I’m always amazed at some of the aircraft I see for sale on the online auction site eBay. Everything from very rare antique aircraft, ex-military jets and retired airliners, to a one-of-a-kind homebuilt VTOL (Vertical Takeoff and Landing) air vehicle that never quite got off the ground.  (Heck, even if it didn’t every fly, put it up for auction on eBay; there’s a chance someone will pay good money to turn your failure into a neat backyard play toy for the kids.)  This week’s eBay Aviation Oddity (I hope to make this a recurring topic for discussion on The Aerospace Agenda) is a rare Scaled Composites CM-144. Looking like a beefed-up Rutan Long-Eze with an aardvark nose, the one and only CM-144 was built as a high altitude, long endurance UAV platform by Scaled Composites for another company back in the 80’s.  Even though designed as an UAV, it looks like it can also be flown by a pilot. Claimed performance numbers include a maximum altitude capability of 30,000 feet, and a flight endurance of 20+ hours. Add what looks like a nose cone capable of holding a camera or sensors, and this could be just the plane you are looking for if you can’t afford a Lockheed U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance plane. Better hurry, bidding ends in another day, and bids are already up to $25,000. Besides the pictures on eBay, the owner has more info, including a video of the CM-144 flying, on his  MySpace Page.