#mig 23

[usafphantom2]

3 April 1967. First flight of the Mikoyan/Gurevich MiG-23PD (23-01). Soviet variable-geometry fighter aircraft, tailed delta similar to the MiG-21 but with two lift jets in the fuselage.

@ron _eisele via X

[aviatrix-ash]

This was going to be just a throwaway doodle to slap in a collage but then I started playing with the colors more and added some trout like spots and stars- this is probably the sickest thing I've ever drawn

I wish my camera and acanner could do those neons justice! 😭

[sabotpetal]

MiG-23

[general-cybernetics]

[jjwphotography1990]

The MIG-23 Flogger ready for takeoff! This Russian MIG was awesome to see in Lakeland since it's such a unique plane. It is rare to catch any Russian aircraft in the states so it was exciting to watch the Flogger tear overhead. I was saddened to hear about the crash this weekend at the airshow. Thankfully nobody was seriously hurt or killed.

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The 2023 Sun 'n Fun Air Show

Lakeland, Florida

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#panning #motionblur #mig #mig23 #mig23flogger #flogger #russian #russianaircraft #jet #fighterjet #airforce #airshow #airshowphotography #aviation #aviationgeek #airplane #shotoncanon #canon #canoneosr #eosr #canonphotography #canonlens #canonrf100500mm #rf100500 #photography #aviationphotography #pictureoftheday #mylensrental #sunnfun #snf23

[osean-kitty]

The Worst Fighter in Russian History?

[loganlermanstanaccount]

How old do you imagine RM Miguel as? 🤔

He is 25! I actually have a very complicated and detailed (scribbled on a napkin when I was drunk and eventually converted to my notes app) timeline to make sure reader and mig's ages match up 💪

[thestonecuttersguild]

MIG-23, Oshkosh 2023.

Crashed two weeks later.

[coldwarairforce]

MiG-23 fighters from the 28th Fighter Aviation Regiment of the Polish Air Force; 1980

[kasperl-ruprecht]

[spaceintruderdetector]

https://archive.org/details/in-action-101-mi-g-23-27-flogger/mode/2up

[usafphantom2]

Origins of the 8th Air Force: Feb 20, 1942, just weeks after Pearl Harbor, Brig General Ira C. Eaker arrives in the UK with 6 staff. He has no office, no desk, only instructions: study the British bomber operations as a prelude to building an American air force. #WWII

@ron_eisele via X

Usafphantom2: That’s what’s called urban camouflage

[notupforpolo]

Dan före dopparedan och det är väldigt väldigt spännande

[alisteningpost]

[xtruss]

The MiG-23! The MiG-23 is a variable swept wing, single-engine aircraft designed as a follow-on to the MiG-21 Fishbed. It was designed to combat a variety of US rival fighters like the McDonnell-Douglas F-4 Phantom II and Republic F-105 Thunderchief but the new General Dynamics F-111 posed a distinct threat. The Flogger is roughly 2/3 the size of the F-111, had a single-seat cockpit rather than the two-side by side cockpit of the F-111 and the Flogger carried just one engine.More than 5,000 MiG-23s of all types were built.The MiG-23 was widely exported by the Soviet Union. Among the users there was the Cuban Air Force that flew MiG-23ML/MF/BN/UB aircraft until the late 2010s

The Day A Cuban Air Force MiG-23 Pilot Defected To The US

On Mar. 20, 1991 MiG-23 pilot Orestes Lorenzo Perez circled the Naval Air Station (NAS) Key West three times, waggling the wings of his Flogger (the NATO reporting name for the MiG-23) to signal friendly intentions, hoping that no one would shoot down the Soviet-built fighter jet.

Perez said he borrowed the aircraft from the Cuban government. He didn’t know a single word in English, he said. But he was escaping Cuba for freedom.

As explained in an extensive piece appeared on The Ledger, Perez, a former Cuban Air Force pilot has received a lot of attention since his escape and daring flight back to Cuba to rescue his family. He even wrote a book about his journey in 1994.

His friends called his daring rescue a suicide mission. He was risking his life and the lives of his wife and two sons, but he said it was worth it because they were pursuing their dreams.

While serving in the Cuban Air Force, Perez earned a scholarship to attend flight school in the Soviet Union, where he learned to fly a small Czechoslovakian Aero L-29 Delfin two-seat jet trainer and a MiG-21. He was part of the Cuban forces sent to Angola to support that country’s Marxist government.

He deployed a second time to the Soviet Union and then he and his family finally returned to Cuba where he was assigned to Santa Clara Air Base, about 165 miles east of Havana.

What he found was a country littered with propaganda and so oppressed by the government that his family knew there was only one thing for him to do — try to escape.

From Cuba to Key West

So, on Mar. 20, 1991, Perez said goodbye to his wife, Victoria, promising to return for her and their two sons. She had to pretend that she knew nothing of Perez’s escape plan. She prayed that her husband would make it to the US and to freedom.

During a training mission that day, Perez flew the MiG-23 from Cuba to Key West. When he finally landed undetected by American radar, speaking in Spanish, he told the pilot who met him on the ground that he was seeking political asylum.

Orestes Lorenzo Perez’s MiG-23 at NAS Key West

Perez said once the pilot understood, they shook hands and the pilot said, “Welcome to the United States.” He was immediately flown to Washington, DC, for a briefing and to receive paperwork. Once he was granted political asylum, he started campaigning to get his family out of Cuba. His wife and two sons were issued US visas, but the Cuban government wouldn’t let them leave.

Perez said the government put surveillance on them. His family lived under constant watch for 21 months, while Perez campaigned across the US to try to gain their freedom, he said.

Then-President George H. W. Bush directed a speech to the Cuban government, asking Fidel Castro to let Perez’s family go. But Castro refused so Perez had to think of a better plan. The only way to rescue them would be to fly back in an airplane.

Through a human rights organization founded by a Cuban political prisoner, called the Valladares Foundation, Perez learned that a 1961 Cessna 310 was for sale. With help from a donation the foundation agreed to pay the $30,000 to purchase it for his rescue attempt.

Cuban Air Force MiG-23 Pilot Who Defected to the US Brings His Family to America

Although he took flying lessons and received his pilot license in Virginia, he had very little experience flying the Cessna before his rescue attempt. Perez had only landed the small plane once, with a co-pilot.

But at exactly 5:07 p.m. on Dec. 19, 1992, Perez left from the Florida Keys, flying low across the ocean. His wife was given a note to meet him at a location about 165 miles from her home in Havana. Perez didn’t know whether she would be there with the boys, or if he would make it to the spot before the Cuban government saw him, but he had to try.

Flying less than 100 feet above the ocean, Perez came over cliffs on the Cuban coastline and saw his wife and sons wearing bright orange T-shirts, just as he had asked them to do. Perez landed the Cessna about 10 yards from a pickup truck, turned the plane around, hurried his family inside and flew away.

When he landed in Marathon less than two hours later, he felt a sense of relief. Perez is one of only a handful of Cuban military pilots to defect to the US during the Cold War. Perez and his family became all American citizens.

The MiG-23 was returned to Cuba shortly after Perez gained political asylum and the Cessna was destroyed in a hurricane.

Orestes Lorenzo Perez after landing at NAS Key West

[themaresnest-dumblr]

The Flogger That Crashed

This is a picture of the Mig 23 UB (Twin Seat Trainer edition) that crashed earlier today during an airshow when one of its engines clearly blew - forcing its two occupants to eject.

(Despite the Soviet markings, it was actually a former Bulgarian jet that had been bought by an American collector.)

For anyone familiar with the unfortunate Flogger, it would come as no surprise.

Although the Indian Air Force loved it (Indians tend to treat their machinery like babies), the jet was regarded as more trouble than it was worth to many pilots and maintenance crews globally thanks to its troublesome engines - ironically it was the trainers such as this one that were the most tempremental (which must have been really reassuring for those learning to fly it!)

The plane itself landed in the carpark of the 'Waverly' Lake residential apartment in nearby Van Buren - population twenty eight thousand. This was the end result.

For the local Yankee Air Museum, this was the unfortunate loss of one of its members's cherished heritage jets.

For local residents at the Waverly, it was almost a disaster that would have led to mass loss of life. The area had a near miss last month from a fire, and one resident Hailey Trimble has expressed concerns on social media about electrical issues and a lack of inspections by the property's owners - other residents have complained of similar issues.

Two dozen families were left temporarily homeless last year thanks to another fire at the site - making July's fire the fifth in as many years.

If there's one good thing that may come from today's mishap, it would be some media attention onto the Waverly and its long suffering residents.

It should also draw attention onto the slack manner the United States allows any Tom, Dick and Harry to purchase and fly military grade aircraft within its airspace. There had been an issue with this plane only the previous month when the canopy came loose mid-flight ...

For now, here's a video of the now wrecked beyond repair Flogger in happier times.