As the U.K.’s Royal Navy and Royal Air Force continue handing off search and rescue operations to private firms, they’re paring down their fleets of Sea King helicopters. Why buy a nice, running car when you could put a six-ton derelict helicopter on your lawn?
The choppers are being sold off by Witham Specialist Vehicles Limited, which hocks surplus equipment for the British Ministry Of Defense (MoD) just like GovPlanet does for the American military over here.
A fleet of about 30 Sea Kings, which can carry 27 people and lift about 5,000 pounds on slings, are now sitting at the unused Grantham airfield in conditions ranging from potentially-flyable to “lawn art only” according to the Telegraph.
But what lawn art! Witham’s Managing Director Paul Southerington says the “hulks” could be bought for £10,000 to £20,000 ($14,000 to $30,000) while “working” helicopters would be over $200,000.
So far it looks like they’ve only listed this three-pack of Sea King HC4 Commando MK 4 variants that were designed to run in the mountains of Afghanistan. You can buy them directly from military storage for £150,000 ($211,723.52) with all necessary paperwork, but you’ll have to provide your own engines to get them off the ground.
Apparently “more than 20" in the sale are airworthy, the bargain hunters will have to fight over the other ten. Witham has reported “a lot of interest,” and why not? Any piece of property would be improved dramatically with a dead helicopters plopped on it. One of these babies would make an epic guest house, man cave, smoking den, ect. And it’s all aluminum, so don’t sweat the rust!
Hat tip to James!