A Canadian businessman says he doesn’t have the time to enjoy it so he’s selling his Sea Harrier jump jet on eBay. Ian Cotton, of Red Deer, Alberta, is hoping to get $1.5 million for the ex-Royal Navy aircraft. He bought the fighter from the British government four years ago and imported it to Canada with an eye to getting it into taxiing condition. To that end he bought another fuselage for spare parts and a flight-worthy Pegasus engine. He said the aircraft is in excellent condition and needs only a few parts to fly but it’s being sold as a static display aircraft only. “I can provide an itemized list of the parts needed,” he said in an interview with AVweb.
Cotton, who has taken a few lessons but is not a pilot, has five other ex-military jets but he says his natural gas transmission and power generating business keeps him too busy to spend any time with them. He’s considering selling off his Hawker Hunters and Lightning fighters but he may keep the Strikemaster trainer/light attack aircraft and get it into flying condition. Cotton said he’s so far had a lot of inquiries from the eBay listing but no bids. The Harrier is well known to the people of Red Deer, a resource and farming city about 100 miles north of Calgary. When Cotton first bought the aircraft, he had it parked in his driveway.
