Thank You, Viktor Belenko …

The MiG-25 is a big, clumsy, stupid beast,…and I love every square inch of it.

MiG-31, essentially the same aircraft, but remade with titanium, aluminum, and modern avionics, is a vast improvement, and a potent combat aircraft, but it lacks the gothic appeal of its dim witted progenitor.

The Foxbat, is a monstrous, stainless steel locomotive with wings. In a suicide dash, (it tends to run out of fuel when pushed to maximum speed, but if you make it back to the barn, it’ll need two new engines*) it is close to the SR-71 in speed**.

Of course, in all it’s muscle bound majesty, it is after all just a very, crude, mutated knock-off, of one of the most beautiful fighters of all time, the ill fated Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow (But that’s another show)

Western estimates of the Foxbat’s potential, based on its rumored titanium construction, and enormous plan form, hinted at a frightening level of aerodynamic performance.

That anticipated performance, shaped, and even supercharged the development of what we now know as the F-15 Eagle, and to a degree, the other Legacy Fighters, F-14, F-16, F/A-18. The USAF needed a Foxbat killer, and the superbly maneuverable Eagle, (which you may notice, is shaped a lot like a MiG-25) had a fighting chance.

Then, literally out of the blue, on September 6, 1976, a young Lieutenant, Victor Belenko, a pilot with the 513th Fighter Regiment, 11th Air Army, Soviet Air Defence Forces based in Chuguyevka, Primorsky Krai, landed his MiG-25 in Hakodate, Japan. He climbed out, handed over the keys, and walked into history.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but I’ve heard this Foxbat was in such disrepair, it had rusty, non-stainless sheet metal patches on its skin. We got our hands on a real MiG-25, for a very brief period, and learned that the F-15 would enjoy unparalleled air dominance. Well,...at least until the Boys at Mikoyan-Gurevich, unleashed the MiG-29 Fulcrum, just three years later. Clearly derivative of the F-15, (and F-16) the Fulcrum is the best MiG ever made, and a very formidable fighter, even now***.

To be fair, I wouldn’t be too hard on the Soviets for continuing development of the MiG-25.

How would they know, for certain, that the XB-70, and the concept of high altitude mach 3 penetrators was really abandoned by the USAF?

*On the other hand, it stood a very good chance of intercepting XB-70’s, which would make the sacrifice worthwhile.

**Yeah, but how fast can the SR-71 really go?

***Note: MiG-35’s are just highly evolved MiG-29’s