They're white elephants (well, the same colour). Any buyer of a Shuttle will have to drop an 8-digit chunk of cash on the purchase. It then needs to be shipped to its final destination, more megabucks and then it needs to be housed appropriately, very much more megabucks. Assuming it is on display for twenty years or more it will require conservation and structural maintenance, lots more bucks ongoing. My BOTE guesstimate is that a proud owner would need to budget 100 mill or so over a twenty year period to take on the responsibility of owning one of these Triumphs of Modern Technology from the early 70s, and never have the pleasure of actually flying in it. I doubt very much that you can sell enough tickets to gawkers to even come close to breaking even on the deal.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-01-19 05:51 pm (UTC)