Kestral on Craigslist. Anybody in?

[Jerry O'Neill]

WIX'er KRLang posted this on FB so I unceremoniously swiped it! Sorry Ken!
Craigslist in CT has a Kestral if anybody wants in!
https://hartford.craigslist.org/for/5724271039.html

[old iron]

Wow, is this something that could be made flyable? Is the price reasonable? (no, I am not a potential buyer, just curious)

[sandiego89]

Wow, is this something that could be made flyable? Is the price reasonable? (no, I am not a potential buyer, just curious)

Well almost anything can be made flyable with a total rebuild, but I say no, not easily. She looks pretty gutted, and would take a great deal to get flying (millions), and even getting her to static would take quite a bit. Money would likely be better spent on a first generation Harrier if someone really wanted a flyer. A surprising amount of Kestrals survive, given they only made 9, and the relatively short duration of the project.

Price around $25,000 is "reasonable" if you have that much to spend for something rather unique in your man-cave...but really shows she is just a shell.

[airnutz]

Bummer! I was hoping to see a Rolls' Kestrel recip, but got a Kestrel powered by a kerosene Rolls' instead...still a neat find

[Tom Moungovan]

We had 4-6 at Edwards when I was there in the mid 60's. Got to see them fly only a few times and one of those was at an open house.
I think somebody told me that the engines had to be torn down after only 25 hrs. That sound about right?

[phil65]

I forwarded that to Warbird Kid last week, told him it was his next project....

[Richard W.]

Still for sale-

Now $10K for the body, $20K for the body with the RR Pegasus engine.

Somebody buy it before I do something that will get me divorced!

https://hartford.craigslist.org/for/5923278175.html

[Warbird Kid]

Heres P1127 in happier times.

http://www.cloud9photography.us/Military-Aviation-9/Hawker-Siddeley-P1127-FGA1/i-2JtwXMk/A

[Dave Hadfield]

Rats. I too hoped that someone had mis-spelled Kestrel, and a water-cooled V-12 was for sale.

Darn.

[JohnB]

Rats. I too hoped that someone had mis-spelled Kestrel, and a water-cooled V-12 was for sale.
Darn.

Really?

What are the chances of an ancient, rare Rolls Royce engine being in the U.S. and on Craigslist?

[Zac Yates]

And here I was, thinking the odds of a P1127/Kestrel on Craigslist and in the US were really low!

[JohnB]

There was a thread (either here or on the UK based forum) a few months back on the fates of the jets and a 1-2 of the aircraft have met odd fates (i.e. not ending up in museums) in the U.S.

Based on that knowledge, it was clear to me that the likelihood of a P.1127 showing up on the internet was much greater than an engine being here.

In the same vein, if someone offers a Lightning on eBay.UK, I'll assume it's an English Electric aircraft and not a Lockheed.

[airnutz]

Ya just never know with craigslist or e-bay, etc. The possibilities are so random it's worth a click sometimes just in case. The stuff over the last century which has been brought back by American and Canadian service men and workers etc. is a crap shoot as to guessing what lurks out there. This mornings craigs search of 3 Texas cities quickly turned up a 3-bladed prop ID'ed from a Shackleton, an antique unidentified 5-cylinder radial engine merely labeled as a wallhanger and a $2800 Beech D-18(sans engines). The radial is very small judging by the car tire behind it..I was thinking Royce-LeBlond, but nope don't think so. I might put our Long Harlequin project or the Heath-Henderson wallhanger in there just to see what happens so I don't have to ship 'em. So naysayers, keep naying and we'll keep looking...

EDIT
Years ago, post ww2 in San Antonio an antiquer went to estate sale and started looking at a pamplet described "antique device used as doorstop" ....turned out it was a German anti-tank mine. Ya' just never know...
Edit
Forgot to add the Beech

Last edited by airnutz on Thu Feb 16, 2017 7:00 pm, edited 2 times in total.

[Thomas_Mac]

You never what will turn up. On kijiji I have seen a 7 cylinder Jacob's radial engine, CF-100 drop tank, Rolls Royce Meteor engines. Guess it keeps me coming back

[Tom Moungovan]

What are the chances?

I just looked at my slides taken on the Armed Forces Day Open House at Edwards in 1967 and I shot 418266 earlier on the same day as the previous image here sitting out at the hot gun line with a sister. Both had a soft cover over the front so you could not read the large number but the 6 digit number was visible on this one but not on her sister behind. Those were the only two out that day. One of the few days that I had ample film and the only time that I had permission to take a camera out. My boss also OK'd using the shop truck, an Econline van, so that I could get around. I knew a lot of the crew chiefs so getting access was not difficult. We also had B-52 003 flying as well as a pair of F-111s, T-33, T-37, T-38, F-4 654, TF-102, B-57 and our lone B-58. I cannot recall any F-104s, but it's unlikely that they would have been left out as we had close to a dozen and they flew daily. Our NF-104 was on display in the big building by the tower where Field Maintenance worked. This was one of a couple or so that had a rocket motor in the tail to help gain additional altitude for astronaut training.

Sorry that I have no easy way to post pics.