T28 wrote:
Weird that they were offloaded in Florida and your guy is in California.
The owner of the aircraft now being delivered contracts preliminary work to other companies including Northrop. The aircraft are subsequently completed at his own facility, with the final effort there being the upgraded avionics installation as per my earlier post. They are then sent to the operator.
Earlier aircraft (obviously Navy but also TacAir operated ) were in standard non-upgraded spec. and had a different genesis.
Peter wrote:
I read that after WW2, Spitfires were available for £30, and a lot of them were scrapped for parts like water pumps which farmers wanted.
Not just Spitfires – my grandfather on my mother’s side (the farming side of my family) was a mechanic for the RAF during the war, and the house my grandparents had in rural Worcestershire didn’t get mains electricity until the early 1970s. When my Dad was dating my Mum, the house was still getting its electricity from a generator, parts of which (the actual electrical generator) were off a B24 Liberator. (The house didn’t get mains water or phone until 2019, until then it was still pumped from a well – and mobile phones are no good, it’s in a valley with no signal)
Peter wrote:
I read that after WW2, Spitfires were available for £30, and a lot of them were scrapped for parts like water pumps which farmers wanted.
Meanwhile, two of my relatives worked for Supermarine in the period from 1946 to 1957, initially making e.g. Seafire 47s, probably at greater expense to the customer. Both are still alive and cohabitating. 
As a kid I used to think one of them worked in a laundry for a while but couldn’t reconcile that with the other stories… Sunlight Laundry was apparently a dispersed production facility, left over from wartime production and still operating for a short while after.
I’m sure the piston powered Supermarine products of that post-war era did not hang around for long, and imagine by 1965 were being sold at scrap value too, hardly distinguishable from those that had been scrap when they were new.
In the late 70s there was a US outfit called Cinema Air, owned by airline/Toyota etc entrepreneur Tom Friedkin. Some of the planes were out on the ramp and I can remember walking around looking at them. At a certain point a Lockheed Lightning was being sold for some number like $100K and my dad’s flight instructor was dreaming of buying it. He worked for another guy who had a substantial collection of antiques etc and a small airport at which he kept them, ran an FBO etc. It looked like it might just be possible but in the end (of course) practicality came into play
Another photo taken a few moments ago… Want an F5? Single or two place no problem we’ll build you one These are ex-Canadian aircraft, in inventory to supply USN contractor needs. Occasionally one flies away from my base and doesn’t return.
Remembering T28’s sneering (but incorrect) response on this old thread, I was amused to take the cell phone photo below while taxiing by this weekend.
TacAir F5 are not refurbished piecemeal in a shed by a guy and leased onwards but bought outright with approval from State and overhauled at NOC’s factory in Florida.
Here’s the man, his car, his shed and if you look closely three F5s being built up Obviously he has a staff to do most of the work but this was the weekend. One gets competed and flown out every so often, making a lot of noise nowhere near Florida.
The USN contracts this role nowadays as discussed, but oddly enough on the same flight at a different airport I also ran into four USMC adversary squadron F5s on the ramp at a gas stop, and spoke with the pilots. We delayed to watch them depart and got a wing rock. Good fun.
It’s amazing what is possible in the US! Of course a fair bit of $$$ is needed too
T28 (formerly Shorrick Mk 2) is long gone
