How the West stole the secret in the lake (Sovjet plane)

Sydney Morning Herald ^ | January 24 2004

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[OldFriend]

This would be one thrilling book. Even tho we know the outcome.

[lafroste]

Boy, that's the truth. I thought it was b&tt ugly too.

[CTOCS]

Actually, the vacuum tubes were a stroke of genius as they are impervious to EMP. Their capabilities would have survived a blast, ours wouldn't have as they were all transisterized. Would have fried every one of them.....

[Charles Martel]

As Soviet design bureaus go, Yakovlev had a gift for making truly ugly airplanes.

To my eyes, a glimpse of the YAK-28 may suggest "early jet age", but it's not terribly ugly. Of course, it looks better in flight than it does in some poorly-maintained museum display. In fact, it looks quite a bit like a ME-262 on steroids, with a swept wing purloined from the MiG design bureau.

Now, that Sukhoi pictured above... that's ugly. It may be functional and lethal - but it ain't pretty.

[Solson]

I love reading about these stories. Blind Man's Bluff about the sub stories and tapping the underwater comm line of the Russsians was great.

Whatever has happened to the intelligence community since that time?

[cyclotic]

That was an awesome story. As I recall, when the Russians finally found the tap after several years, it was prominently stamped "Property of US Government."

[Rebelbase]

They discovered it through one of their spies, don't know if it was Hansen or not.

[raybbr]

Awesome book. I found it at a used bookstore for $2. Truly fascinating stories about sub espionage. Even more fun because I have a co-worker who was on a skipjack sub for 6 years and he can't tell stories but when we ask questions we get the idea.