#viktor belenko

[kgyst]

Ha igaz, nem rossz: "Photos show Viktor Belenko’s defecting MiG-25 Foxbat buzzing Hakodate rooftops before landing at the city’s international airport"

via The War Zone

[nelc]

On Sep. 6, 1976, the inhabitants of the Japanese city of Hakodate on the island of Hokkaido, turned their eyes to the sky, an airplane flew over the roofs of their houses at a very low altitude. With just two minutes of fuel, Viktor Belenko, desperately looking for a place to land, finally in front of him appeared Hakodate International airport, in the city of the same name.

[all-action-all-picture]

Eagle Data File No. 37 from Eagle No. 66, dated 25 June 1983. The Mig-25 Foxbat. A bit of a worry to the West until Viktor Belenko, a defecting pilot, flew a new one to Japan on the 6 September 1976. Subsequent tests found it wasn't as powerful as they initially feared.

The artwork is by Lionel Jeans (given away by the Jeans signature) and I think he provided both the painted artwork and the cutaway.

[harpiesandharpoons]

Viktor come back we miss you

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Viktor Belenko

They're all dropping off this week!

On the 6th September 1976, Lieutenant Viktor Belenko of the Russian Air Force, said 'Screw you Commie bastards!' and defected.

In lieu of his last month's paycheck, he decided to fly off with his trusty Mig 25 Foxbat (see above).

The fact it was the most secret and most feared jet fighter of the time - and he was about to cause the sweet succulent granny of international incidents - as far as he was concerned wasn't going to be an issue. For him, at any rate. He hated Soviet Russia, was estranged from his wife, and his son was an asshole, so he'd nothing to lose.

What made the Foxbat so feared was its speed - Mach 3. Only the Lockheed Blackbird spy plane flew that fast - which was the point of the Foxbat's existence, although ironically there has never been a single example of a Foxbat and a Blackbird going toe to toe.

However, once an example had landed, a lot of the myths about the jet were exploded, and a few new ones thrown in. It turned out to have more in common with the British English Electric Lightning than anything more sophisticated, right down to its fully turning horizontal tail fins.

It was literally a Tonka Toy jet - big, heavy, crude, but very durable, right down to being able to be fitted with old fashioned valves rather than silicone chips, meaning it could survive the EMP pulse from a nuclear weapon.

Even its missiles - the Acrid - were a lightning fast blunt instrument that could fly far and fast to blow any other plane no matter how large out of the sky.

The point of the Foxbat was it could take off and climb at very short notice, very high, and very quickly, to intercept just about anything. One even managed to shoot down a communications satellite in low orbit.

Most embarrassing of all, the Foxbat's weapons and radar onboard computer - one of the first jets to have on - was an IBM make. To this day, there has never been a satisfactory explanation as to how Soviet Russia had such sophisticated American equipment in their military jets, but the conspiracy theorists had a field day.

It also spelt disaster for Egypt, Syria and Libya, who'd bought the jets at great expense hoping to have an edge over Israel, only to discover from the revelations from Belenko that the Foxbat wasn't much good at low level due to its weight - the Israeli Air Force's preferred combat tactic.

It also turned out their pilots couldn't handle the jet very well either - in fact only one foreign purchaser ever achieved happy results with the Foxbat, and that was India, who bought it to keep the Chinese, Pakistanis and - ironically - Russians out of their airspace.

Belenko's defection - quite aside from quenching Cold War and Middle East tensions once the Soviet's 'wonder weapon' was demystified - also inspired Craig Thomas' book (and later Clint Eastwood film) Firefox - although it would be a long time before any thought control aircraft system was to appear, even so at a very crude level.

A real Mig 31 was to appear however a few years later, the Foxhound, really the Mark II version of the Foxbat, flying also at Mach 3, and being the first jet to have 'Look Down, Shoot Down' - meaning it could shoot down or fire at targets beyond its onboard range due to the curve of the earth.

As for Belenko, he went on to work in the aircraft industry and attending flight enthusiasts meetings - unlike so many defectors, he did not find himself assassinated by "Mother Russia".

[vizrecon]