"user314" (user314)
09/15/2020 at 11:00 • Filed to: flightline, Planelopnik, planelopnik history, Cuba
9
14|
"user314" (user314)
09/15/2020 at 11:00 • Filed to: flightline, Planelopnik, planelopnik history, Cuba | 9
| 14 |
!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , FL, 10 March 1991
Development work on the MiG-23 began in 1965 with the purpose of replacing earlier MiG-15, -17, -19 and -21 fighters in Soviet service and with Warsaw Pact and export clients. The new aircraft was to have better range and performance than the MiG-21, as well as more capable avionics and beyond visible range (BVR) missiles. Another requirement would be a shorter take-off run than the earlier MiGs, and two potential technologies were investigated. One prototype, 23-01, was fitted with lift jets, hence the designation MiG-23PD, Podyomnye Dvigatyeli – literally “lift jet”.
Prototype 23-01, with dummy missiles
MiG-23PD with the louver for the lift jets in the open position
23-01 quickly proved that the lift jets worked, but that they were dead weight after take-off, and the idea was abandoned. Proceeding in parallel, a second team was working on prototype 23-11, which incorporated !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! had been researching since capturing German documents and scientists after WWII. The 23-11's wings could be set to angles of 16°, 45° and 72°. The swing-wing prototype showed its clear superiority over the 23-01, and a production derivative was ordered in 1967.
The MiG-23 was quickly accepted by the Soviet Air Forces, but widespread acceptance by Warsaw Pact forces was not forthcoming. The MiG proved to be more of an interceptor than a dog-fighter, and was more expensive to operate than the MiG-21 it was supposed to replace. Down-rated variants of the type were widely exported to Middle Eastern countries looking to replace less-capable 1st and 2nd generation fighters, as well as ground-attack versions that had been developed in the interim.
One of the few nations outside Europe and the Middle East to receive the MiG-23 was Cuba, which received a number of fighter and fighter-bomber aircraft.
A pilot of one of those Cuban MiGs was !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , formerly a major in the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . As a young boy in pre-Castro Cuba, Orestes received a toy plane from an uncle living in Florida, igniting a life-long love of flying. After the Revolution, he was sent to the Soviet Union for flight training, logging approximately 130 hours in L-29 !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! trainers, and another 130 hours in MiG-21s.
“My class was 3 months in ground school which took place in the spring. Instructional materials were plentiful and good. Flying began in the summer.
Typical flying was initially patterns around the local region. We then learned to fly formation and afterward aerobatics. If the training lacked anything it was flying to different airfields. We always took off from and returned to the same airfield.”
Despite (or perhaps because of) his time in the USSR, Orestes found himself becoming disillusioned with the promise of Castro’s Revolucion:
“The socialist system never worked, despite the fact that to the masses socialism was touted as the best form of government. The standard of living was incredibly poor. Sanitary and living conditions for ordinary citizens were atrocious. Alcoholism and adultery were epidemic, and racism was systemic.”
Time spent with the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in Angola further deepened his discontent, and after being sent back to the USSR to attend the Marshall Gregory Zhukov War College he began to hatch a plan to leave Cuba. In 1991 Orestes was tapped for training in the MiG-23, and he knew it was time to act. On March 20th he was to have his first solo flight, and Orestes put his plan into motion. After taking off in a MiG-23BN, registration number 722, the major turned north and dropped down to wave-top heights.
Orestes soon arrived over NAS Key West, but he faced a problem. Unable to communicate with American radios as his own was preset to Cuban frequencies, he entered the pattern to land, then made several passes over the base, his landing gear and flaps lowered and his air brakes and wings extended, as he waggled his wings hoping to convince the Americans of his intentions.
After completing his landing, Orestes waited, his engine idling, for the Americans to make the next move. Eventually a truck came out to meet him, and guided the Cuban aircraft to a ramp. Orestes cut his engine and jumped out as another car appeared, this time carrying a naval officer and an enlisted man to translate.
Orestes explained who he was, and that he was requesting asylum. After the younger man translated for the officer, who was in fact the base commander, Orestes was welcomed with a handshake.
Within a few days, a pilot with the FAR, along with a high-ranking !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! agent, were sent to retrieve the MiG-23, which was inspected at NAS Key West, then flown out.
The story doesn’t end there though. After settling in Alexandria, Orestes began to work to retrieve his wife and sons, left behind in Cuba. Along with family in the United States, he spoke out about conditions in Cuba, gaining support amongst American politicians and activists, with President HW Bush and Coretta Scott King both attempting to pressure Castro into releasing the Perez family.
Growing impatient with the Cuban leader’s intransigence, Orestes again took matters into his own hands, and began to plan for a return trip to the island of his birth, this time to rescue his family. A supporter funded his purchase of a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and using his knowledge of Cuban air defenses, radar and tactics, planned his route in, as well as a place to land. He was able to get messages to his wife via friends and family both in the US and in Cuba, and on 18 December 1992 all the pieces were in place. The following day, Orestes took off and headed for Cuba, almost retracing his route from the year before. Eventually he landed on a coastal road near Varadero, and picked up his wife and children. A tense but uneventful flight back to the States followed, and the Perez family landed at Marathon, now free from Cuba.
Orestes’ Cessna 310 prior to scrapping
Orestes sold the 310, though he tried to buy it back, only to be told it had been written off after damage from a hurricane. The MiG-23 he’d flown to Key West all those years ago had also been scrapped, with bits being sold to tourists.
What’s left of 722, in pieces on the side of a road.
For Sweden
> user314
09/15/2020 at 11:06 |
|
What a brave man, bringing the socialist revolution into the heart of the Yankee threat
ttyymmnn
> user314
09/15/2020 at 11:17 |
|
Didn’t Orestes land on a road in Cuba when he went back for his family? And I also seem to recall the Key West AFB catching some hell for not detecting Orestes on the way in. Also, that Cuban livery is cool. I’m digging the flag on the rudder.
PyroHoltz f@h Oppo 261120
> user314
09/15/2020 at 11:34 |
|
Great sto ry, thanks for sharing.
Thomas Donohue
> user314
09/15/2020 at 11:34 |
|
NAS Key West.....I landed there last night in FS 2020 after flying around the Conch Republic for a while.
Hadn’t thought to get into something faster and fly to Havana. My i7 processor comes on Thursday....
ranwhenparked
> user314
09/15/2020 at 11:52 |
|
Amazing that he was able to get in and out like that, and also that the US government even a llowed him to attempt it, given what would have happened to him if he was shot down or crashed in Cuban airspace, and given that it would be the 2nd major diplomatic incident he triggered.
|
user314
> ttyymmnn
09/15/2020 at 12:00 |
|
Yeah, this echoes the clusterfuck over Victor Belenko’s defection that you mentioned last week.
|
ranwhenparked
> For Sweden
09/15/2020 at 12:00 |
|
Nah, Cuba isnt in that business anymore. Fidel Castro told a reporter for the Atlantic shortly before he died that he was no longer interested in exporting Cuban style communism because the Cuban model no longer worked for Cuba anymore.
|
user314
> ranwhenparked
09/15/2020 at 12:02 |
|
He’s actually quite insistent that his second flight was done entirely on his own , without the knowledge of or assistance from the US government .
|
For Sweden
> ranwhenparked
09/15/2020 at 12:04 |
|
Sounds like they should try a multi-party election or something wild like that
Just Jeepin'
> ranwhenparked
09/15/2020 at 12:06 |
|
The government didn’t know in advance.
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
|
ranwhenparked
> Just Jeepin'
09/15/2020 at 12:09 |
|
That makes it all the more amazing, since I’m sure he was still under some sort of surveillance or protection , that soon after defection. He had to outwit two governments at once, though, I guess, that isn't necessarily that hard.
|
ranwhenparked
> For Sweden
09/15/2020 at 12:13 |
|
I think it's more likely that they'll keep gradually transitioning to the China model, keep the single party Communist dictatorship, but move to more of a state-controlled market economy. They already allow Cubans to open certain categories of small businesses, with limits, and allow large foreign corporations to partner with government agencies in joint ventures -hotels, rental car companies, manufacturing, etc. My employer owned 50% of their cigar export monopoly (with the other 50 held by the government), but we just sold it for, reasons, I guess, I don't know, seemed like a really valuable asset, but I'm low on the totem pole.
|
For Sweden
> ranwhenparked
09/15/2020 at 12:18 |
|
What if a state-owned Cuban company produced and sold Che shirts?
|
ranwhenparked
> For Sweden
09/15/2020 at 12:25 |
|
The Urban Outfitters guy?