And for all you 'supersonic' junkies on FR, you can see the aircraft at least twice be enveloped by the "supersonic transition vapor cloud" when he is clearly NOT supersonic. Note the high humidity of the day/ rainshowers.
Actually my favorite part is when he sits the aircraft on its tail and just hangs in the air at about 50 KIA. Not sure of the tactical value of the maneuver, but it's a nice demonstration of what fly-by-wire can do for a pilot.
Oh, I bet his back-seater had a fun time.
When I saw it I said oooooooooooooooooh!
I heard from guy who'd been maintenance for same that A-1's would hang on their props to let the Mig pass them just before they ruined the Mig pilots day.
I would have been very happy to sit in the back seat! Lets see, can the USN and USMC buy F/A-18 Hornets with three seats? You know, for those times when us civilians need to -- ah, lets see we need to give a reason don't we...oh yes -- to fly with the crew to ensure that the takeoff, sitting Rhino on the edge of a stall for 30+ seconds, and landing are not causing undue hardship on the pilots.
And thanks for posting an always-excellent Richard Seaman photo.