems that the money didn't get where it was supposed to. Suddenly he was unwelcome in Kyrgyzstan. With nothing but the clothes on his back, his passport, and his bankroll, Kirlin shelled out $1,000 to be driven in the trunk of a car from Bishkek across the border to Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Meanwhile, the airplanes, loaded on a flatbed railway car and escorted by Kirlin's men, were sent to P'ot'i, Georgia, where they were supposed to be transferred to a ship. Instead, the government of Georgia threatened to confiscate them. Kirlin forked over $40,000 and had the Fulcrums brought back into Kyrgyzstan, escorted, as always, by his agents, who then chartered a Soviet-era AN-124 - the largest commercial airplane in the sky - to fly the planes to Tallinn, Estonia, the closest friendly NATO port, where they were quickly seized for another three months. After three years and more cash outlays required to seal the deal, they arrived in Quincy. Despite their low flying time, they need complete overhauls before they can safely take wing in the US. Some doubt Kirlin can get them airborne. He scoffs: "I've got all the manuals," he says, ever confident. "It's just a matter of time and money."

Kirlin has a full-time man in Moscow and another in Prague scouting airplanes and buying parts. He has jets stationed in Hawaii and Japan to be close to the carrier battle groups Air USA is working with. And in his conference room just off the hangar sit the chief engineer and two sales-people from Povazske Strojarne Letecke Motory, the Slovak Republic company that overhauls the Albatross' jet engines. Kirlin is about to take delivery on dozens more L-59s, and he wants the Slovaks to rebuild their -motors. But they've been in Quincy for three days, they're not budging on their price, and in an hour they're catching a plane home. "We must make a decision soon," says an anxious Czech mechanic who works for -Kirlin and is acting as a translator. "It's all show," -Kirlin replies. "Go back in there and be very gracious. Tell them thanks for the price and that I'll think about it."

Moments later, the mechanic reenters the hangar and motions Kirlin over. Sure enough, with minutes to spare, the Slovaks have capitulated, slashing their starting price by 50 percent. Don Kirlin is floating. "Outstanding!" he says, slapping the mechanic on the back. "Awesome. I knew it would go our way. It's always the same; you just have to wait 'em out." Then, stealing a glance at the hammer and sickle, he can't help himself. "America won!" he says with a laugh. "We're all they've got now."



fled
Back to top
View user's profile ICQ Number MSN Messenger Photo Gallery
JG300-Ascout
Power User

Offline Offline
Joined: Jan 05, 2005
Posts: 6257
Location: Cyberspace
PostPosted: Thu Sep 29, 2005 2:49 pm
Post subject: Re: Building Your Own Air Force, One Mig at a Time

Purty cool. Not quite the same thing, but over here in California, we have a collector with ~200 tanks and armored vehicles, most operational. Not open as public museum, but operates as a "foundation" (for tax reasons) which means I've had access. Do the math....200 vehicles qualifies as an entire armored division in almost any army that ever operated tanks! Of course, it helps a lot to be a billionaire. Wink

www.mishalov.net/milit...icles.html

_________________
"All facts go to clearly prove that Shades is a thrice-cursed traitor & mentally deranged person steeped in inveterate enmity toward mankind"
Back to top
View user's profile Photo Gallery
Uhu_Fledermaus
Aircraft Demolition Expert

Offline Offline
Joined: Nov 28, 2004
Posts: 4369
Location: Blaricum, The Netherlands ~GMT+1
PostPosted: Fri Sep 30, 2005 2:24 am
Post subject: Re: Building Your Own Air Force, One Mig at a Time

Nice link there Ascout !

for money you can let the devil dance my good Old father allways said, and he's right...............example the mentioned "Tank - Collector"


fled
Back to top
View user's profile ICQ Number MSN Messenger Photo Gallery
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic    Revive this topic    Printer Friendly Page    Forum Index ›  Officer's Club
Page 1 of 1
All times are GMT - 6 Hours

Archive Revive
Username:
This is an archived topic - your reply will not be appended here.
Instead, a new topic will be generated in the active forum.
The new topic will provide a reference link to this archived topic.