For sale: used Starfighter jet, one careful owner

22 November 2005

KIEL, GERMANY – A former German Navy fighter jet is being offered on the internet for sale to the highest bidder and it is all legal: the Starfighter F-104 G, currently parked at a naval air base in the northern city of Kiel, is surplus stock.

“The buyer will have to make several promises,” said Lieutenant Boris Heide of the Navy media office Monday. These include no more flying by the U.S.-designed, Cold-War-era jet, which was carefully maintained by the Navy but has not been in the sky since 1998.

Bidders will be able to tender till late December or early January for the jet. VEBEG, the German government agency in Frankfurt that sells surplus stock will handle the sale, with a museum most likely to be the buyer.

“A used Starfighter would be worth between 6,500 and 8,000 euros (7,600 and 9,400 dollars),” said VEBEG official Frank Loewe.

DPA

Subject: German news