Treasury Department Has 6,000 Aircraft Parts To Unload

It must be the auction season! First Independence Air, now this. They're not saying how US Customs came into ownership of a warehouse full of parts -- mostly commercial Boeing parts. The key thing is that Uncle Sam does not WANT to own a warehouse full of Boeing bits and bric-a-brac, so government contractor EG&G is going to sell them at auction for the G-Men.

There are hundreds of lots, containing, they say, over 6,000 parts (we didn't count them ourselves. Sorry about that). What kind of parts? You name it, they just might have it. We didn't see any engines on the list (except for APUs), but hard parts from Actuators to Yaw Dampers are on the list. There are lots of instruments, tires, and electronic gear: radios, radars, antennas, even flight data recorders and TCAS units -- expensive stuff.

A .pdf with a complete list is available at the FMI link.

Are the parts yellow tagged? Nope. They're sold as-is, where-is, and while the website says the FAA inspected them, "however, they require that all these parts be recertified and/or recalibrated prior to their use on any US Aircraft. This will be the responsibility of the successful bidder. Bid accordingly."

But before you get too excited about snagging that high-end HSI for your Weedhopper, check out the terms of the auction -- which seem to put a damper on small-fry purchases. To start with, the auction lots include all the like items in a single lot, so you can't buy just one HSI, you need to buy them all. And you need a $10,000 cashier's check deposit up front to show that you're serious about bidding.

And, you can't put more than $99,999.99 on your credit cards. Even if your limit is higher. (Heh. Try paying that one off at 27.9% APR when the sucker rate expires). If you buy $100,000 worth of parts, you need to wire the money, or have a cashier's check cut.

The auction gets underway on Thursday, April 27 at 9:00 a.m. (registration opens at 8) at the Broward County Convention Center in Port Everglades, FL. The auction lots can be viewed in the Aero Continental Warehouse, 8940 NW 24th Terrace, Miami 33172 on April 24-26.

One parting warning to you EAA types (you know who you are): there does not appear to be enough there to build a whole Boeing... and that 51 percent construction stip is going to be a bear to prove.

FMI: www.treas.gov/auctions/customs/acparts.html