Anyone want to buy a rare British fighter jet?
This old Supermarine Swift fighter is going for a little over $400,000 on eBay. The plane has been sitting exposed to the elements outside of a clothing store in the English countryside since the 1960s, accumulating who knows what kind of weather damage. The 200 Swifts that were built, out of nearly 500 that were ordered, only saw brief RAF service in the late 1950s and by the mid-1960s many of them were shipped to Australia where they were placed on the ground near various nuclear weapons tests by the British and Australian governments.
The Swift was the first British jet fighter with swept wings and held the world speed record of 737.7 mph for eight days before losing its title to a Douglas Skyray from the U.S. Navy. Winston Churchill ordered the plane rushed into production in 1951 as the Korean War turned the Cold War into a shooting fight.
With a ton of old Soviet fighters on the market, the value of this plane may be in its history and just how rare it is. According to the British newspaper, The Daily Mail, this Swift, is the last of its kind. Now, if you want to buy the plane you'd better be a decent jet pilot, they were removed from service due to a number of crashes.
Click through to bid on the jet.
Here's the Ebay page.
