[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.

[Red Badger]

Tube technology is impervious to nuclear impulse.............

[Brad from Tennessee]

I think that variant of MIG was powered by a rocket engine that had to be changed out fairly regularly because it degraded quickly from the heat it produced. The plane was an interceptor that needed power over other qualities.