Tag: MiG-23 Flogger
"I am pretty sure that was a frightful sight for those in the Mi-2 helicopter to see two Tomcats with wings back at 68 degrees coming right at them...they probably had to clean their flight suits out…" Retired Three-Star Vice Admiral Mike “Smiles” Bucchi, former VF-33 F-14 driver. When Grumman’s F-14 Tomcat...
The available technology and know-how just couldn’t keep up: by the time the MiG-23 ‘had to enter series production’, it was incomplete, and its weapons system not ready either. The Soviets couldn’t cope with US-led high-tech race and the emergence of micro-technologies… Concluding this ‘write-up’ here is the first part of an analysis...
No less than 35 pairs of Libyan interceptors, including a total of 70 MiG-23MS's, MiG-25Ps, Mirage F.1s, and even Su-22s, Su-22Ms and MiG-25RBs, approached US Navy aircraft on Aug. 18, 1981. Relations between Libya under Gaddafi's rule and the USA gradually worsened after Tripoli's announcement that the Gulf of Syrte (known as the...
Shortly after taking a smooth right turn, the two MiG-23MLs from No. 63 Squadron rolled out barely 8nm behind the F-14A, meanwhile underway well inside the Iraqi airspace… Although most of Iraqi sources maintain that the Iranian F-14A never proved particularly effective, and never had much success during the Iran-Iraq War, cross-examination of...
“Captain Koal MiG-23 was unarmed and carried no extra fuel tanks. He has got a new breathing mask that day. Our subsequent investigation has shown that this mask was too big. When he climbed to an altitude above 5,000 metres, he forgot to activate 100% oxygen and went into hypoxia,” Hazem al-Bajign, former Libyan Arab Air...
“I pushed my throttle to full dry power while my aircraft went through the vertical and pointed at the Tomcats while still inverted. Both Tomcat crews were fantastic: they followed the manoeuvre and we met at the top,” Abdelmajid Tayari, former Libyan MiG-23 pilot. Following a series of terrorist attacks on US and...
After returning to the carrier, both the F-14s received single FLOGGER 'kill' markings above the nose MODEX, although these were removed by the time the jets returned to Oceana on Jan. 31 Jan. 4, 1989 was a historic day for VF-32, and the Tomcat community as a whole, when the F-14 once...
For unknown reasons, the Angolan MiG-23 fired a missile, which blew the starboard engine clean off the BAe 125. A second missile hit the same engine after it had already left the aircraft In mid-1988 Cuba and the Soviet Union agreed to a phased withdrawal from First Angolan Civil War in exchange for a South African withdrawal and agreement to...
The SAAF had to admit that - thanks to the superior armament of the Cuban-flown MiG-23MLs - Angola was now in possession of air superiority Located in south-central Africa, the Republic of Angola is a former Portuguese colony. It remained a Portuguese overseas province from the 16th century until it gained independence on Nov. 1, 1975, following the end of...
'The expression "Houston, we have a problem!" would fit perfectly here. "JD" explained that there is a problem — no pilot!,' Bill "Turf" Murphy F-15 Driver On Jul. 4, 1989, Captains J. D. "JD" Martin and Bill "Turf" Murphy checked in at the temporary Zulu facility's at Soesterberg to assume the duties of ALPHA KILO ZERO ONE and ZERO was TWO....
