This $100,000 MiG-23 Is One of the Most Powerful Civilian-Owned Jets in the WorldSomewhere in a hangar at Lakeland, Florida's Sun 'n Fun complex sits a swing-wing Soviet interceptor with a price tag of $100,000 – and it actually runs. The owner, a man named Will, is selling it. For context, a loaded Ford F-150 Raptor R costs more than that. So does a base Porsche 911. This is a Mach 2.35 jet fighter with an afterburner, and it's priced like a vacation home in a low-tier market.The aircraft entered Soviet service in 1970, three years after its maiden flight in 1967 – with NATO dubbing it the Flogger. It was built as a direct answer to the limitations of the MiG-21: more powerful engine, longer range, and a variable-geometry wing that could sweep between 16 and 72 degrees depending on whether the pilot needed short-field performance or a high-speed low-level dash. Production totals reached more than 5,800 units according to GlobalMilitary.net, a figure that places it among the most widely manufactured variable-geometry wing fighters in history. Some are still in operational service today, including with Syria and North Korea.What It Actually Takes to Start OneThe startup sequence at Lakeland was a masterclass in Cold War engineering workarounds. Power comes from a pair of batteries – sourced, improbably, from powered wheelchairs – which feed a small TS21 jet starter producing around 80 horsepower. That turbine then spins up the main Tumansky R-29 turbojet, which needs upward of 1,000 amps to get moving. "This thing will use over a thousand amps to get this engine going," as the host put it.AdvertisementAdvertisementAn 82-year-old technician named Gary handled the mechanical prep, checking the first-stage compressor blades for nicks and cracks through an access panel before anything else happened. Both the braking and canopy systems are nitrogen-powered instead of hydraulic, a characteristic Soviet engineering choice that reflects practical design philosophy."The Russians used nitrogen forever because of the cold weather and cold environment. And back in the '30s when they really developed nitrogen, there was no really good hydraulic fluid," Gary explained. It performs better in extreme cold, it's lighter, and apparently it doesn't leak.A closed fuel shutoff valve – its handle still fitted with the warning flag left behind by the previous pilot – cut the initial startup attempt short before it could succeed. Once that was corrected, the engine lit. What came out of the exhaust wasn't even the afterburner – the tie-downs on site weren't rated for it. "That wasn't even the afterburner because they wouldn't allow us to do an afterburner because we don't have the right tie-downs," the host noted afterward. According to Wings Over the Rockies figures, engaging full afterburner boosts the engine's output from 18,800 lbf all the way to 28,660 lbf, representing a thrust increase of roughly 50 to 80 percent. It would also drain the Flogger's 1,200-gallon fuel load in roughly seven or eight minutes at maximum power, according to Gary – a characteristic it shares with contemporaries like the F-4 Phantom and the F-105.Owning a Soviet Fighter Is Perfectly Legal – With CaveatsCivilian ownership of decommissioned military aircraft is permitted under U.S. law. The FAA registers them under an Experimental/Exhibition category, which permits airshow flying. Supersonic flight over land remains prohibited under a rule dating back to 1973, though the House has passed legislation to overturn that restriction – a measure still awaiting Senate action, according to Fox Business.AdvertisementAdvertisementThe $100,000 asking price for Will's Flogger is pretty unusual. Per an Aircraft.com listing, the only actively flying MiG-23 currently on the US market was listed at $1.4 million, with spare engines running $400,000 each. Unrestored airframes in the mid-2010s typically ranged from $150,000 to $350,000 depending on completeness. A $100,000 swing-wing Soviet supersonic fighter that actually starts is, by any measure, a strange value proposition.Whether it's a deal depends entirely on your appetite for nitrogen servicing, wheelchair battery procurement, and the kind of maintenance schedule that requires an 82-year-old legend named Gary. But the airplane itself – Mach 2.35, 60,000-foot ceiling, afterburner nozzle and all – is the real thing.
