It takes little more than a suitcase full of money to buy a small private jet. You know, your Cirrus Vision SF50s, your Cessna Citations, and so forth. But it takes a profound, lifelong love of military aviation to willingly fly around in a surplus military trainer you find on the internet.
If you're the kind of person who'd buy a military jet instead of a champagne flute with turbofans, this might just be the jet you buy. It's French in origin, a Morane Saulnier MS-760, commonly nicknamed the Paris.
Morane Saulnier was one of France's most deeply rooted legacy aerospace companies. Founded in 1911, the company built everything from trainers to observation planes and even a handful of piston-engined fighters.
The company survived the invasion of France by the Germans in 1940 and was back manufacturing airplanes under a newly liberated France soon after the Germans were kicked out in 1944 to 45. The Morane-Saulnier MS.760 was a purpose-built jet trainer airplane which in itself was a development of the Smaller MS.755 Fleuret.
With a larger cockpit, the M.S.760 could carry four crewmembers, including the pilot, to the Fleuret's maximum of two. The type first flew in July of 1954 and served in a military capacity for the nations of France, Brazil, and Argentina. With the last Argentine Paris trainers not being retired until the late 2000s.
Photo: Hangar67
Even for a trainer airplane, that's a remarkable service life. During this time, the Paris served as a learning vehicle for its pilots to master the instruments and avionics systems of fighter jets like the Vought F-8 Crusader and the Dassault Super Étendard.
The type's only service in live combat came in the 1963 Argentine Revolt, in which the Paris trainers were fitted with rockets, bombs, and machine guns in assistance of Argentine Air Force Grumman F9F Panthers against elements of the Argentine Navy who wished to stage a coup d'état in the country.
In spite of being powered by two puny Turboméca Marboré II turbojets, these Paris trainers turned miniature fighter bombers performed well in their role. Paris pilots managed to take out rebel-aligned communications outposts and even blow up some adversary airplanes on the ground.
Not that this particular example of a Morane Saulnier MS-760 Paris has even seen military training service in quite some time. In fact, this one's very far away from home in Connecticut, USA. Want to know why that's doubly ironic? Because this MS-760 Paris used to be owned by Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the very much western-friendly Shah of Iran.
Photo: Hangar67
The Shah was, of course, deposed and thrown into exile in 1979. But ever since, in all that time, this French jet trainer's been maintained meticulously and kept in flight-worthy condition. It's as if the airplane is somehow awaiting the return of a now-zombified Shah to fly him around the world as it once did decades ago.
But there will be no zombies flying aboard this delightful embodiment of France in the 1960s with wings. It's just one lifelong aviation enthusiast who got enough lucky breaks to afford a flashy private jet away from a new home.
For their money, the owner gets leather-covered cockpit seats, a full array of modern communication, navigation, and radio hardware, and it's an airframe a normal civilian who's straight out of pilot's school shouldn't have much of a problem warming up to the flying.
The price for the wonderful flying piece of French history? Well, the official listing on Hangar67 places that number as $300,000 before taxes and fees. That's actually fairly competitive compared to similar off-the-shelf new private jets of its size.
Photo: Hangar67
Check back soon for more military jet profiles here on autoevolution.
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