NZ Air Force Strikemaster on Trade Me

Worried about the state of our defence forces? Now you take matters into your own hands - for just $128,000 or near offer.

For an ex Royal New Zealand Air Force Strikemaster BAE 167 has been listed on Trade Me (in the fixed-price Trade Me Motors section).

The buyer says the jet is one of the last Strikemasters to be decommissioned (a process that streteched from the early 1990s to November last year, when the final Strikemasters were packed off to museums, and the 17 Skyhawks were finally sold), and is in good nick - though it may need up to $25,000 spent on its engine.

NBR understands the plane has been used for tourist flights around Sydney since being decommissioned.

Top Goat gives it top marks
Air force pilot turned social media market guru Vaughn Davis told NBR it looked like a good buy.

"The Strikemaster is a relatively roomy jet, certainly compared to the Skyhawk [which quirkily promised to remove taller pilots' kneecaps should they be unfortunate enough to eject]," Mr Davis said.

"To me, its very British cockpit layout and acres of bakelite made it feel like a Morris Oxford with wings and a moderately powerful jet engine somewhere down the back.

"Performance was never sparkling, with that draggy airframe [the Strikemaster was known as the Bluntie in RNZAF service], giving a rate of acceleration somewhere below that of the New Zealand economy," the Goat Farm principal said.

"Once airborne and up to speed, though, the Strikemaster was lovely to fly, and very forgiving of even the most agricultural attempt at aerobatics. Down low it was stable and solid, and that paddling-pool-sized canopy gave an excellent view.

"And, critically, we got to wear helmets, oxygen masks and G-suits to work and convince ourselves that this was in some way impressive to members of the opposite sex."

Mr Davis offered to pilot the aircraft should any NBR reader without a license purchase the Strikemaster.

A second Strikemaster is being used to promote an energy drink, and has been repainted in lurid colours.

Mr Davis hoped the Trade Me Strikemaster's buyer would respect the RNZAF livery.

Defence market hotting up
Spokesman Paul Ford told NBR this was not the first case of a military airforce being sold through Trade Me. 

In 2010 an ex-Polish air force Soviet MiG jet sold for $59,000.

Mr Ford noted there was a 2009 push by aviation enthusiasts to have the 17 RNZAF Skyhawks auctioned on Trade Me, "but there were some technicalities around needing a permit and official approval to buy so it never flew".

The government finally offloaded the Skyhawks in November for $7.9 million (a $155m sale to a US aviation school, engineered by Labour in 2005 was scuttled by the US State Department).

Meanwhile, the nation is far from defenceless, the army having spent $4.7m to buy six battle tractors.