Soviet fighters in the USAF (part 1)
If you believe open sources, the Yak-23 became the first Soviet jet combat aircraft trapped in the United States.
In October, the CIA carried out an Operation Alpha Project (Project Alpha) to transfer to the United States to study and test the Yak-1953 fighter in October. The plane was transported from the “Balkan country No. XXUMX” to the “Balkan country No. XXUMX”. “Balkan country No. XXUMX”, Yugoslavia, agreed to temporarily transfer the Yak to the Americans. For a fighter at the airfield Pancevo, near Belgrade, flew a transport C-23. The fighter was transported to the United States at Wright-Patterson air base in a disassembled form. The assembly was carried out under the supervision of Yugoslav experts. The first US flight of the Yak-1 performed 2 in November 1. In total, from the 124 to 23 in November, the US Air Force test pilot Lt. Col. Fred Wolf performed eight flights. In the United States, American identification marks and the registration number “FU-4” were affixed to the Yak with washable paint. Before returning the aircraft to the “owners,” all symbolism was washed away from it.
To work attracted a very limited circle of people. Randomly seeing the Yak, it was represented as X-5. The experimental X-5 really had some external similarity with the Yak-23.
It must be said that the Yak at that time was of interest to the United States only insofar as it was believed then in the United States that it was in large quantities in service with the air forces of Bulgaria, Romania, Czechoslovakia and Poland. By November 1953, the Americans had a more advanced fighter than the Yak-23, the MiG-15 fighter.
The report on the testing of Yak Americans made the following conclusions:
“The Yak-23, like its predecessors, is a single-seat light nigh-plane fighter. The aircraft is equipped with only the most necessary onboard equipment. The advantages of the aircraft include take-off qualities, good acceleration characteristics, high climb rate. Disadvantages: absence of a pressurized cabin, speed limit M = 0,8, poor travel stability at instrument speed above 600 km / h. ”
In late November or early December, the Yak-23 on the C-124 was taken back to Belgrade.
This story about the appearance of the Yak in the United States was published in the US Air Force magazine "Air Force" (No.6 / 2004). It is clear that this story is not quite complete. For example, the Americans did not explain where the aircraft of this type came from in Yugoslavia itself, and why the Yugoslavs showed similar courtesy to the Yankees. Let's try to clarify this situation.
Yugoslavia after breaking relations with the USSR began to receive military assistance from the United States. In March 1953, the first four T-33s landed in Batainitsa, and in June the first F-84G Thunderjet. In July, Yugoslav experts got the opportunity to get acquainted with a Soviet-made fighter jet: on July 24, the Romanian Air Force pilot Mihai Dyakonu flew to Yak-23. The fighter was handed over for testing to the Experienced aviation center (Vazdukhoplovny opitni centar). Three Yugoslav test pilots flew to Yak: captains Vodopivets (17 flights, 8 hours 27 minutes), Todorovich (three flights, 1 hours 14 minutes), Prebeg (one flight, 20 minutes). Pilots rated the Yak-23 as a high-speed aircraft with good handling.
There was no time for detailed tests, because representatives of the CIA of the USA learned about Yak. The Americans have asked to transfer the Yak to them. The top leadership of Yugoslavia did not refuse the US request. Officers of the Experimental Center, Colonel-Engineer Kosta Sivchev and Lieutenant-Colonel-Engineer Milorad Spasić, as well as Aircraft Weaponry Specialist Major Miroslav Boras, Aircraft Equipment Specialist Major Zvonimir Kos and Engineer of the Aviation Technical Institute Branislav Iovanovic accompanied to America.
So the Yak came to the USA. This is the Serbian version, which looks much more authentic than the American. On the future of this Yak-23 in the open press information was not published. By the way, the public only became aware of the flight of the Romanian pilot to the SFRY only 35 years later. In 1956, the Yugoslavs returned the Yak of Romania, and Mihai Diaconu lived in Belgrade, at least until the middle of the 1990's.
However, Americans showed a much greater interest in those years to the MiG-15 fighter, which they first encountered in Korea.
To get their hands on the usable MiG-15, the Americans conducted an operation "Moulah" (Moolah) in Korea. As far as is known, the Yankees didn’t forcefully attempt to land MiG-15, because they were realists - air battles were fought over the territory controlled by the North Koreans. There was one alternative to forced landing: to persuade any pilot to fly to South Korea.
On the night of 26 on April 1953, in the area of the Yalu River over North Korea, about half a million leaflets with texts in Russian, Korean and Chinese were dropped from two B-29. The Americans promised to pay the brave pilot, who overtook the MiG on the side of the "allies" of the UN (the United States waged war in Korea under the auspices of the UN, along with Great Britain and Australia), 100000 dollars - huge for those times. Belief that the leaflets "work", the command of the US Air Force did not test. Nevertheless, 21 September 1953 g. At the airport Kimpo landed MiG-15bis. By that time, five months had passed since the leaflets were scattered, the fighting in Korea ended - the truce was signed on July 27 on 1953. Americans had time to forget about Operation Mulah.
But Kum Sok's flight from Pyongyang to Kimpo took only 13 minutes ... The MiG completely accidentally “secured” the four Saber planes that landed. Two accompanied the fighter before landing, two went a little higher, ready to shoot down the MiG.
Americans came to their senses instantly. The Korean pilot was a company of intelligence officers, and the MiG-15 was dragged into a well-guarded hangar.
The reasons for which Kum Sok overtook the MiG to the enemy are no longer established today. If, according to Americans, he spoke about himself as a good Catholic, he recalled how drunk Russian soldiers who had occupied Korea made a terrible impression when he was a child. He showed a photo of his girlfriend, telling him that during the war the pilots were forbidden contact with the female sex, for beautiful girls were almost certainly South Korean spies ... This is, so to speak, lyrics. The facts are much more interesting. "Good Catholic" became the youngest Communist pilot of the DPRK Air Force. He made the first sortie in 1951 at the age of 19 years, completed more than 100 sorties in all, was awarded two orders, although he did not win victories in air battles. Probable cause could be filial love - the mother of a lieutenant with 1950, remained in the "southern" territory.
By this time, Western experts already had the opportunity to study the MiG, however, very fluently. 5 March 1953. The Polish Air Force pilot Lt. Frantisek Jareski took off on the MiG-15bis to perform the next training task from the Slupsk airbase, but performed landing at Ronne airport on Bornholm Island. A few days later, the fighter had to be returned to People’s Poland, and Frantisek Yareski went to the USA — he, as Western propaganda used to say, “chose Freedom.” By the way, a photograph of Yaresky was printed on leaflets that the Americans scattered in Korea.
A bad example is contagious: 5 in May 1953 was flown to Bornholm by a colleague of Yareski on the 28 th Fighter Squadron Lt. Zdislav Yazvinsky stationed in Slupsk. The Poles flew twice to the MiG-15bis to the West: November 7 1955 Lieutenant Kozhukhovsky from the 31 Squadron of the Polish Air Force (the Lask airfield) made an emergency landing in Sweden, September 25 1956, Lieutenant Zygmunt Gosnyak made an emergency landing in Sweden, 15 September, XIUMX Lieutenant Zygmunt Gosnyak made an emergency landing in Sweden, XNUMX September September, IG, IGNGX, Lieutenant Zygmunt Gosnyak made an emergency landing in Sweden. XNUMXbis with a retracted landing gear at Ronne airport. None of these MiGs were tested in flight.
But back to the North Korean MiG.
The Americans were afraid of North Koreans trying to bomb the hangar with the MiG and immediately began to disassemble the aircraft. Technicians were horrified by the technical condition of the fighter. J. I. Kelper of the 6401 th Maintenance Squadron (6401st Field Maintenance Squadron), who participated in this work, recalled in the pages of The Air Force Museum Foundation Magazine (issue over the summer of 2006): “All pneumatics needed in replacement ... All pipelines at the bend points were flattened. It is not clear how the fuel came to the engine at all and how the system for cleaning and releasing the chassis could work ... Not a single American plane in this state would have allowed flights. ”
Kelper suggested that the horrific technical condition of the aircraft was the result of the hasty dismantling of the MiG by North Korean technicians before relocating from China to the DPRK at the end of July 1953 and the subsequent not very high-quality assembly. According to Kelper, from 1952, the pneumatics for Korean MiGs were supplied from China, already then the glorious quality of their products.
The next day, the partially disassembled MiG was loaded into C-124 and delivered to Okinawa, where American test pilots performed the first flights on it. The first flight was performed by Kh.I. Collins Campaign Collins was the famous major Chuck Eager, who was once the first in the world to break the sound barrier. Iger nearly broke the MiG. When performing a dive from a height of 15000, the plane lost control - the well-known effect of “delaying into a dive”. Iger regained control only at the height of 900 m. During the dive, the MiG accelerated to speed M = 0,95.
After several flights in Okinawa, the fighter was again dismantled. In this form, it was transported in December 1953 to the United States at the Wright-Patterson air base. In the Wright-Patterson, the MiG was experienced in a “real way”. Particular attention was paid to the comparison with the "Sabre" and came to the conclusion that one fighter is worth the other: they are approximately equal in flight data and combat effectiveness.
In 1957, the aircraft was transferred to the US Air Force Museum. As for But Kum Sok, he received his 100000 dollars immediately. Another 100000 dollars he perepal for information that US intelligence received from him during surveys and conversations, which were conducted for seven months. But Kum Sok changed his name to Kenneth Row, brought his mother from South Korea to the United States, got married, became a US citizen, graduated from Delaware University, worked at Boeing, General Dynamics, General Electric, became a professor. In 1996 in the USA, the memories of the Korean pilot “A MiG-15 to Fredoom” were published. In 2004, US citizen Ken Rowe flew a MiG-15UTI flight with Korea-based Saber pilot Dore Sutton. That's just happy for Row's story turned into a tragedy for his friends. Five pilots who were friends with No Kum Sok, after stealing a MiG in Kimpo, were shot.
Many years later, Kum Sok, recalling the war, frankly laughed at American leaflets: “When Americans dropped leaflets, neither Soviet, nor Chinese, nor our MiG-15 were based in the DPRK. Even if our pilot read the flyer, then what? We had no idea about the value of the dollar. We then received 500000 Chinese won a month (about 50 dollars) and did not know what to do with this money. We were still not released from the base. ”
“Focus” with leaflets Americans repeated in 1966 in Vietnam. For hauling the MiG-21 fighter and Mi-6 helicopter from the North to the South, the Yankees offered the same 100 000 dollars. But no one was found.
And the new MiGs were oh-so-needed to Americans.
According to official American data, the ratio of victories in air battles in the sky of Vietnam for the period from 1965 to 1968 was 2,5: 1 for the Air Force and 2,75: 1 for the US Navy, i.e., at least one "Phantom" , Thunderchief or Crusader. Given the quantitative and qualitative superiority of American aircraft over the air forces of the DRV, such a ratio could not please the Pentagon. Even greater fears caused the alignment, so to speak, losses. In 1966, the MiGs accounted for 3% American aviation losses over North Vietnam, in 1967, 8%, and for the first three months, 1968, 22%. It was necessary to completely revise the tactics of combat use of fighter aircraft. It is obvious that heavy, optimized for air battles at large distances with the use of guided missiles "Phantom" in a "dog fight" outright lost, it would seem, outdated MiG-17, armed with "only" guns. Meanwhile, in melee guns were weapons much more threatening than the imperfect SD “Sidewinder” of the first modifications. In addition, most American fighter pilots had a rather vague idea of a maneuverable air combat — they were taught to intercept Soviet bombers, and not to turn turns with “flying antiques”. It must be said that in 1968, the main opponent of the American pilots was precisely the MiG-17, and not the MiG-21, whose contribution to the common pool of air force victories was not very large.
The command of the US Navy has formed at the Miramar airbase the now world-famous Center for Combat Training of Top Gun fighter pilots (Top Gun). The overwhelming majority of the crews of the US Navy carrier aircraft, which recorded downed MiGs, went through this “school”. In the USAF there was no such center. The final US air combat statistics are therefore not surprising: 8,3: 1 for the Navy and 2,8: 1 for the USAF. The Vietnamese pilots, in turn, preferred to fight with camouflage (BBC), rather than gray (Navy) "Phantoms".
Much has been written about “Top Gun”, even the movie is beautifully filmed. Nevertheless, there are plenty of secrets in the history of this Center. The pilots at the Center received training as part of the Constant Pig US Air Force program. It was preceded by the evaluation tests of the MiG-21 fighters under the Have Donut program and the MiG-17 "Have Drill / Have Ferry" conducted under the auspices of the CIA of the United States.
In October, the CIA carried out an Operation Alpha Project (Project Alpha) to transfer to the United States to study and test the Yak-1953 fighter in October. The plane was transported from the “Balkan country No. XXUMX” to the “Balkan country No. XXUMX”. “Balkan country No. XXUMX”, Yugoslavia, agreed to temporarily transfer the Yak to the Americans. For a fighter at the airfield Pancevo, near Belgrade, flew a transport C-23. The fighter was transported to the United States at Wright-Patterson air base in a disassembled form. The assembly was carried out under the supervision of Yugoslav experts. The first US flight of the Yak-1 performed 2 in November 1. In total, from the 124 to 23 in November, the US Air Force test pilot Lt. Col. Fred Wolf performed eight flights. In the United States, American identification marks and the registration number “FU-4” were affixed to the Yak with washable paint. Before returning the aircraft to the “owners,” all symbolism was washed away from it.
To work attracted a very limited circle of people. Randomly seeing the Yak, it was represented as X-5. The experimental X-5 really had some external similarity with the Yak-23.
It must be said that the Yak at that time was of interest to the United States only insofar as it was believed then in the United States that it was in large quantities in service with the air forces of Bulgaria, Romania, Czechoslovakia and Poland. By November 1953, the Americans had a more advanced fighter than the Yak-23, the MiG-15 fighter.
The report on the testing of Yak Americans made the following conclusions:
“The Yak-23, like its predecessors, is a single-seat light nigh-plane fighter. The aircraft is equipped with only the most necessary onboard equipment. The advantages of the aircraft include take-off qualities, good acceleration characteristics, high climb rate. Disadvantages: absence of a pressurized cabin, speed limit M = 0,8, poor travel stability at instrument speed above 600 km / h. ”
In late November or early December, the Yak-23 on the C-124 was taken back to Belgrade.
This story about the appearance of the Yak in the United States was published in the US Air Force magazine "Air Force" (No.6 / 2004). It is clear that this story is not quite complete. For example, the Americans did not explain where the aircraft of this type came from in Yugoslavia itself, and why the Yugoslavs showed similar courtesy to the Yankees. Let's try to clarify this situation.
Yugoslavia after breaking relations with the USSR began to receive military assistance from the United States. In March 1953, the first four T-33s landed in Batainitsa, and in June the first F-84G Thunderjet. In July, Yugoslav experts got the opportunity to get acquainted with a Soviet-made fighter jet: on July 24, the Romanian Air Force pilot Mihai Dyakonu flew to Yak-23. The fighter was handed over for testing to the Experienced aviation center (Vazdukhoplovny opitni centar). Three Yugoslav test pilots flew to Yak: captains Vodopivets (17 flights, 8 hours 27 minutes), Todorovich (three flights, 1 hours 14 minutes), Prebeg (one flight, 20 minutes). Pilots rated the Yak-23 as a high-speed aircraft with good handling.
There was no time for detailed tests, because representatives of the CIA of the USA learned about Yak. The Americans have asked to transfer the Yak to them. The top leadership of Yugoslavia did not refuse the US request. Officers of the Experimental Center, Colonel-Engineer Kosta Sivchev and Lieutenant-Colonel-Engineer Milorad Spasić, as well as Aircraft Weaponry Specialist Major Miroslav Boras, Aircraft Equipment Specialist Major Zvonimir Kos and Engineer of the Aviation Technical Institute Branislav Iovanovic accompanied to America.
So the Yak came to the USA. This is the Serbian version, which looks much more authentic than the American. On the future of this Yak-23 in the open press information was not published. By the way, the public only became aware of the flight of the Romanian pilot to the SFRY only 35 years later. In 1956, the Yugoslavs returned the Yak of Romania, and Mihai Diaconu lived in Belgrade, at least until the middle of the 1990's.
Yak-23 at the Yugoslav airfield
In the USA, temporary identification marks and registration numbers were applied to the aircraft.
Yak-23 inspects Josip Broz Tito
However, Americans showed a much greater interest in those years to the MiG-15 fighter, which they first encountered in Korea.
To get their hands on the usable MiG-15, the Americans conducted an operation "Moulah" (Moolah) in Korea. As far as is known, the Yankees didn’t forcefully attempt to land MiG-15, because they were realists - air battles were fought over the territory controlled by the North Koreans. There was one alternative to forced landing: to persuade any pilot to fly to South Korea.
On the night of 26 on April 1953, in the area of the Yalu River over North Korea, about half a million leaflets with texts in Russian, Korean and Chinese were dropped from two B-29. The Americans promised to pay the brave pilot, who overtook the MiG on the side of the "allies" of the UN (the United States waged war in Korea under the auspices of the UN, along with Great Britain and Australia), 100000 dollars - huge for those times. Belief that the leaflets "work", the command of the US Air Force did not test. Nevertheless, 21 September 1953 g. At the airport Kimpo landed MiG-15bis. By that time, five months had passed since the leaflets were scattered, the fighting in Korea ended - the truce was signed on July 27 on 1953. Americans had time to forget about Operation Mulah.
But Kum Sok's flight from Pyongyang to Kimpo took only 13 minutes ... The MiG completely accidentally “secured” the four Saber planes that landed. Two accompanied the fighter before landing, two went a little higher, ready to shoot down the MiG.
Americans came to their senses instantly. The Korean pilot was a company of intelligence officers, and the MiG-15 was dragged into a well-guarded hangar.
The reasons for which Kum Sok overtook the MiG to the enemy are no longer established today. If, according to Americans, he spoke about himself as a good Catholic, he recalled how drunk Russian soldiers who had occupied Korea made a terrible impression when he was a child. He showed a photo of his girlfriend, telling him that during the war the pilots were forbidden contact with the female sex, for beautiful girls were almost certainly South Korean spies ... This is, so to speak, lyrics. The facts are much more interesting. "Good Catholic" became the youngest Communist pilot of the DPRK Air Force. He made the first sortie in 1951 at the age of 19 years, completed more than 100 sorties in all, was awarded two orders, although he did not win victories in air battles. Probable cause could be filial love - the mother of a lieutenant with 1950, remained in the "southern" territory.
By this time, Western experts already had the opportunity to study the MiG, however, very fluently. 5 March 1953. The Polish Air Force pilot Lt. Frantisek Jareski took off on the MiG-15bis to perform the next training task from the Slupsk airbase, but performed landing at Ronne airport on Bornholm Island. A few days later, the fighter had to be returned to People’s Poland, and Frantisek Yareski went to the USA — he, as Western propaganda used to say, “chose Freedom.” By the way, a photograph of Yaresky was printed on leaflets that the Americans scattered in Korea.
A bad example is contagious: 5 in May 1953 was flown to Bornholm by a colleague of Yareski on the 28 th Fighter Squadron Lt. Zdislav Yazvinsky stationed in Slupsk. The Poles flew twice to the MiG-15bis to the West: November 7 1955 Lieutenant Kozhukhovsky from the 31 Squadron of the Polish Air Force (the Lask airfield) made an emergency landing in Sweden, September 25 1956, Lieutenant Zygmunt Gosnyak made an emergency landing in Sweden, 15 September, XIUMX Lieutenant Zygmunt Gosnyak made an emergency landing in Sweden, XNUMX September September, IG, IGNGX, Lieutenant Zygmunt Gosnyak made an emergency landing in Sweden. XNUMXbis with a retracted landing gear at Ronne airport. None of these MiGs were tested in flight.
But back to the North Korean MiG.
The Americans were afraid of North Koreans trying to bomb the hangar with the MiG and immediately began to disassemble the aircraft. Technicians were horrified by the technical condition of the fighter. J. I. Kelper of the 6401 th Maintenance Squadron (6401st Field Maintenance Squadron), who participated in this work, recalled in the pages of The Air Force Museum Foundation Magazine (issue over the summer of 2006): “All pneumatics needed in replacement ... All pipelines at the bend points were flattened. It is not clear how the fuel came to the engine at all and how the system for cleaning and releasing the chassis could work ... Not a single American plane in this state would have allowed flights. ”
MiG-15 in the hangar of Kimpo airbase, South Korea
Flyer calling for Chinese pilots to fly to South Korea. The leaflet is “decorated” with the photograph of Polish Air Force Lieutenant Frantishek Yareski
Kelper suggested that the horrific technical condition of the aircraft was the result of the hasty dismantling of the MiG by North Korean technicians before relocating from China to the DPRK at the end of July 1953 and the subsequent not very high-quality assembly. According to Kelper, from 1952, the pneumatics for Korean MiGs were supplied from China, already then the glorious quality of their products.
The next day, the partially disassembled MiG was loaded into C-124 and delivered to Okinawa, where American test pilots performed the first flights on it. The first flight was performed by Kh.I. Collins Campaign Collins was the famous major Chuck Eager, who was once the first in the world to break the sound barrier. Iger nearly broke the MiG. When performing a dive from a height of 15000, the plane lost control - the well-known effect of “delaying into a dive”. Iger regained control only at the height of 900 m. During the dive, the MiG accelerated to speed M = 0,95.
After several flights in Okinawa, the fighter was again dismantled. In this form, it was transported in December 1953 to the United States at the Wright-Patterson air base. In the Wright-Patterson, the MiG was experienced in a “real way”. Particular attention was paid to the comparison with the "Sabre" and came to the conclusion that one fighter is worth the other: they are approximately equal in flight data and combat effectiveness.
In 1957, the aircraft was transferred to the US Air Force Museum. As for But Kum Sok, he received his 100000 dollars immediately. Another 100000 dollars he perepal for information that US intelligence received from him during surveys and conversations, which were conducted for seven months. But Kum Sok changed his name to Kenneth Row, brought his mother from South Korea to the United States, got married, became a US citizen, graduated from Delaware University, worked at Boeing, General Dynamics, General Electric, became a professor. In 1996 in the USA, the memories of the Korean pilot “A MiG-15 to Fredoom” were published. In 2004, US citizen Ken Rowe flew a MiG-15UTI flight with Korea-based Saber pilot Dore Sutton. That's just happy for Row's story turned into a tragedy for his friends. Five pilots who were friends with No Kum Sok, after stealing a MiG in Kimpo, were shot.
MiG-15 and F-86 Saber take off as a pair. Okinawa, 1953
MiG-15 Bis guarded while awaiting flight tests in Okinawa
Many years later, Kum Sok, recalling the war, frankly laughed at American leaflets: “When Americans dropped leaflets, neither Soviet, nor Chinese, nor our MiG-15 were based in the DPRK. Even if our pilot read the flyer, then what? We had no idea about the value of the dollar. We then received 500000 Chinese won a month (about 50 dollars) and did not know what to do with this money. We were still not released from the base. ”
“Focus” with leaflets Americans repeated in 1966 in Vietnam. For hauling the MiG-21 fighter and Mi-6 helicopter from the North to the South, the Yankees offered the same 100 000 dollars. But no one was found.
MiG-15 Lieutenant No Kum Sok with insignia of the USAF
Mig-15 in the hangar of US Air Force Base Kimpo
And the new MiGs were oh-so-needed to Americans.
According to official American data, the ratio of victories in air battles in the sky of Vietnam for the period from 1965 to 1968 was 2,5: 1 for the Air Force and 2,75: 1 for the US Navy, i.e., at least one "Phantom" , Thunderchief or Crusader. Given the quantitative and qualitative superiority of American aircraft over the air forces of the DRV, such a ratio could not please the Pentagon. Even greater fears caused the alignment, so to speak, losses. In 1966, the MiGs accounted for 3% American aviation losses over North Vietnam, in 1967, 8%, and for the first three months, 1968, 22%. It was necessary to completely revise the tactics of combat use of fighter aircraft. It is obvious that heavy, optimized for air battles at large distances with the use of guided missiles "Phantom" in a "dog fight" outright lost, it would seem, outdated MiG-17, armed with "only" guns. Meanwhile, in melee guns were weapons much more threatening than the imperfect SD “Sidewinder” of the first modifications. In addition, most American fighter pilots had a rather vague idea of a maneuverable air combat — they were taught to intercept Soviet bombers, and not to turn turns with “flying antiques”. It must be said that in 1968, the main opponent of the American pilots was precisely the MiG-17, and not the MiG-21, whose contribution to the common pool of air force victories was not very large.
The command of the US Navy has formed at the Miramar airbase the now world-famous Center for Combat Training of Top Gun fighter pilots (Top Gun). The overwhelming majority of the crews of the US Navy carrier aircraft, which recorded downed MiGs, went through this “school”. In the USAF there was no such center. The final US air combat statistics are therefore not surprising: 8,3: 1 for the Navy and 2,8: 1 for the USAF. The Vietnamese pilots, in turn, preferred to fight with camouflage (BBC), rather than gray (Navy) "Phantoms".
Much has been written about “Top Gun”, even the movie is beautifully filmed. Nevertheless, there are plenty of secrets in the history of this Center. The pilots at the Center received training as part of the Constant Pig US Air Force program. It was preceded by the evaluation tests of the MiG-21 fighters under the Have Donut program and the MiG-17 "Have Drill / Have Ferry" conducted under the auspices of the CIA of the United States.
Information