The MiG is STILL scary to me.
Nah. But I’d do an SU34; at least it has a toilet. Age brings with it certain certainties...
Talk about a wowser, the thought is interesting but being that the -25 was an INTERCEPTOR and was much of a design to counter the USAF B-72 as a very high altitude supersonic bomber. As such its range was short with a max at low altitude of <800 miles while high altitude with combat load was a mere 185 miles or so. So this was a thought experiment and an interesting concept as such.
That great race to a viable Supersonic Transport (SST) that produced the Concorde and the Tupolev Tu-144 as well as Boeing’s never built SST, is, almost certainly, a step too soon taken in the late 1960s. The technology and research produced noisy, expensive and uncomfortable aircraft that could not sustain their promise. The only reason that the 2 types were built is that government prestige and careers got caught in the mix.
Today it would be possible to build a much more civilized and minimized ‘boomer’ airplane and I expect such to be built within twenty years. There is a business need even with tele-conferencing and other alternatives. The trans-pacific and trans-atlantic routes are the obvious ones if the range can be accomodated.
the Mig 25 is scary. Looks like two huge engines with some airfoil strapped on as an afterthought. The ejection seat is where I would focus the most maintenance.
Hard to see how the passengers wouldn’t be very cramped in there.
BUT, their planes never look quite right esthetically to my eye. This thing looks like something right out of the “Transformers” movie.
Just my opinion.
Oldplayer
Interesting story...one heck of a business jet.
Remember going to Nashville to see the Concorde land.
Thousands of people came out to view that bad boy.
That drop-down nose was amazing.Also the noise.
I remember reading that while the -25 was capable of reaching Mach 3, that when it did they had to replace the engines. Also, when we kindly took apart the -25 that was delivered to Japan in the mid-70s, our engineers were stunned to find that the Soviets had not one integrated circuit on the plane - it was all vacuum tubes (which, as it turns out, is ideal for a world in nuclear conflict, as the ICs fry in the presence of EMP, whereas the tubes survive).
Amazing that we caused them to waste such enormous talent and resources to counter a bomber we never ended up building. BTW, I saw one of the B-70 prototypes at Wright-Patterson AFB’s museum - what a MONSTER! Gorgeous, but an absolutely HUGE plane. Had we built a fleet of them, they would’ve been the iconic nuclear bomber instead of the BUFF.