[Vigilanteman]

Back during the Cold War there was a Russian pilot who flew one of their leading edge MiG fighters into an airbase in Japan and defected.

The Russians really put on a saber rattling show to get the Japanese to return the plane. They finally did, but not after they had taken it completely apart and invited the Americans to take photos of everything.

Among other things, we discovered that the Ruskies were still using vacuum tube technology. Their jig was up not long after that incident.

If the Turks are still our allies, they'd do the same thing.

[tcrlaf]

“Among other things, we discovered that the Ruskies were still using vacuum tube technology.”

Which led to the panicked realization that this aircraft was designed to operate in an Nuclear EMP ENVIRONMENT, and we had nothing that could do likewise.

That led directly to redesign of the entire “Looking Glass/Air Force 1” project, delaying it by several years.

[PastorBooks]

“Back during the Cold War there was a Russian pilot who flew one of their leading edge MiG fighters into an airbase in Japan and defected.”

MIG-25...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-25

“Among other things, we discovered that the Ruskies were still using vacuum tube technology.”

There is a theory that they used vacuum tubes to protect against EMP pulses. The MIG-25 wouldn’t have been vulnerable to them.

[riverdawg]

There is a very good autobiography by the MiG pilot, Viktor Belenko, who defected. The Japanese allowed the CIA to take the plane apart, ship it to Wright-Patterson AFB, reassemble it, analyze every component, and then return it to the Soviets, in crates. The assessment of the vacuum-tube technology created a long-running controversy within the intelligence community. Some though it was mainly indicative of the backwardness of Soviet technology, but others believed that it was a clever, low-cost way to get around the performance sensitivity of micro-electronic components to extremes of temperature, altitude, and speed. Think of a similar comparison between an AK-47 and an M-16 rifle.

[wolf78]

If the Turks are still our allies, they'd do the same thing.

Well, if I understand it correctly, the Syrian passenger jet was an Airbus A320, the same model flown by countless American airlines, which will even be built in the US soon. So, no secrets there ;)