Bidding Opens May 15 With A $50,000 Ante

OK, so you're not going to buy a flyable DC-9 for $50,000, but that is the reserve for an airplane that is still painted in Air Force One colors, missing only the Presidential seal, in an upcoming General Services Administration (GSA) auction.

The aircraft, listed on the GSA auction site as "1 each aircraft, dc9-32, tail number N681AL, s/n: 731681 located at Phoenix/Mesa Gateway Airport, Mesa, AZ. Associated spare parts inventory located at 3280 U.S. highway 70E, New Bern, NC. A $50,000 bid deposit is required and it will be converted to performance bond to assure parts removal. This aircraft was part of Air Force 2 and may have acted as Air Force 1."

The operative words there are "may have." Of course, the President has to be on board an aircraft before it can be designated "Air Force 1"

The aircraft has been stripped of some of the more sensitive equipment that had been installed while in service with the Presidential Airlift squadron of the Air Force. And while the GSA would not say definitively whether a President had ever flown on board the aircraft, it did say that "In the thirty years this aircraft was assigned to the 89th Airlift Wing (Feb 1975-Sep 2005) it flew Presidential missions, Vice President, First Lady, Cabinet Secretaries (Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, others), Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S. Senators, U.S. Representatives, Four-Star Generals, Admirals, Foreign Heads of State and other foreign dignitaries."

Happy bidding.

(Image provided by GSA)

FMI: http://gsaauctions.gov/gsaauctions/aucitdsc/