Posted on 04/28/2014 9:14:47 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Ten years late Viktor Belenko defected with a MIG-25 “Foxbat”. The late Moody Suter was a key member of the AF team that debriefed him after his arrival in 1976. To learn how the US used 007 at the secret facility in Nevada I urge you to read “America’s Secret MiG Squadron: The Red Eagles of Project Constant Peg” by Gail Peck. It is a great book written by a true American Patriot.
It’s so they wouldn’t shoot the plane down by mistake.
The Tu-4 Bull was a shameless copy reverse engineered from three interred B-29s. Apparantly Stalin wanted exect copies (altho the engines were different), and they even included service dings/scratches and patches over flak damage that were present on the originals.
The Su-24 and Buran shuttle may look similar to, but are indeed very different aircraft from, the F-111 and Space Shuttle. Think of them more as applying similar enough engineering knowledge to common challenges, resulting in aircraft that bear a passing cosmetic resemblence to each other. But not anywhere close to shameless copies.
Same is true of both the Tu-160 Blackjack (looks sorts like a B-1), An-124 Condor (C-5) and even the MiG-25/31 family (they look like fat, twin-tailed A-5 Vigilantes)
“Do you suppose all those ads portraying/promoting military service as a “job” might have created a different ,less patriotic, attitude in the crew?”
I think a number of factors, including what you listed. Another factor is the refusal to take China as a serious threat. Yet another is the feminizing of the military - I suspect there were some women on that plane and the men lost track of their prime directive, which is to protect the country first, not themselves, and certainly not the women.
The flip side: my sister married a Taiwanese. His father was a sailor in the communist Chinese regime, but managed to escape, and joined the Taiwanese Navy. He was treated with so much suspicion, and distrust, even though he wanted to stand on guard vs. communists, that he ended up moving to Canada. Thanks.
Very interesting. Poor guy, that must be a disappointment. I kind of suspected a defector would be treated that way, and would likely find it impossible to ever win the trust of the country they defected to. Probably especially true in Asia where the aspirations of the individual have historically been very low on the list.
Your comment sums up his experience, very well !
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