"user314" (user314)
10/01/2020 at 11:00 • Filed to: flightline, USSR, red air force, the eighties, the 80s
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"user314" (user314)
10/01/2020 at 11:00 • Filed to: flightline, USSR, red air force, the eighties, the 80s | 8
| 18 |
The MiG-31 in its hangar prior to being stolen
Developed in the late 1970s, the MiG-31 (NATO reporting name “Firefox”) was an evolutionary (some would say revolutionary) follow-on to the MiG-25 interceptor. Though an impressive plane, the MiG-25 fell short of matching the US’ SR-71 Blackbird, and so the Mikoyan OKB went back to the drawing board, this time aiming to exceed the capabilities of the Americans. The new interceptor would be capable of hypersonic flight, allowing it to easily intercept aggressive aircraft.
Orthograph of the MiG-31
The airframe of the MiG-31 was constructed from titanium and SS-118, the same stainless steel/nickle alloy used on the MiG-25. The Firefox marked the first wide-scale use of titanium by an aircraft in the USSR, though it had previous experience using the metal on the Project 705 (NATO reporting name Alfa-class) nuclear submarine. The fuselage was partially faceted to reflect radar away from transmitters, and was made as aerodynamically smooth as possible both to lessen aerodynamic heating and to reduce radar cross-section. The wing was a large double-delta planform to allow both high speed and high altitude flight, and the aircraft was fitted with canards. The MiG-31 was painted with radar absorbing paint, similar to the ‘Iron Ball’ coatings used on the SR-71.
The Firefox was equipped with the latest avionics, including advanced ESM/ECM gear to jam US and NATO radar. The MiG also featured the first fly-by-wire system for a Soviet aircraft. The most revolutionary system however was the thought-controlled weapons array, which utilized sensors within a dedicated helmet to measure the pilot’s brainwaves, allowing him to target and fire weapons simply by thinking (in Russian). The Firefox also sported a synthetic aperture radar, which allowed it to perform reconnaissance as well as detect and track airborne targets.
Soviet engineers started with the MiG-25's Tumansky RJ-15BD-300 engines and incorporated lessons learned from the Foxbat as well as manufacturing techniques stolen from Western manufacturers, creating high-bypass afterburning turbojets that produced 50,000lbs of thrust each, allowing the MiG-31 to reach speeds of Mach 6 for short periods. The Firefox had six Soyuz/Komarov throttleable solid rocket boosters, which provided an additional 16,000lbs of thrust. This capacity was used for takeoffs and high-speed dashes, though it could also be used at extreme altitudes (130,000+ feet) in case of an engine flameout. As with the SR-71 and XB-70, fuel was used to cool the airframe and engines prior to combustion.
Despite extraordinarily tight security, even for the USSR, Western spies learned about the MiG-31, and the CIA managed to infiltrate a pilot into the test base with the purpose of stealing the prototype and flying it to the US. The first part of the plan is successful, and the Firefox met with an American nuclear submarine in the Arctic Circle to refuel.
The Firefox on the ice during its refueling stop
The MiG-31 meeting with an American submarine to refuel
The Soviet Air Force dispatched the second MiG-31 prototype to destroy the first, though it was shot down instead. The American pilot then flew the plane to the US, were it was quickly dispatched to an undisclosed base (likely same facility at Groom Lake where the A-12 and SR-71 were tested) for inspection and testing.
A shot of the Firefox soon after landing in the US
After being examined by US intelligence and defense agencies, the MiG-31 was borrowed to NASA for further flight testing
Chariotoflove
> user314
10/01/2020 at 11:07 |
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I was waiting for this one.
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user314
> Chariotoflove
10/01/2020 at 11:15 |
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I was trying to go for less-obvious ones, but I couldn’t not do the Firefox.
ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability
> user314
10/01/2020 at 11:15 |
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Wowe! Surely someone had made a film about this??
Edit: wait, is this is a movie plot? I thought it was real....
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Chariotoflove
> user314
10/01/2020 at 11:19 |
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Will you stick to air craft, or branch into space craft?
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user314
> Chariotoflove
10/01/2020 at 11:24 |
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I’m sticking to aircraft (or at least aerospace, as the VF-1 could fly in space ) for now. I’m also only doing one more Flights of Fantasy, at least this month .
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user314
> ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability
10/01/2020 at 11:27 |
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Yeah, all the Flights of Fantasy pieces I’ve done this week have been fictional aerospace craft written from a “real world” perspective. There is a real MiG-31, but this is the one from “ Firefox ”, the 1977 made into a movie in 1982.
ttyymmnn
> user314
10/01/2020 at 11:30 |
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One summer I was staying with my grandmother in Pennsylvania and I was bored out of my skull. She kicked me out of the house and told me to walk a few blocks to the Mary S. Biesecker Public Library. I checked out two books: Gateway by Frederik Pohl, and Firefox . I read Firefox in two days, and Gateway in three. Gateway absolutely blew my mind. The movie was fine, but one thing they really couldn’t express, or at least did a poor job of, was the mind-reading helmet. The whole “think in Russian” scene at the end really isn’t explained very well. IIRC, it was a flare countermeasure that got ingested into the second Firefox, and not a defensive missile of some kind.
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Chariotoflove
> user314
10/01/2020 at 11:30 |
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Alright, well I’ll wait for volume 2 then.
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user314
> ttyymmnn
10/01/2020 at 11:31 |
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Yeah, IIRC the first MiG-31 wasn’t armed. Been a while since I’ve watched it.
bison78
> user314
10/01/2020 at 11:40 |
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I knew Craig Thomas. He was my English teacher for several years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Thomas_(author)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefox_(film)
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ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability
> user314
10/01/2020 at 11:46 |
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I see, nice write-up tho.
facw
> ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability
10/01/2020 at 11:54 |
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Yep, as Skyfire said, Firefox.
Here’s the real MiG-31, which is basically a MiG-25 on steroids:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan_MiG-31
The US did have a MiG-25 for a couple months, after a Soviet pilot flew it to Japan and defected in 1976: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Belenko
PatBateman
> user314
10/01/2020 at 12:10 |
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It is widely rumored that the pilot who “commandeered” the Firefox muttered something about inviting the other pilots who he shot down to “make [ his] day”.
Don’t know what that’s about. Some Dirty Harry stuff right there.
Highlander-Datsuns are Forever
> user314
10/01/2020 at 12:13 |
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Can you do a piece on Airwolf? I seem to remember this being a much better show if you are 10 than say 30 something.
415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)
> ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability
10/01/2020 at 13:12 |
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415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)
> facw
10/01/2020 at 13:16 |
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I can show you where a MIG something is out on San Clemente island, I saw it in person. I have seen it on Google maps since, I will take a look.... one moment... :
I also saw a Hind and some other stuff out in the Mohave.
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user314
> 415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)
10/01/2020 at 13:34 |
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facw
> 415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)
10/01/2020 at 13:35 |
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Yep, we’ve definitely acquired a few things here and there (especially easy after the fall of the Soviet Union). We even give them designations (from Wikipedia):
YF-110 MiG-21s – Mikoyan-Gurevich
YF-113 MiG-23s – Mikoyan-Gurevich
YF-114 MiG-17 – Mikoyan-Gurevich
YF-115 – Rumored designation of captured Su-7
YF-116 – Rumored designation of captured MiG-25
YF-118 – Rumored designation of MiG-29