AN overenthusiastic seven-year-old London boy almost bought today his very own real-life Harrier fighter jet on eBay for £69,999 ($113,515).

The British-built Harrier jump jet was for sale on the site - but for a fixed price instead of an auction.

A youngster hit the "buy it now" button to purchase the restored fighter jet, causing his father to quickly apologize to the sellers and tell them his son was not able to buy the aircraft out of his pocket money.

"His dad rang up and profusely apologised to us, so it's still for sale. We've put it on as an auction now so that won't happen again," said a spokeswoman for Jet Art Aviation, of Bradford, central England, which is selling the Harrier.

The British-built jet was integral to the nation's arsenal in the Falklands War, but the Government put the elite fighting machines out of service in 1997.

The US Marines still use a second-generation model of the Harrier.

Chris Wilson, 33, the former Royal Air Force (RAF) mechanic who runs Jet Art Aviation, said the piece of British military history will probably be lost to the country. "It will probably go out of the country to a company. There are a couple of museums in the UK that would love to have it, but the museums in this country are broke," he said.

Mr Wilson said jets were often bought for public collections but added that he recently sold a similar jet to a private collector in Greece.

The Harrier Jump Jet T-Bird Aircraft XW269 currently on sale was last flown in 1997, after 26 years of service for the RAF.

Mr Wilson said the jet could be made air-worthy again - but at a significant cost. "It would cost millions of pounds, and for legal reasons, we can't sell it as a working jet," he said, adding that it was one of only six of its kind to remain in the world.

He said the jet could be shipped and reassembled at the buyer's expense, either within Britain or internationally.



See the eBay listing here

Originally published as Boy, 7, tries to buy fighter jet on eBay