Mark Mulligan / The Herald
John Sessions stands in front of the MiG-29 he acquired for the Historic Flight Foundation's aircraft collection. “If you are going to restore a Mach 2 fighter, you might as well do a pretty one,” he says.
Posted on 02/06/2011 9:57:12 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki
For pilot, Russian MiG-29 is $6 million dream come true
It's 5 a.m. on a Sunday and John Sessions is up before the alarm clock goes off.
He slips out of bed, pulls on his running clothes in the dark and patters to the kitchen to fix his morning espresso.
In a few minutes, he's out the door of his Seattle home, striding through the still neighborhoods of Capitol Hill.
The police have done their job for the night. The bars are dark. The streets are empty.
In the quiet, Sessions, 57, thinks about something incredible that's set to happen later that day.
In a few hours, he will join a tiny cadre of American pilots who have flown Russia's iconic war bird: the MiG-29.
Even more incredibly, Sessions will do it as a civilian. He'll fly a jet capable of surpassing Mach 2, a jet so powerful it can climb 45,000 feet per minute.
He plans to steer the former Evil Empire's most lethal fighter jet straight over the skies of Snohomish County.
It's cost him millions of dollars and the better part of a decade to get to this day.
In those hours before the first flight, he feels only calm, confident energy. He's ready.
Russia's Fulcrum
The MiG-29 is one sexy beast.
The jet is long, lean and light, with swept, mid-mounted wings and two vertical fins. The front nose ends in a needle-like protrusion like a wasp's stinger.
Russian engineers began designing what would become the MiG in the early 1970s to counter America's top-notch fighters, such as the F-15 Eagle.
The Russians nicknamed the jet the "Fulcrum" -- the agent through which great power is exercised.
(Excerpt) Read more at heraldnet.com ...
Mark Mulligan / The Herald
John Sessions stands in front of the MiG-29 he acquired for the Historic Flight Foundation's aircraft collection. “If you are going to restore a Mach 2 fighter, you might as well do a pretty one,” he says.
Hmm, how are they going to acquire spare parts for it?
Same way half the 1/3 world does - with credit card. As long as you pay well, the Russians are very happy to sell you what you want. Now returning the crappy parts for refund might be a little dicey. ;)
Nice !
Actually, NATO did...but it a reporter, he doesn't know better.
Although when flying this MiG, I suspect there is a lot of little boy inside.
I thought Fulcrum was the NATO designation.
Actually, NATO did...but it a reporter, he doesn't know better.
We should count our blessings and just be thankful the reporter didn't say he was flying an AK-47.
Who will sign off on that annual??
Seriously, he may as well make the parts himself & wait for approval.
Heck, I was looking for the “semi-auto” designation in there somewhere!
I hear there is a Harrier for sale now.
I hear there is a Harrier for sale now.
Exactly, we can’t expect reporters to know anything
I would have wanted to be there to see that! (f'n reporters...)
Yep, noticed that after I posted...thanks.
On a semi-related note, here’s an article about Constant Peg, the Cold War-era program for American pilots to test fly ‘acquired’ Soviet fighter jets.
http://www.airforce-magazine.com/MagazineArchive/Pages/2007/April%202007/0407peg.aspx
The MiG-23 seems to have been the pilots least favorite by far.
Journalists!
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