A captured Russian plane?

[Major Tom]

At our small commuter airport, I was watching planes/helocopters take off/land, etc. Out of the blue lands a sleek single engine jet plane. It taxies over to a large hangar and gets refueled then backed into the hanger. The plane was in camoflage colors with a big red star on its dorsel fin. I talked to the pilot and in a nutshell this is what he said: He was taking this plane to the West Coast and stopped here to refuel and rest. The plane came from Ukraine and was a captured Russian plane. During the plane's journey the engine had to be replaced because the Russian engine was not dependable. The plane was gone the next day. I downloaded from my cell phone photos of this plane. I sent photos to my F.I.L in S. CA. He got them. I have tried to post those photos here to no avail, but I will keep trying.

[Phloating Phlasher]

If you get stuck PM me & I'll give you an e-mail.
e mail it to me & I'll get it sorted & posted for you.
Stuff like this happens occasionally.
I have night-shots of a cold war era Shenyang being towed down a road in Suffolk Co, NY between 2 Grumman facilities.

[dryheat]

I have a pic of two Polish MigS in line with an American jet. You know, NATO.
It's a great shot. I'll look it up. -it could take a while.
Some guys spent some money to try them out. All the electronics had to be replaced.

[Phloating Phlasher]

I remember the one where the guy bought a SU27 IIRC.
He went to the factory for the (included in the purchase price) training & was shocked to discover it was fully loaded!
The Russians were surprised as he'd paid for the whole enchilada & so that's what they were giving him!
I was surprised the U.S. wouldn't allow import of the electronics & so on. I could understand the weps package, but the E- suite would have been a major intelligence coup.At least to my mind.

[RED]

Back in the 1960s the US received a Egyptian MIG 21 captured by the Israelis. It was totally torn down studied and reassembled.

It was wrung out and our guys practiced and learned the MIG 21 weaknesses. One of the the questions was why does the F4 Phantom smoked!

The surprise was the MIG started to smoke after several flights. The answer... the commies used better fuel!

That was a top secret back in the day.

[Phloating Phlasher]

also water injection to cool turbine blades.

[RED]

Explain. I am not familiar with a water injection that stopped the smoking of F-4s. We did have a chemical that injected into the engines would reduce the smoke. The problem was that chemical was so toxic that just two drops on bare skin was fatal!

[Oyaji]

Could it be this "captured" Russian plane will be used in USN fleet adversarial flight operations (i.e. air combat maneuvering/dogfight training) such as is done at TopGun at NAS Fallon, Nevada?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Aviation_Warfighting_Development_Center

[Oyaji]

Explain. I am not familiar with a water injection that stopped the smoking of F-4s. We did have a chemical that injected into the engines would reduce the smoke. The problem was that chemical was so toxic that just two drops on bare skin was fatal!

https://theaviationgeekclub.com/no-internal-gun-and-smoking-engines-former-topgun-pilots-explain-why-us-navy-f-4s-initially-struggled-to-compete-with-north-vietnamese-mig-17-and-mig-21-fighters/

[RED]

Exactly. When I was in the program what was called Navy Fighter School at NAS Miramar.

Change the - will be used... to WAS used to develop tactics to defeat the MIG-21 and that was the basis forthe Top Gun school.

There was no Top Gun! Every pilot and his RIO that attended the training were not graded. It was not a contest, it was training .

[Phloating Phlasher]

I'm not sure if the F4 used it but I know the BUFF along with many others did as did the Harrier.
during heavy throttle loading, like VTOL there's an injection of water vapor into the turbine section.
It reduces jet pipe temps but smokes like crazy when used.
lots of discussion here:
https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/36185/how-does-jet-engine-water-injection-work

[dryheat]

So, what was so dangerous about smoke? It left a trail. OK. Easy to track in a dogfight? Or bad for the environment?

[Phloating Phlasher]

Not a clue!
The Canberra's Avons didn't do it except on startup.:icon_lol:
The USAF complained bitterly about the coffman starter's cordite smoke, but they went to the tandem canopy & had it open during startup.
We closed the hatch & never smelled it at all. This guy wasn't that smart though
:headbang:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4w85CeWOus

[Phloating Phlasher]

Major Tom's pic (I hope)
54438

[Allen]

That looks like a training plane to me.

Like a L-39 Albatros or something similar.

[Major Tom]

When I talked to the pilot he said the plane received many new things like engine, electronic stuff, etc. He never claimed it was a 'fighter' plane. Only that it was captured in Ukraine and he was ferrying it to the West Coast. The plane landed at our small commuter airport, taxied to a hangar, refueled and tucked away in the hangar overnight. It was gone early the next morning. Thank you to Phloating Phlasher for posting this photo! :icon_salut:

[Phloating Phlasher]

I think he was feeding you a line!
Aero L39 Albatross?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aero_L-39_Albatros

[Major Tom]

I think he was feeding you a line!
Aero L39 Albatross?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aero_L-39_Albatros

Yeah, I think so too now! Red star on tail end mesmerized me. :icon_redface:

[Phloating Phlasher]

No problem,