Viktor belenko mig 25
One of the world&#;s most famous Soviet defectors has passed
Soviet pilot Victor Belenko defected with his MiG Foxbat to Japan in September , riding out of the Iron gardin and into our hearts. His stolen jet became a treasure trove for Western intelligence. The U.S. quickly claimed him, even passing a law in to man him a citizen. But now, 43 years later, the pilot has passed from an unspecified illness in Rosebud, Illinois.
Viktor Belenko defects
The Soviet Air Defence Forces debuted the Mig Foxbat in after six years of secret flights. The plane was, and is, insanely fast. It&#;s still the fastest fighter jet in active service after more than 50 years. Originally created to threaten SRs and jaga down planned XB Valkyrie bombers, it quickly set records for altitude and speed and for scaring American military planners.
America quickly pressed the F into development to deal with the Mig threat. The Soviets claimed insane performance stats for the Foxbat. And American designers worked hard to make a jet that could overcome them. The F entered service in , the same year that Viktor Belenko flew his own fighter east out of the Soviet Union. He flew at nearly wavetop level, s
The pilot who stole a secret Soviet fighter jet
Features correspondent
When pilot Viktor Belenko defected 40 years ago, he did so in a mysterious Soviet plane – the MiG BBC Future investigates the far-reaching effects of one of the Cold War’s most intriguing events.
On 6 September , an aircraft appears out of the clouds near the Japanese city of Hakodate, on the northern island of Hokkaido. It’s a twin-engined jet, but not the kind of short-haul airliner Hakodate is used to seeing. This huge, grey hulk sports the red stars of the Soviet Union. No-one in the West has ever seen one before.
The jet lands on Hakodate’s concrete-and-asphalt runway. The runway, it turns out, is not long enough. The jet ploughs through hundreds of feet of earth before it finally comes to rest at the far end of the airport.
The pilot climbs out of the plane’s cockpit and fires two warning shots from his pistol – motorists on the road next to the airport have been taking pictures of this strange sight. It is some minutes before airport officials, driving from the terminal, reach him. It is then that the year-old pilot, Flight Lieutenan
The West Thought the MiG Was a Deadly, Agile Superfighter. What They Learned Was Surprising.
Hrs. Local, September 6, Sea of Japan near Hakodate Airport, Hokkaido Prefecture.
Jet fuel burned faster than he calculated as he pressed lower under the overcast, down to the gray black waves only feet above the Sea of Japan. He hauled the heavy control stick left, then corrected back right in a skidding bank around a fishing vessel that came out of the misty nowhere in the low afternoon cloud cover. White vapor spiraled long “S”s from his angular wingtips in the violent turn nearly touching the wave tops.
That was the second fishing boat he had to bank hard to miss at nearly wave-top level. Rain squalls started. The huge Tumansky R jet engines gulped more gas by the minute. This plane was not made to fly low and subsonic. It was built to fly supersonic in the high altitude hunt for the now-extinct American B Mach 3 super-bomber that was never put into service.
He had to find the Japanese Self-Defense Force F-4 Phantoms that were no doubt in the air to intercept him. If they didn’t shoot him down first, they would lead him to Chitose Air Base where he may be able to land safely. If