Mig-25 defection: How a Soviet Pilot Brought a Secret Warplane To The West

The Aviationist ^ | July 19, 2013 | Jacek Siminski, David Cenciotti

[The Unknown Republican]

I read “Mig Pilot” more than 35 years ago...I think I’ll pick up another copy used and read it again.

[The Unknown Republican]

Correction...it was 33 years. :-)

[taildragger]

I read “Mig Pilot” more than 35 years ago...I think I’ll pick up another copy used and read it again.

Ditto that, great paperback. The story of how he hunted and fished as a teen because his cheap and shrill step mom wouldn't buy good food ( if they could get it ). So he went to the woods, and picked berries and fished in streams to get the protein he needed and he lifted weights.

His disdain for the bureaucracy and pleasing Majors coming to visit with massive tree planting, only to know they would die, as it took him out of cockpit probably helped cement his decision. That and the fact he thought to himself in the book they knew they were out gunned with nothing to compete against F15's and F16's...

Great post everyone....,

[Texas Fossil]

Yes, it was a good read. I loaned my copy to a neighbor who was an Air Force Pilot. It never came home, he now has Parkinson’s & I think his wife dementia. I will not ask either of them for it. That is what you expect when you loan books.

I have some others that wound up the same way. One of them I cannot replace. It regret that one.

[gaijin]

The U-2 was eventually shot down by an S-75 Dvina missile

Mostly idle talk, but some have said it actually might have been a BOMB.

Yes, sounds very weird.

[varyouga]

“IIRC there were a lot of guffaws concerning the radio because it was vacuum tube.”

At least one of the variants had tubes for ALL the avionics. Immune to EMP weaponry

[Joe Boucher]

good stuff,
interesting read
Thanks

[JoeFromSidney]

Belenko's wife was a real shrew too, and that made his decision to make a run for it in the his Foxbat that much easier.

I've read several tales by defectors. They always claimed their wives were shrews, or were staunch Communists. I always wondered just how much of that was a story intended to protect the left-behind wife.

[klpt]

[Sirius Lee]

Well, as long as we're doing plane porn and people keep throwing the sexy term "B-70" around here...

Unfortunately this pic was taken right before the accident that helped kill the program.

[klpt]

[skeptoid]

......we don't know what we got....it's a good book by the way...

I got an early copy from' the Conservative Book Club, and I thought: "this should be required high school reading".

Remember after his doubt about the stores, Belenko asked to see a carrier (thinking "there's no way") and when they gave him the Full Cleveland, he knew everything was genuine.