Brett wrote:
In the July 1998 issue of Flypast magazine there is a 'stop press' announcement that the CAF had acquired a MiG 5, La-5 and Yak-9 from a Russian museum.
I haven't seen anything about this since. Did this actually happen?
Cheers,
Brett
Well, if I remember right it was a scam. People in Russia convinced a few wealthy Americans that they had these fighters to sell at quite reasonable prices plus an early model B-25 and other very rare aircraft (I think an A-20 was mentioned too). Excited ripples went through parts of the warbird world but no one was to announce all of this to the press since there were "delicate negotiations going on" that might fall through if word got out. I then heard that the prices were climbing rapidly as each Russian government official involved with these aircraft wanted their palms greased. Some money was paid.....and lost because nothing materialized from all of it. It all seemed too good to be true, and it was. That's what I remember.
Dennis