Miscellaneous aircraft parts from former US Army Beech MC-12W for sale

Interestingly, the General Services Administration (GSA) offered Beechcraft MC-12W 11-00289 (construction number FL-737) for sale.

First of all, this corrects previous reports that this aircraft was converted to MC-12S-2 MARSS-M standard. The Beech was purchased by the US Army via the USAF Liberty programme on 2 December 2010. It was allocated temporary civil registration N8007U for pre-delivery test flights (registered 9 July 2010 and cancelled 15 August 2011).

Following construction, it was ready for installation of mission equipment in June 2011. After that was done, the Aviation Flight Test Directorate (AFTD) at Huntsville (AL) took control of the aircraft for trials in March 2012. Initially, it was allocated serial 10-00737 based on the construction number, but this was changed into 11-00289 in March 2017. The aircraft was last reported active with B/224th MI Bn at Hunter AAF, Fort Stewart, Savannah (GA) in February 2020.

The GSA website shows pictures of a completely stripped fuselage and many parts (most packed separately). Eye-catching is that the entire cockpit section is missing. The reason for this sad state is that this was the aircraft which was damaged beyond repair in a heavy landing on 12 February 2020.

Three aircrew were injured in the incident, which was initially described by the army as “an aircraft suffered minimal damage”. Looks like the damage was a bit more than that, and it was decided to remove all useable parts (including the classified mission equipment) and offer the remains for sale by tender.

Photos: via gsaauctions.gov