(FORTUNE Magazine) – That yard sale that used to be the Soviet Union keeps on offering Westerners some great buys in high technology. But Thermoplane, pictured above in its hangar outside Moscow, still sits waiting for the right buyer -- someone of vision, someone like you -- to appreciate its value. You say you're short on cash? No problem. Though the helium-filled, lighter- than-air craft has, by one estimate, inhaled some $14 million in R&D, the Moscow Aviation Institute might entertain a below-cost bid. How much below? ''I think at this point they'd take almost anything,'' says Geoffrey Sommer, an Arlington, Virginia, consultant who evaluates Soviet aircraft technology for the U.S. Department of Defense. At 130 feet in diameter, the un-compact disk is but a model for a larger craft that could lift 600 tons of timber or other cargo from Siberia. The model, however, has yet to make an untethered flight. Told the Russians are talking about trying to fly Thermoplane to the Paris Air Show this spring, Sommer says, ''I wouldn't hold my breath.'' So far, at least two potential buyers have expressed interest. One, a game preserve in Kenya, thinks the disk might make a nice platform from which to view wildlife. Another thinks converting Thermoplane into a hotel is an idea that might fly. But if you believe that, we know where you can get the Nevsky Prospect, cheap.