Necessary foreword
Winged robot versus air defense system
Recently, one person contacted me, the author of the memoirs "Seven hundred and thirty-seventh Fighter," through the site. I didn't pay much attention to his first letter. He answered, of course, but that's all. Not a fellow soldier, they did not serve together. But then his letters seemed so interesting to me that, with the permission of the author, I decided to publish them on the site as it is, providing only comments from myself. I would be glad if someone could help shed more light on this mystery.
The first letter
Hello, Vladimir, Vasily Bondarenko writes to you from Kramatorsk. There is still benefit from the Internet: I recently found your article on the “page” of our city. It turns out that you served in Sary-Shagan, and I was "nearby", in Taldy-Kurgan. Only earlier, from 1972-1974. Colleagues! I want to ask you. You yourself served later, but many of you must have had it since 1972. serve. Did they talk about the unusual interceptions of unmanned reconnaissance aircraft or targets in the spring of 1972? Was there anything unusual at the airfield during that time? Did your comrades tell you? Some rumors about the fallen in 1972. DBR "Yastreb" 1 you did not go?
Best regards, Vasily Bondarenko
I answered this letter shortly. There was nothing to say about his question. No, I haven't heard anything like it, we only had La-17 unmanned aerial vehicles flying as targets. Vasily continued the correspondence conversation.
Second letter
Sorry if I said wrong about the page. I don't know much about the Internet. There was news from Kramatorsk, so I wrote it like this: You are asking about my service. I served in TECh, group SD2, graduated from KhAI3, "Terrible Lieutenant", biennial. I am interested in an unusual incident that we had at the beginning of my service. I saw La-17 unmanned targets, that's not it. Let me tell you what I remember, and you can remember what you yourself. I don’t remember the date or even the month now. It happened in the spring or early summer. The year was 1972, I guess. Maybe 73g, although more likely 72. The day was definitely a day off, I remember that in the morning I was not going to the airfield. Anxiety was in the early morning. A neighbor, a letekha, came running to me and received a phone call from the unit. I jumped up, got dressed, ran to the stop. Almost immediately a tractor with a sign drove up, according to which it was allowed to pass at checkpoint 4 without checking. We jump into the tractor and rush to the airfield. There everything is already running and thundering. The 2nd squadron was on duty, they were already in the air. Something didn't work out for them. They raised 2 flights of the most experienced of the 1st AE5, but even these aces returned evil with nothing. I then asked one of them, why did they need to take off if he flew away long ago? He replied that it was not known who it was. Suddenly he decides to fly back and we are already waiting. Then the guys I knew from GRP6 told me that some thing seemed to jump out of nowhere at a low altitude. Almost over our long-range radar7 it appeared, no one saw it in advance. In hindsight, it was already determined that at low altitude he passed the Dzungar gate. Some of the radar bypassed in the dead zone, others slipped through so that they did not understand anything. We are commanded by "air", the duty unit for takeoff, and it's late. "UFO" went somewhere in the stratosphere, picking up speed along the way.
Tablet players said that he was doing more than 2000 km / h. Our afterburner chased him, did not catch up. He left in the north-western direction, we no longer led him further. Nobody knew what happened next. Rumors were different: some said that the "UFO" then disappeared altogether, and someone said that they intercepted and shot down new MiG-25s almost over Baikonur. They also talked about what it was. It seems to have come from China, but then they did not even have anything similar in capabilities.
A week later or something like that, they read to us at the formation, as if we were driving our drone, which had lost control. Allegedly, they did not fill him up, he himself fell. They announced that people were needed to rake the wreckage. Me and several other tech workers were sent to this team, and they were thrown into the steppe by helicopter. In fact, there is a large crater, as from an explosion, and a lot of debris crumpled. It seemed that such a decent plane had crashed, no less than the MiG-21. I saw a large piece of delta wing, silvery with a red star. On a few more pieces, Russian inscriptions in red were read - the usual technical ones, which are on any plane. It was painted silver and red, varnished on top. On all the painted fragments, the varnish turned yellow and cracked, the inscriptions "floated" as if from strong heat. Although there was no soot. There were no traces of fire on the ground either. Our senior explained that the apparatus had fallen due to fuel production, there was nothing to burn. The plane heats up in flight, from friction on the air, its cruising speed is several "sounds". I did not see the glazing or the pilot's seat. It looks like it's actually a drone. For some reason, the sharp bow part was well preserved, it was already loaded onto a helicopter in my presence. I managed to notice the small glazed windows, but the cockpit with the pilot would not fit there. There were cameras, I was told. I heard from someone that the device is called DBR-1 "Yastreb", they are brought to us in Central Asia for training launches, but in fact they should be based somewhere in the western districts.
Then we discussed with the men how many questions still remained. They said that such "Hawks" were allowed only in a strict "corridor", everyone was warned in advance. There was nothing here. And no one seemed to have watched his start, and he came from the direction of China! Let's say he was sent to China to spy, so he was not warned, secrecy. And then? I was told that the "Hawk" had purely remote control by radio, it had no brains of its own. Well, the autopilot is like on a regular plane. And here he behaved as if he was being controlled by his will. A familiar pilot said that you can't fly the Dzungar corridor on autopilot, you need to control it, otherwise you will stick. In general, this "Hawk" behaved as if he understood that they wanted to shoot him down, and tried to survive. Why did he switch to recruitment in an open space? How he felt that the mountains were no longer hiding him. If he did not obey ours, then who controlled him? I even imagined all the devilry about an intelligent machine that learned to work on its own. Well, this is nonsense, of course, I read fiction. I have heard an interesting version, one of our locators put forward it. As if that broken "Hawk" was brought only for cover, and we were driving something completely different. So secret that such a cover was needed. What could it be?
Best regards, Vasily Bondarenko
Third letter
Hello Vladimir. Let me print the letters if you like. Maybe others will read and tell more. You asked about the traces of shelling. On the wreckage of the Hawk, I did not see any traces of fragments or shells. It seemed that he himself fell from a height and collapsed. Although it is strange that the bow was not crumpled. I ask why: here last year the continuation of this story was drawn, but such that I myself did not believe it. What a "lost control" there! Only this is not a telephone conversation. Let's meet in some eatery, I want to discuss this version with someone. I now live on Lazurnoe, if that. Write where and when it will be more convenient for you. Best regards, Vasily Bondarenko
The story gets more and more interesting. To my shame, I knew little or nothing about drones. No, of course, I have heard a lot about the Predators, I even touched our flying targets with my hands, I also know that at the Priozersk training ground, old, decommissioned aircraft were converted into drones and used in the interests of air defense. There was even a case when something like this flew almost next to me. Then, having already served in the army, I got a job as a "representative of industry" in the same Priozersk, contriving in a not entirely honest way to stay to live in an officer's apartment. Site number 8, a huge, highly complex experimental anti-missile defense radar, an engineer-tuner of electronic equipment. I returned after work by bus to Priozersk. On the left is the steppe and the setting sun, on the right - Priozersk, a couple of kilometers away. I look out the window on the left and suddenly I notice a MiG-15 at low level, and through the lantern I clearly see the sun shining through the empty cockpit! All this was very fast, I didn't really have time to make out, but I remembered the empty cabin. Then he pestered everyone with questions, no one said anything intelligible. A drone at low level, near the city? There was absolutely nothing for him to do there! Or drunk, or something broke …
But this is a serial modified MiG-15, and I had no idea that the Soviet Union produced special full-size reconnaissance drones, and even "disposable" ones. I got on the Internet after receiving the second letter. Yes, it turns out - there was something like that … An interesting detail: the surviving nose part may indicate that it was regularly separated from the aircraft and descended by parachute. This raises a new question - why did the detachable warhead end up next to the fallen Hawk and did not land somewhere earlier? Maybe the wreckage, along with the warhead, was really brought to the steppe specifically to cover something else. The only question is - what?
The very story of the interception of such a "frenzied" miracle seemed to me extremely interesting. Yes, of course, in the stories it could be overgrown with fantasized details and distortions, like the incident with four spy helicopters from my recollections, but it was a fact, especially since Vasily himself saw the wreckage. Write if you know something about this amazing case or something similar. For my part, I will add later the results of the questioning of my former brother-soldiers. One of the units armed with the Hawks was once based in the Ukraine, in Vladimir-Volynsky. Are there any of the veterans of that unit here?
Of course, I'm curious what kind of “incredible continuation” this story has. Well, let's say that ours were spying on something like that in China. But you could have warned your air defense. And why was this Hawk behaving so strangely? Naturally, I wanted to know more, so we agreed to meet with Vasily. I will tell you about the future after the conversation, if it takes place.
As promised, I asked my fellow soldiers if anyone had heard something like that. After all, if this is true, then you can get additional details. Alas, no one has yet been able to say anything for sure, although they have heard something, but no more. I present their answers below.
Vladimir Yakimenko:
I do not advise you to publish right away. First, talk to Valery Poznyak - he has been at the training ground from the very beginning, he knows a lot. By the way, ask him for his memories, it may come in handy. And familiarize him with your material. I will inform him and with his permission I will give you his "soap".
Now for your questions.
1. The TEC on alarm had the following tasks: - to push to the parking lot the s-you, which are undergoing maintenance and repair; to allocate a reinforcement group for the preparation of missiles for PPR; prepare for the release of BMSC; NPSK (ground search team) - also from TEC. As far as I remember, when I was in the field, the TECh never unfolded. It would be better to ask Opanasenko about this.
2. In addition to La-15mm, cruise missiles KRM and KSR were launched from the Tu-16 at the airfield. Similar things were launched from the platforms. When Danilov crashed, our team was detained on the road. rockets were launched from one site, and shot down from the other. And this is almost at the level of telegraph poles!
- 3. UFO in T. Kurgan saw the whole iap: after night flights, people crowded together to go home and there are many witnesses. They even raised the remote control. It was somewhere in 84-85.
Vladimir Tkachev:
Good afternoon Volodya, this legend probably was born from Taldy-Kurgan, there was one case there, our (Soviet) pilots drove the Su-17, from the far east, and in the area of the Dzungarian gate, the border has a ledge, as you know, they decided to cut it off so that to save fuel, in Taldyk the flights just ended, the old OBU went out to smoke, the screen remained young, and suddenly he sees a target coming from abroad, he quickly to the old one, they raised the link, but while they were fussing, the dryers sat down in Nikolaevka, then the general for a long time explained to the young OBU (well, so as not to get pi lyuly what he imagined, and he left the command post, as Giordano Bruno said, and still the mark was: -)
The hunt for the "Blackbird"
Vasily Bondarenko invited me to meet “in some eatery” and promised to tell some unusual version of the riddle that was almost 40 years old. I agreed, fortunately, as it turned out, we live in the same microdistrict, we don't even need to go anywhere. We agreed, specified the place and time. I gave the number of my mobile phone, in response Vasya wrote that he drowned his mobile phone while fishing, and there is no point in buying a new one. Stupid situation.
I ask, how do we know each other? I had to describe myself, as in cheap spy films. Well, with our age, everything is already clear, he added that I will be wearing a brown leather jacket.
I came to the cafe at the appointed time. I don't like noisy places, but, fortunately, it was a weekday, there were practically no people. He took a beer with nuts, sat down, just in case, at the farthest table, so as not to interfere. Vasily came in almost after. They recognized each other at once. We met, so to speak, in real life, not by correspondence. Contact was established quickly. Still, the military past somehow affects, disposes to trust. And then we studied at one institute. They remembered the general teachers, told him a little about the meeting of the “classmates” graduates in the past year, about how much the institute had changed, how many were built, how many students of Arab and Negroid appearance appeared. Previously, foreigners were not allowed even close …
Then they switched to the military past. Here, however, no common acquaintances were found. Although, in addition to their regiment, there was also our guidance point. I envied the fact that he had a chance to serve in Taldy-Kurgan. Been there as a child. The city is an oasis, compared to other nearby cities, the climate there is noticeably milder. This is not Priozersk, where there is almost no vegetation, Kazakh summer, Siberian winter and constant wind. I will omit mutual inquiries about the planes, about the everyday details of the service, but in the end both felt quite friendly. Moreover, it is unlikely that beer helped a lot here, but rather a common past.
The conversation turned to what, in fact, they were meeting for. And then Vasya managed to stun me much more than I could have imagined. And the point is not at all that the "enraged" drone was checking our defense "for lice." Vasily began the story somewhat reluctantly, choosing his words.
It seems that he was still hesitating whether to tell me everything or to limit himself to a summary.
However, everything is in order. After the service, Vasily got a job at NKMZ. There, at work, I knew one employee, now quite elderly. I will try to present the most essential of his story, as I remember from the words of Vasily, on his behalf.
"Winged Robot": Incredible Version
- I knew her at work for ten years, greeted her. They congratulated us on the 23rd, we congratulated them on the 8th, on New Year's Eve we gathered a common table, but that's all. By chance, I somehow found out that I am an electrician sometimes shabyuyu, asked at home to help with the wiring. So I met her husband. A strong-looking man, although he is already over 70, retired for a long time. He speaks excellent Russian, but with such a slight accent - one feels that Russian is not his native language. I will not give a surname, I promised, it seems like some kind of Baltic - Lithuanian, Latvian - I don't understand. He has several model airplanes at home, well assembled and painted. Not just glued from ready-made sets, but with modifications, it can be seen. Jet, mainly - MiG-21, "Tiger", "Jaguar" … About them and talked, I was also fond of bench models in my youth. He became interested when he heard about the time and place of my service. Let's ask how I am in your letters - what unusual I saw or heard there. Well, I told that story with the Hawk. He kept nodding, then said: "Well, it turns out that then they came up with!" Then he told a completely incredible story - that we were actually driving the "Blackbird" - "black bird", the secret high-speed reconnaissance of the Americans. The pilot, as he said, decided to flee to us in the USSR, so he flew over the border, waited for the interceptors and obeyed them.
- Did you drink with him?
“We didn’t drink anything with him then,” Vasily laughed, “and it was not April 1 … I myself first decided that he was“that one”. “How do you know all this?” I ask. “Yes, I know,” he says. He paused and added: “I myself piloted that Blackbud …
I didn't ask anything, but apparently my expression was quite eloquent.
- Well, yes, I also decided - or joking, or the roof went. But he told me such details that I doubt it myself. On the second day I came to him with a tape recorder. He did not mind, fortunately, that his wife left for a few days with her daughter. If you want, he says, at least print it in the newspapers. Only, he says, so that he does not call me by my real name. We recorded these tapes in three or four evenings … I asked him why, they say, are you telling almost the first person you meet? Sanych answers: I do not give any specific information, and there is almost no one to check it. “If anything, anyone will decide that I just made it all up out of drunkenness. Who cares about it now, almost 40 years later? At least to share with someone in old age, otherwise even my wife and children do not know who I am …"
- Did he have any proof?
- The only weak evidence - he showed me the patch. One, she says, has retained my memory, secretly took it with him from the KGB curator. In fact, the "Black Bird" is there on the emblem. Maybe a real emblem, or maybe he somehow made it himself - hell knows. Now, whatever you want for the draws, you can buy. Have you seen, for example - a driver's license in the name of Stalin? As real, with all serial numbers and seals. And the portrait of Joseph Vissarionich, as it should be …
Vasily then gave me these audio cassettes with an extraordinary "interview" - two 90 minutes. He strictly ordered them to take care of them and return them as soon as possible, since this is the only copy. I listened to the tapes that evening. I had to quickly "revive" at least one of the decks of my old "Sharp", which has long been used as speakers for a computer, and I considered it unnecessary to repair the tape recorder.
Two voices were recorded - my new friend Vasily and the second, hoarse, really with a slight accent. The quality of the recording left much to be desired, but even so I listened and listened without stopping. I tried to take notes in the order it was recorded on the cassettes - it turned out to be a mess, since the questions were asked haphazardly. In addition, literally copying off the tape turned out to be very slow and tedious. Start - did not hear or remember - stop - rewind - start - rewound too far … And so on.
I decided to listen to and write down large "chunks" of the conversation from memory, then arranging the fragments of history more or less in chronological order. Unfortunately, the fragments were not always smooth. Sometimes, just for clarity, I inserted Vasily's questions into the text, to which his interlocutor answered. Vasily himself always refers to him simply by his patronymic, "Sanych". What is written below is not a literal, but close to that, presentation of what Sanych told.
I did not strive for literal writing, I tried only not to distort the meaning, sometimes correcting, for example, incorrectly or poorly constructed phrases to make it easier to read. You understand that ordinary spoken speech in the recording is not read very well. Other fragments were clearly recorded under the libations of the interlocutors, then the speech became especially illegible. But I didn't do much literary editing either, trying to preserve the flavor. Especially such verbal turns of Sanych, which sound a little awkward in Russian. Who knows - I'll fix it, but what if the meaning is distorted?
He has a lot of unfamiliar names, which I found it difficult to correctly write down by ear, so I asked Vadim Medinsky to help with the “geography”. I express my gratitude to him for editing the text. By the way, he gave me the idea to pay attention to how the conversation was recorded on the tapes. If Sanych came up with something on the go, there would be noticeable pauses in the conversation when answering questions. And if he and Vasily were at the same time, and acted out all this according to a prepared script, it could also be noticeable. The memorized dialogue would sound unnatural, like in a television series. I listened especially, and did not notice anything like that: the conversation was like conversation, ordinary. If Sanych invented all this, then he is a good storyteller and actor.
I would very much like to ask Sanych personally and in more detail, but so far there is no such possibility. From the very beginning, he told Vasily that he would not tell and discuss that story to anyone else, since he did not need fame. I learned from Vasily that Sanych had recently been admitted to the hospital - something with a heart - so new inquiries, even through Vasily's mediation, are still out of the question.
I personally have a difficult attitude to the history of Sanych. Yes, there was, of course, the famous singer Dean Reed, whose songs I heard in my youth, there was also some American scientist who was also persecuted in the United States for his beliefs and who also decided to flee to the USSR. If anyone remembers, during perestroika there were teleconferences between the CCCP and the United States on TV, and we met with that scientist in one of these bridges. Yes, even though Charlie Chaplin is remembered, although he did not escape to the USSR. So it’s civilians. And then there was a spy pilot, tested a thousand times … But here in front of me are two audiocassettes with the stories of this pilot.
It doesn't look like a lie - it would be difficult to come up with such details with such details, and why? What is usually captivating in eyewitness stories is a lot of such details that you will not find anywhere else. I confess that I was not very interested in either the Vietnam war or the types of American aircraft, but I think that I would not have learned such subtleties, even if I was. And about the attack of boats, and about the A-12, and a lot of things he has there … And also - a look at our life from the outside, I, for example, did not even think about some things. Believe it or not believe it is up to you, but I'm still inclined to believe this incredible story.
The unusual past of the average senior citizen
- I joined the US Air Force in 1959 and started flying the Super Saber. In 63rd I was transferred to Okinawa, Kadena base. Our air wing was just receiving new Thunderchiefs, so we had to retrain them. On the F-105, we met the Vietnam War. In August 64, the famous "Tonkin Incident" took place, and in the same August we were transferred from Okinawa to Thailand, tasked with working in North Vietnam and Laos. By the way, everything was very clearly planned and prepared, this cannot be done in a couple of weeks. The journalists could then tell anything about the fact that the Vietnamese suddenly attacked us in the Gulf of Tonkin, we saw that the war with the communists was planned in our headquarters long before the incident. Then even a Senate commission admitted that there was no attack on Maddox. Although in all historical films and books, they must tell about the attack by torpedo boats. I'm talking about American films, of course. Although now, in general, the American version of history is being implanted in your country.
- Did you fly to Vietnam a lot?
- Firstly, then there were two Vietnam, and secondly, there was also Laos. And in fact, I had to fly a lot, over all three countries. The most disgusting thing was over Laos. In that year, we did not officially bomb Laos, as if we were not there.
- So you bombed North Vietnam "officially"?
- He, too, was not declared war, of course. The states have not declared war on anyone for a very long time, it seems, with the Second World War. With North Vietnam, at least the very fact of the bombing was not denied. Our sorties there were counted as combat ones. And for each battle they paid well, more than $ 100, this is in excess of the usual allowance and allowances. In the sixties it was very good money …
- By the way, did they pay normally?
- Quite. I had more than $ 700 a month for one allowance, plus an allowance for participation in hostilities, and the same surcharge for combat missions … But with combat missions, the main thing is not even money, but the fact that after 100 sorties you were sent home from the war. For which we did not like Laos: you also risk it, but you do not count a combat mission … I was shot down in the first year just over Laos, no luck. It's a shame that I didn't even enter the squadron's casualty reports. The plane was already retroactively written off "for technical reasons." I was also lucky that they managed to get me out of the jungle myself.
- How did you shoot down?
- Anti-aircraft guns. Machine guns, cannons - we did not see missiles in the first year. By the way, I did not meet any enemy fighters either, although the guys collided. The Vietnamese, as I was told, were good air fighters, but there were simply very few of them. They shot more over North Vietnam than over South or over Laos. In the North there was still a regular army, and in the South we fought the rebels, much worse armed. Consider everything that was fired at us in the South, they had to drag for miles through the jungle on their hands. Even anti-aircraft guns. Although we killed these guys, and they killed us, I involuntarily began to respect these rebels. At least for perseverance and courage.
- Sorry, Sanych, a personal question - with what mood did you fight there? Didn't you have a feeling that you were doing something wrong?
- The mood was normal. Do you think we repented of our sins and worried every day? There was no such thing. We were 25-27 years old, what do you want?
- And how did you get to us later, with such a fighting spirit?
- That's another story. I got older, began to see more, or something. I began to think. And then, in the sixty-fourth, we believed that we were defending the "free world", and we followed the order. Moreover, the game was not played with one goal. About six months later, our squadron was transferred to Da Nang for 2 or 3 weeks, this is in South Vietnam. This airfield was constantly fired upon by the Viet Cong, our guys were killed. And when yours threw in Vietnam anti-aircraft missiles "Guideline", it became quite "hot". After several Air Force Phantoms were shot down by missiles on the same day, all combat missions were canceled for a week or even more. Analyzed, sorted out.
- Were the losses high?
- High. Especially from rockets at first - surprisingly large, no one expected such. Moreover, at that time the Charlie had very few missiles …
- Charlie?
“Charlie, that's what we called the Viet Cong. Although now, of course, I'm talking about the North Vietnamese, not about the rebels from the Viet Cong. So, although our squadron was somehow lucky, the neighbors now and then lost someone. We are somehow accustomed to thinking that the communists' equipment is useless, and combat training is weak. In fact, it turned out to be different. The guys said that just our American Sparrow missiles have low reliability. If they capture the target at all, then they aim at their own, and not at the MiGs … It happened that they also shot down their own. Well, these were early versions of air-to-air missiles, they say, not yet finished. Maybe ours, too, were not very good at shooting them. I myself only shot a couple of times at the range, but in a combat situation I didn't have to.
Anti-aircraft missile countermeasures were soon developed and were able to fight the Guidelines. Yours also came up with some countermeasures, again our losses increased. We have our own new tricks for this. Yours again something new. And so on - as, probably, it was in any war.
- How did you like the F-105?
- Not a bad plane. Not very maneuverable, with MiGs in a "dog dump" he could not spin well, but tenacious, with a good aiming system. There was, of course, a big drawback - there was no backup mechanical control system. The hydraulics were redundant, there were two systems, but the pipelines in several places ran side by side. If we were unlucky, both interrupted, then the plane was almost immediately "dead". The horizontal stabilizer starts diving by itself, and you fly straight into the ground.
- And how was he in service, what did your technicians say?
- You are interested in your colleagues, right? I don't remember about them anymore. It seems that our "Tady" suited them. Usually they swore at the delivery of spare parts. It was bad with spare parts, both in Korat and in Da Nang. Sometimes parts were removed from some aircraft to others, especially engine parts were often rearranged. We drove the engine a lot with afterburner, because in the heat it pulled badly. Usually the engines had to be changed more often than "according to the book" it should be.
In the spring of 65, I flew the prescribed rate of 100 sorties. I went home to the States. When I returned from vacation, the first clashes with surface-to-air missiles began very soon. It was hard. That summer they knocked me down for the second time, as I recall, I still shudder. We walked in a squad of 4 planes, I led the second pair. The reconnaissance spotted the position of the missiles, it was necessary to destroy them urgently. We entered them from a low altitude and attacked. I remember the eerie feeling when I saw how all the guides with the missiles at once turned in our direction. They did not have time to shoot - the bombs of the leading pair had already covered them. I saw that the explosions lay exactly, very close to the missiles. And the missiles themselves seemed to be armored - they just jumped up somehow, but did not fall or explode. I dropped my bombs as accurately as I could, then I look around at the withdrawal, and at least something for the missiles. And they didn't even catch fire. While I was looking at them, something got on the plane. Either they covered the position from the cannons, or they still fired a missile at me, I still don't know. The plane began to fall, it was necessary to eject. Well, I managed to reach Laos, I was quickly rescued. Only not so lucky with the bailout as the first time. He was admitted to the hospital with fractures. While he was undergoing treatment, our squadron was transferred back to Okinawa, so then there was about another year of peaceful service. Then they again transferred to Thailand, again to the war.
It seems that somewhere in that year, in '67, I first saw the Blackbod in the air. I had to overtake the fighter from Kadena to Korat, with refueling. My F-105 was flying at a decent altitude and speed, but then this huge silver-black plane appeared. He was just gaining altitude and speed, but he walked around me as a standing person, it even felt offensive …
- Wait, why silver-black? Weren't they completely black? After all, they were called "Black Birds"!
- "Blackbird" is "Blackbird" in translation. In Okinawa they were often called "Habu". It seems to be in honor of some local snake that the SR-71s look like.
- And the color?
- Well, yes, ours were black. Later I found out that when I saw it, the SR-71 was not yet in Okinawa, only the CIA-shny A-12 flew. Here they often flew unpainted, only the leading edges were covered with black. To radiate heat, I guess. So I saw this A-12 then.
- What is A-12?
- Sister of "Blackbud", outwardly they differed little. We did not study their device, I do not know exactly what the difference is. Probably, the avionics were a little different. Our SR-71s were subordinate to the Air Force, and the A-12s were subordinate to the CIA, as if we knew only that about the A-12.
Little was known about the SR-71 at that time. But everyone knew that it was a super-plane, almost a spaceship. Probably any pilot would be happy to fly this one. It is clear that the competition for them was huge. I wrote the report a couple of years later. I flew well, I was in good health too, but I hardly hoped that they would be accepted to the Blackbirds. It's just that the war is already terribly tired. Our squadron has already been finally transferred to Thailand, included in another wing. Now I had to fly in Indochina for a long time. I just decided to try my chance to get out of there.
- You weren't shot down anymore?
- Yes, and that too - I was very lucky after the second bailout. For 2 years of the war, not even a single serious damage. Once upon a time, luck should have run out. But I had already forgotten about my report. The usual problems were enough, because we did not fly to the exercises. I remember that just recently the squadron moved to another base, also in Thailand, when I received a call to the States. I didn't even immediately understand why. And there I had to go through a medical examination - not an ordinary flight, but almost like an astronaut, there they were screened out for the slightest problems. I was still afraid that the consequences of my catapults and fractures would somehow manifest, but everything went well. After a while I was called to the Biel base. They drove us there, as they say - "to the seventh sweat." A whole week from morning to evening - interviews, flights on the Talon, "flights" on the simulator …
- And then there were already "flyers"? Well, computer games - flight simulators?
- This is 1970, well, what kind of computer games then? As it is in Russian it is correct … Simulator, here. Such a cockpit with instruments, as in the real "Blackbird". It is possible in this booth to work out the actions with different input. I only "flew" on the simulator for about ten hours that week. They accepted it all the same …
- Weed out many?
- Of course! 9 out of 10, I guess. As I say, there was no shortage of volunteers. The opinion of the operating crews of the SR-71 meant a lot. The examiners were the most experienced. They basically chased us during admission, evaluated us from all sides. I saw several excellent pilots among the candidates, who for some reason were refused. These poor fellows were very sorry. Maybe I was just lucky that the instructors liked me. I flew nothing like that, confidently, but not the best.
- Did you think that someone would do what you did? Have you checked your track record, personal file?
- No, they didn't check it, they just took it. Why are you asking stupid questions? Of course we did. The person must be absolutely loyal to the United States. If anything, it is easier for pilots of long-range reconnaissance to cross the other side. And my personal file is all right. No unreliable acquaintances and relatives, even under McCarthy, when there was a "witch hunt", no one was persecuted. I myself fought in Vietnam for almost 5 years, and was wounded and shot down. It is important that I was not taken prisoner, so the "Chinese syndrome" was also ruled out.
- What syndrome?
- "Chinese". Well, you know, when there was a war in Korea, the communists captured many of our people, and then it turned out that in captivity quite a large part of the Americans were recruited. It’s funny for me to hear how you say now: here, Stalin is bad, his own Russian prisoners after their release through the filtration. And this is just a normal precaution. In any case, there will be recruits among the prisoners. There were just a lot of them in Korea. Well the Chinese were brainwashing ours. Even diplomats and employees of the American embassies, who had been visiting Mao for a long time, began to sympathize with the red China. Therefore, the "Chinese syndrome".
We had a very serious training for beginners. While you are allowed to approach a real plane, they will first squeeze out like a lemon on the simulator. Hours 100 somewhere I "flew" on this sim before admission. Especially on the eve of admission to a training flight in a twin, these days were generally a nightmare. Imagine, even during the pre-flight preparation for an hour and a half they wind you up, then you climb into the simulator for 4 hours. And during these hours something constantly goes wrong. All the time some kind of emergency! Even knowing that you are not really in danger of breaking, you still sweat. I decided only one introductory - and you two new ones. In general, at the end you crawl out of this box. There is no strength to rearrange the legs. But then, in the first real flight, everything seems as simple as shelling pears.
- What was your first impression of the real "Black Bird"?
- The first impression was unpleasant. The plane is beautiful, yes, but in flight. On the ground, she looks somehow unusual, and she drips like a bitch in heat. There are always puddles of fuel under a fueled plane, it looks very sloppy.
- Wasn't it dangerous?
- Spilled fuel? No, not dangerous. There is a special grade of fuel that does not burn or evaporate under normal conditions.
- So why were the tanks leaking - they were poorly looked after?
- Are you kidding? A unique and terribly expensive plane, they have not just been licked with our tongue. The care was the best, even in the hangars there is a special microclimate. There were simply no tanks on the plane. That is, well, the plane itself was a tank. The fuel was located directly under the outer skin. In flight, the SR heats up a lot, then cools down. No sealant can withstand such expansion and contraction, so the skin leaks. Yes, there were also some valves on the engines, now I don’t remember why, but they had to leak on the ground. That is, during the pre-flight inspection, they specifically checked whether there was a leak. If it does not flow, then the valve is not in order, you cannot fly.
And in flight SR is a normal plane, I will not say anything bad. It does not react to control immediately, but it is not a fighter either. For its size and weight, very much even nothing. The landing is generally pleasant. The bearing area is large, you set the desired angle to it and touch it so smoothly. Why did we train on the Talons - the behavior at low speeds of the SR-71 is similar to that of the Talon …
- What is this "Talon"?
- T-38, training jet. Maybe you know the F-5? Such a cheap fighter specially for Third World countries, it doesn't even have a radar. There he is, by the way, on my shelf. The T-38 is a training version of the F-5. Something similar to your L-39.
- So it was easy to fly?
“As simple as rocket science. Here's how to explain to you … Actually, we ourselves thought that it was on the simulator that we were tormented with accidents, but when we get to the real SR, everything will immediately become easy. "Zheltorotykh", I said, were not taken to us. We've all already had more than a thousand hours of flight time on jet, many have gone through Vietnam. And here, we thought, just a scout. If they shoot him, they won't get it. No need to rush over the jungle itself, dodging machine-gun tracks. I just took off, very, very fast and very, very high flying from one point to another, came back.
- And what is it really? Constant failures, like on that simulator?
- Yes, what does it have to do with refusals … And they were, of course. But the main thing is not that. You just need to understand the specifics of what a three-swing flight is. We told a bike about how the Blackbod descended to its airfield through some kind of air hub, and had to contact the civilian dispatcher. I requested permission to descend, and the dispatcher, as always, is busy. "Stand by," he says. Well, yours in Russian would say "wait a minute", something like that. Like, now I'll be free and take care of your problem. Pilot SR-71 again request. He again "wait a minute." The pilot got angry and said: "sir, do you understand that my speed is three" mach "now? I just CAN'T wait a minute! " Jokes are jokes, but three "sounds" are fucking shit. With respect to the ground, you do something about two thousand knots. Almost a kilometer per second! Then I reduced the pitch angle by half a degree - and you get "out of nothing" a descent at a speed of under 2000 feet per minute. Well, 600 meters per minute somewhere. This is if you added only half a degree to the dive! Understand? The hand got tired of holding the handle, shuddered a little. You didn't notice right away. And before you have time to say "oops", you have already dropped by a kilometer. Or about ten kilometers away from the route. And there, most likely, someone's border is already, we are on a mission. And it turns out that your little mistake turns into a big problem for the Department of State (here the narrator laughed). In general, at supersonic you control very, very gently, super-precise movements. You do not reject the handle, but only imagine that you have rejected it - just the desired deviation by a fraction of an inch is obtained. And we also need to remember about the equipment, because we fly for it. It turns on in a certain sequence, and for it you need to maintain a flight mode, in each case its own. The plane was packed with all kinds of equipment - navigation, espionage. Before starting the engines, it was even forbidden to close the rear cockpit so that the equipment did not have time to overheat. You close your front one, then the RNO closes the rear cockpit, and immediately you start, you immediately put the "air conditioner" on mode.
If we had a crew, as in U-2, of one person, then I would hardly have coped with the controls and equipment. Although the A-12, it seems, and flew in a single version. And on our SR-71, the ar-es-o was in charge of the equipment, that is, the operator. My operator was Don … It's just Don, there is no need to give my last name.
We, the pilots, were united with our RNOs even during training, and since then we have performed almost all trainings and all flights with one crew. The crew drop off in the SR-71 is something special. Our F-105s, in which I fought in Vietnam, were single-seat versions. Before the Blackbirds, I didn’t fly two-seater planes, apart from training planes, and I don’t know how it was. I was told that it looks like there, but not quite that. Not to that extent. It was almost like telepathy with us. On a mission, I never told Don what to do to help me. He always felt it himself. He did what was necessary and exactly when it was necessary. When refueling in the air, for example, he helped a lot, prompting flight parameters. Or when you get lost in space … You know, this SR is very long, and we are sitting at the very nose, far from the center of gravity. If you start to throw in turbulence, then you feel like a passenger on aerobatics, every now and then unexpected overloads or weightlessness. The plane flies smoothly, but it seems to you, for example, that there is a constant overload from somewhere. And so terribly busy, and then there are these "glitches", you don't know if you can trust the instruments … Sometimes Don just saved the two of us. He understood when I was so confused, and he began to read the data from his devices in the intercom. I also learned to understand when he was too busy behind him, and then I read the control charts to myself. This is all despite the fact that we do not see each other in flight.
- You, probably, were very friendly on earth?
- Of course. We can say that Don was then the only person who really cared about me. My parents died, my wife and I parted.
We flew a lot. Mostly over mainland China. When Don and I were admitted to reconnaissance missions, our crew was transferred to Okinawa. For me it was like "déjà vu", I served there for so long. Here from Kadena over China and flew. The main task was - detailed shooting of the entire territory and ELINT.
- Elint?
- "Electronic Intelligence" - electronic intelligence in Russian. Here, I remembered: "electronic intelligence", so right. Recording of radar emissions, radio transmissions, direction finding of sources and so on.
- That is, they flew into the airspace?
- Yes, we flew in. Up to the tonsils (laughs). They combed everything along and across. The Chinese send diplomatic protests, but nobody cares. You know, since the days of Caesar and Genghis Khan: you can be 100% right under all international laws, but if your rightness is not backed up by force, you will still be wrong.
- Weren't you afraid that you will be knocked down?
- How is Powers? In general, they were not afraid. By that time, the Chinese and the Russians had long quarreled, so China had nothing better than the MiG-21. There was nothing to get us. We did not fly to you, although we walked along the borders of the USSR. You Russians have forced yourself to be respected. Of course, the Guideline, the missile that shot down Powers, couldn't reach us on the SR-71. But no one knew what the next time "Mother Russia" would snap if we looked under her skirt again. Well, we nevertheless felt your boundaries sometimes, but did not delve deeply.
[Here I personally do not quite understand. Of course, there are many tales circulating on the Internet, and they often contradict each other and the truth, but still I heard that the Americans flew over the USSR on Blackbirds rather brazenly and with impunity. And they stopped flying into the airspace only when the MiG-25 entered service. True, as they say, in order for the MiG-25 to be able to shoot down the Drozd, it would be necessary to be in the right place in advance, the probability of which was almost zero, but the Americans did not know this, and stopped flying. Then, when the traitor Belenko hijacked the MiG-25, it was urgently necessary to modify it precisely so that the adversary did not know the exact characteristics of the aircraft. As for our missiles, I was also not interested in their characteristics, to my shame. In one place I even ran into a bike that ours shot down the "Drozda" in some eighty-some year, somewhere in the north. But no other sources confirm this, and it is unlikely that "Drozd" still flew during these years. - approx. V. Urubkova]
In addition to China, sometimes we flew on missions to your Far East or Central Asia, then without much violation of the borders. They also occasionally flew over North Vietnam, although SR-71s usually flew there from a Thai base.
I didn’t have as many flights as I did on the Thunderchiefs during the war. But it was hard to fly, we were very tired. It's just that Blackbird is not the kind of plane in which you can just sit on the train and relax. No, of course, it's dangerous to relax completely on any plane. You see, how could I explain to you … Here in any mission on the F-105 there is a time when you just sit and hold the pen, thinking about something of your own. You don't relax at all, but you get some rest. Even on the lousy day, you have at least a quarter of an hour on the flight to relax. This is in any aircraft, probably, except for the SR-71. You have to be ready there all the time. Well, if you take the F-105, when you fly at low altitude in trashy weather, and the Charlie is fired from the ground … Of course, then you are much more tense. But this is not for long, and most of the rest of the flight is calm.
On the Blackbirds, the tension does not release the entire flight. Both me and RNO. Even when we go on autopilot, we have to keep an eye on the instruments with all 4 eyes. If something went wrong, you need to understand and fix it in time. There is very little time to fix any error. We are flying too fast.
- Did you regret later that you volunteered to fly on the "Blackbird"? So many difficulties …
- No, I didn’t regret it. What are you, this is a privilege. There is no other such aircraft, and it is unlikely that there will be any more. And there were fewer of us active SR-71 pilots than astronauts. You belong to the elite, everything reminds you of this. Take some spacesuits: in 70 they cost about 100 thousand dollars a piece. And each is sewn individually for its owner. Not fitted, but immediately sewn for you. Before each flight, be sure to use pure oxygen for half an hour. You put on a suit - a special camping air conditioner is attached to it, such a box with a stool height. Without an air conditioner in your spacesuit, you immediately feel it. Imagine, this box is being dragged all over the airfield after you until you climbed into the cockpit and connected your spacesuit to the board. You feel like a king, a special person carries the mantle behind the kings too.
The flight itself, well, almost all of the instruments, there is no time to look overboard, and there is nothing to see there. But all the same, although you are busy, somewhere inside you remember: your plane simply absorbs space, and there are no others like that. And after the flight, everything is also unusual: a special step-ladder, it rests only on concrete and does not touch the plane, you get out along it, and away from the car. And no one else comes up to the plane for another half hour: it's too hot, you have to wait until it cools down. In flight, the skin warms up to 500 degrees. Well, this is Fahrenheit, and about 250 Celsius. The nozzles of the engines in flight are generally white-hot, at night they can be seen from afar. Glow from heating! The tips of the wedges and the edges of the wings are so sharp that they then wear special covers on them, otherwise the technicians could cut themselves. Everything about him is special. Even the fuel and lubricant were developed specifically for the SR-71 and are not suitable for any other aircraft. Would you be proud? I was proud!
[As for the "wedges" - they are mentioned several times in the text, meaning they should be the central bodies of the air intakes (as you know, on the SR-71, the central body has the shape of a cone, not a wedge). I even asked Volodya again - was there a word on the cassette, maybe I misheard or wrote it down? Vladimir insists that Sanych pronounced exactly "wedge". Why exactly this is not clear: in English, as far as I know, the “central body” is called that way (centerbody or centerbody); "Cone" (cone), too, would hardly have turned into something else. - approx. V. Medinsky]
- And how did you give up all this then?
- Flights are flights, and life is life. I don’t want to talk about it now, it was a tough decision. And I didn't think somehow that I was giving up flying altogether. Then it seemed to me that I could still fly here, in Russia, on a hijacked SR-71.
- “Here” is no longer Russia.
- For you, there is no difference between the state of Idaho and the state of New York. I, too, somehow could not understand the difference between Ukraine and Russia. Actually "state", what you call "state", means "state" in English. If you translate it exactly, you get the "United States of America". And for you we are just "America". So for us you were just "Russia". It's hard to speak differently, I'm used to it.
- Sorry, I realized that this topic is unpleasant for you, but still … Why did you decide to fly?
- Well … Probably the last straw was the death of Don, my operator. He died absurdly in a training flight on the Talon.
[Further recorded from another cassette, perhaps this conversation was somehow returned on another evening. - approx. V. Urubkova]
“I don’t know how to explain it to you. I myself sometimes cannot explain. Generally there was a disappointment. Much disappointing, alike. When I was young, I believed that the difference between the "free world" and the communist countries was the difference between good and evil. Black and white, you know? We are and they are. If we are not theirs, then they are us. Everything was simple and straightforward. In Korea and Vietnam, we are defending the "free world" from the advance of communism. And in the rest of the world. And then I myself went to Vietnam. I don’t know how it was in the North, but in the South it was going on, as you say … Outrage, here. A dictator on a dictator, one is overthrown, another comes, people are shot without trial or investigation … Maybe in the North the Communists were also bad, but certainly not worse than in the South. I asked myself - what is this freedom that we are defending? Is our medicine not worse than the disease? And why are there so many partisans in the South? We bring them freedom, that's how they explained to us. But if they are so fanatically fighting against this freedom, then they do not like our freedom. To impose freedom on them by force? And why are we better than the communists then? It was the mid-60s, when the communist Allende came to power in Chile. I don’t know, maybe he was not a communist, but in our newspapers he was called that. Before, I knew for sure that the communists can take power only by force or by deception. But Allende was elected, he did not arrange a revolution. And even when he came to power, he did not arrange violence … Then there was bad news from Indonesia. There the coup followed the coup, the islands were simply drowned in blood. And all in order "to prevent the coming to power of the communists." And America turned a blind eye to all this, even supported the bloody General Suharto. The dictator Suharto suited our president, the leader of the "free world". Like that South Vietnamese dictator, he forgot his name.
I haven't told you yet: one of my grandfathers was Greek, and my mother was born there, in Greece. My mother has a brother in Greece. Uncle Aristotle, a year older than my mother. They grew up together and were very friendly since childhood. We corresponded all the time when my mother left for the States. Then letters from my uncle stopped coming. For about half a year there was no news, then by some means a letter from my uncle was handed over to my mother. There it was written that my mother took to the hospital. In Greece, the rule of "black colonels" just began, maybe you remember about such. A military coup was staged there 2 days before the elections. In the first month of the new regime, several thousand people simply disappeared. Someone reported about Aristotle's uncle that he was a supporter of the former prime minister. My uncle was arrested, and some confessions were beaten out under torture. They were released, probably because there are relatives in the United States. He had seen enough of everything in prison. He wrote to his mother: "It was lucky that they did not kill immediately." Then we were informed about his death. It said about a heart attack, but we really didn't know. Maybe he was arrested again. Mom could not bear it all. They divorced my father long ago, she had only me and uncle Aristotle. She had a weak heart.(There is a rather long silence on the tape at this point, a few seconds). She was seriously ill, and died 4 months later. You see, people never like to read about mass shootings and all that in the morning papers. Nobody likes to hear about it on the news at breakfast. But by lunchtime they already forget about it. This is all somewhere far away, and does not bother me, so they think. But then it touched me, you know? And Greece is not some kind of banana republic. Not Africa or Latin America, but Europe. Free Europe, not communist. It is part of NATO, that is, it stands guard over the "free world". With all the arrests and mass shootings, Greece remained part of the "free world", you know? And the fascist Spain of that time. Or Portugal. This is how we had a "free world" x..rove. I thought about it a lot, not one year. We were told that in communist countries it is even worse. But I decided: what h..ra, about the free world we are so much bullshit, can't they lie about the communists too? I decided to see it myself. Well … So, now I live here.
- How did you hide your escape? If yours knew, there would be a big noise …
- I will not tell all the details, but I myself have already forgotten. In general, we managed to simulate the fall of the plane into the ocean.
- What happened to your operator?
- I catapulted him. Did I tell you about Don before? My friend Don was gone, I had a new operator. Nice guy, but … We never became friends. I didn't mean to hurt him. I hope he was saved. The ejection seats on the Blackbeds were good.
- So, your commander can catapult the operator, but he himself can stay?
- Not exactly so. In my cockpit there was only a signal toggle switch for RSO for 3 positions: click down - "Attention", up "Let's go."
- That is, in 2 positions?
- No, at 3 - still "Off" in the middle (here both laughed). Well, a signal lights up in his cockpit, and he has to jump himself. You can also command your voice over the intercom. In such cases, no questions are asked, he would have "shot" right away. But I had to convince him that the plane was dying, so that there would be no questions later. It wasn't very difficult. Our engines are spaced far from each other, and if one fails to start, then the plane jerks sharply in that direction …
- Sorry, but what do you mean by "non-start"? Is it not on the ground, in flight? Or is it only when the engines start on the ground?
- In flight, when we are already going supersonic. There is a tricky mechanic, it takes a long time to explain. Something like this - the wedge moves in the air intake, regulates the cross-section of the air channel. It depends on its position where the supersonic jump will take place. Uh-uh, well, you know, waves in the air propagate at the speed of sound, and if the air itself moves at the speed of sound, then the waves do not have time to disperse, and the air becomes denser, this is the pressure jump …
- Thank you, I still remember such things, you don't have to chew.
- Well, for the engine to work properly, you need to direct this jump to a certain place in the intake. This is what the wedge does. In supersonic flight, it constantly moves, adapts to the flow conditions. Usually it is controlled by onboard automation. But I, the pilot, can also intervene. Well, if the jump goes to the wrong intake, then this is called "not starting the air intake." The engine seems to be choking. The thrust drops sharply. The plane rolls towards the "sick" engine. And the roar is strong. Feeling, well, as if a car crashed into a pole. Only not in the forehead, but sideways. The jerk is such that it can hit the head on the side glazing. After one such failure, my visor cracked, well, that is, the visor on my helmet. There is a multi-layer composite, not even every hammer will break. You understand how powerful a blow can be! I can cause such a non-start myself if I interfere with the control of the wedge. This is an emergency mode, and you cannot be sure of anything. And the RSO, by the jerk of the aircraft and its instruments, also sees that there was no launch. If at the same time you tell him to "jump!"
- And it will not surprise him that you did not eject?
- No. He should jump first. If I drop the flashlight before it comes out or is just coming out, then he could be killed with my flashlight. He couldn't know that I hadn't jumped out. When he was shot, it was no longer up to me.
- But this is also risky for you? The plane could have actually crashed?
- I could have fallen. Very risky. But I decided to take a chance. The left engine "ripped off", began to decrease, emergency code …
- Sorry, interrupting. And your operator could not see that you yourself caused this "non-launch"?
- How would he see? Non-launches happen from time to time. A small error in the position of the wedge or flaps is sufficient. Failure in the control system, minor failure in hydraulics or electrics - a dozen different reasons. If it was version "B", a training twin, and if an experienced pilot-instructor sat in the second cockpit, he would still be able to understand that it was me. And my RNO … The jerk of the plane and the roar already told him everything. And he saw that the pressure in the intake was dropping, the exhaust temperature was growing … And, yes, he did not have these devices, I saw it all myself … But, you know, I had to try with all my might then. The plane tried to lift its nose, if you miss the angle of attack, you will fall. Then you will only have to jump yourself. You also need to "keep" the engine: so that it does not start automatically, and so that it does not "die". It is necessary to monitor the "i-j-t", well, the temperature of the exhaust. I still remember: above 950 degrees for at least 3 seconds, and that's it, to the p … c engine. If I hadn't done it, you and I wouldn't be drinking right now. It was a whole lot of work, you know? Well, when the RSO came out, it became easier. You don't have to pretend that I can't start the engine. You control the angle, auto-restart to the left engine, open-close bypass flaps and forward. Already on 2 engines I went down, turned off the transponder and then went back to the echelon.
- Couldn't they spot you?
- No, not likely. There weren't many radars in that area. When they descended, they should have lost me.
- And how could an airplane with an open rear cockpit not collapse on three "swings"?
- Well, he could, probably. I decided to take a chance. And he won. Everything there was as if gnawed and burned, but the plane survived. I was more worried about the increase in fuel consumption from this. We took off from Kadena, as usual, with incomplete refueling, and then refueled from a flying tanker. The tanks were full, but they might not be enough, the flight profile was not optimal … But there was no way back. The RSO ejected, I depicted the fall of the plane, then lay down on the route.
- Clear. And then it's already a matter of technology: he went to our border, contacted the air defense …
- Oh.. it's a matter of technology. Do you have any idea what it's like to fly an airplane over such distances? An airplane like the SR-seventy-mother-one, and even without maps and without a navigator?
- Wait, but why no cards?
- A head of cabbage, as they say. You see how it would be - I'm going on a mission to Nam, working with maps and weather forecast for Southeast Asia. And suddenly I come to the secret part: give me, pliz, also maps of northern China and southern Russia. Something became curious to me, let me read the maps, work out one route!
- Don't be offended, I'm not a pilot …
- Okay, I also sold something. Just understand that the whole idea looked almost impossible even then. Now even more so. I can't even believe that I succeeded. As I recall, how many things I could keep in my head then … And the position of the center of gravity must be taken into account. And the fuel consumption has to be counted, and this on the SR-71 is not so easy to do … Well, you know, the flow meters show the total consumption, but in our SR only part of this fuel burns out right away. The other part circulates under the casing for cooling, and then returns to the tanks. And there is no one to tell. Nobody will correct if you make a mistake … I decided only because it was already disgusting to live. I will break, so I will break. The most important thing for me was not to get caught. Let me crash. But the main thing is that no one in the States knows what I was trying to do. I was a little ashamed in front of my comrades, or something. Therefore, there could be no "contact with the air defense". I myself was engaged in ELINT, so I knew how easy the Americans could detect and record me. Complete radio silence. No trace. I worked the entire route in my head, while we were flying over China and there were suitable maps. At working altitude, I cross China, there they will be angry, but no one will take the next protest seriously. On the way to your border, the working height and speed of the Blackbird are no longer a guarantee of anything. Therefore, I go down there, go through one interesting formation of the relief, then again accelerate to the echelon. The main thing is that they spot me as late as possible and do not have time to take action. It would be foolish if yours knocked me down that day.
- They took off from our airfield to identify you and only then shoot down …
- Yes, yes, I expected this. If you behave in an unusual and not too threatening manner, then they will try to visually identify you before starting shooting. Two Foxbats came up to me, and the host flapped his wings. I obeyed him.
[This place seemed suspicious to me. Foxbet is the MiG-25. For a very long time I dug on the Internet to find out at which airfields in Kazakhstan the MiG-25s "sat". I did not find detailed information, but it turns out that it is only in the city of Balkhash, and even then - not interceptors, but scouts. I don't even know if the scouts are on alert. However, there is one plausible option how this could happen. Suppose that at that time there were flights on Balkhash, and at least a couple of planes were in the air. And here - the intruder, high-speed and high-altitude. So they ordered to intercept those who could do it physically. And the fact that there is nothing to shoot down is the tenth thing for the command, in an extreme case, they could demand and go to the ram. The only strange thing is that I've never heard of it before. Another option - Sanych exaggerates or hides something, or for the catchphrase he dragged in "Foxbats". Just the voices in the recording were a little tangled. Maybe our Su-9s intercepted it? But I would know for sure about this, it would go down in the history of the regiment. If only such a case was tightly classified … Another option is that regiments from all over the Union often flew to the training ground in Sary-Shagan for firing practice with combat missiles. And the MiG-25 too. Maybe one of them (or a couple) was sent to intercept. - approx. V. Urubkova]
"Could they have knocked you down if they wanted to?"
- I think yes. Difficult, but possible. In order for them to catch up with me, I had to slightly lower my altitude and speed. But not very much. And their rockets fly faster than planes. Your Foxbat is a genius machine in its own way. The newest plane was then. Later I got to know them a little better …
- How did your flight end?
- Landing, of course. I had already chosen an approximate place where I could be intercepted. I imagined where they would take me. Several times I had to fly along your borders to open air defense, and I studied maps with the location of secret objects and airfields well. How do you say it - "by heart", right? I won't say which airfield I chose for landing, you better not know that. The lane there is good, far enough from the border, and everything is in order with the security, so they hid me.
- So you sat down in Kazakhstan or flew further?
- I sat down in the Soviet Union, and then no one worried about the details. This was the Asian part of the country, since you want to know. There was little fuel. And also, the further into densely populated areas, the longer I test the nerves of your air defense. The more chances that I will be knocked down! People sit at the consoles, all the families have. I would knock it down just in case (laughs).
[I understand that he chose an airfield in a desert area, away from housing and civilian air corridors. Judging by the direction indicated by Vasily - north-west of Taldy-Kurgan - it could be Sary-Shagan or Yubileiny. Maybe some other airfield that I don't know about. How they hid it from satellites - I don't know: you can hardly put a cover on a red-hot plane, you cannot quickly drag it into the hangar with a broken landing gear. However, you can quickly roll in a few tall repair carts and pull the awning onto them. - approx. V. Urubkova]
- And where did your plane go then? Why wasn’t they told about him during the “glasnost”?
- I do not know. Neither one nor the other. Too much classified everything, and from me too. It is unlikely that our old woman "Rapid Rabbit" was still rising into the air …
- Why Rabbit?
- Well, that's what my "Blackbud" was called. Something like a proper name for the plane. "Fast rabbit", if in Russian. We also had white rabbits painted on our keels. The silhouettes are, well, like the emblem of Playboy magazine.
- So you did not participate in his tests with us?
- Probably, there were no tests. I sat down in an emergency. An unfamiliar runway, a side wind, and I was already exhausted to the limit … I rolled out onto the ground, demolished the landing gear. The plane was badly damaged. And I hurt my back. The doctors explained that they would never let me go to flight work. During the flight, I realized how weak my chances of flying work here in Russia. Who will entrust the plane to me, a defector? And then even a faint hope had to be abandoned. The back still hurts often. And the plane … Well, they took it somewhere under covers. When I recovered and learned the language a little, I climbed the SR-71 a lot with your specialists and translators. He showed and told everything. And then they took him out.
- And what happened to you then?
- With me? They also taught me the language, otherwise I just learned almost some aviation terms in Russian in the first month.
- By the way, now you speak Russian well, you even know how to swear.
- What do you think, bl..? I didn’t study the language at the university. I have been living here for many years. And 20 years ago, I spoke Russian even better than now. There was almost no accent, and I began to forget English. Then America seemed to come here for me. English words are everywhere, and the announcers on your radio and TV have become worse, many speak illiterately. I reluctantly remembered my native language. Now my accent has increased, I notice it myself.
- Sorry, you started to say what happened after the flight …
- Well, after … You just had to live. They gave a legend, documents. “Balt” was made so that the accent would not surprise anyone. We were offered several places for settlement to choose from. I chose Kramatorsk.
- Why Kramatorsk, I wonder?
- Why not? In general, it was all the same. I was not allowed to settle in Moscow or Leningrad. It is clear why: there are more chances that they will be revealed. I didn't want to go to Siberia, there are only gulags and bears walking the streets (laughs). I had an excellent memory then: when they showed the map, I remembered that there was a military airfield near Kramatorsk. Now it is no longer, but then it was. It seems, because of him, and chose. Civilians do not like this, but at least I sometimes listen to the noise of engines from the side. I was even surprised that Kramatorsk was offered to me. Then I realized: the city is half-closed, there are no foreigners, so I would not have been discovered.
- So what is next?
- What's next? Received a specialty, got a job at a factory. I met Katyusha and got married. I just lived. And I still live.
- And how are your impressions?
- First impression - I was surprised how poor you live. The shops are half-empty, the clothes are unprepossessing … And then I settled down and looked closely. And once again I was surprised - how rich you live, just in luxury! I have served and lived in many places, I could compare. Here in the Philippines or Thailand. Yes, the shops there were full of goods. And the children were swollen from hunger, begging in the streets. I understood: you had empty stores because all goods were available and quickly sold out. You could afford it. It seems that then in every family you ate real meat and natural butter. At least the children could be fed with it. Your kids weren't starving! It’s a luxury, you’re just used to it and didn’t notice it. If you are seriously ill, you just call the doctor at home, and you don’t think how you will pay the bills later. And this is a luxury even by American standards. Paid vacation for 4 weeks a year. And this is at least 4, and some have more. In America, even 3 weeks were considered a luxury, such a great vacation was used to lure especially valuable workers … A lot of things were surprising then, you can talk for a long time. Anyway, now everything is different … Yes, I was still surprised what kind of relations between people here, in Russia. Or in Ukraine, no difference. People here, like everywhere else, are good and bad, but there is something that I have not noticed anywhere else. This has not changed yet. It is difficult to tell in words. You just somehow feel … For example, I remember a case. At the very beginning of my work at the factory, they took us out of town on Saturday with the whole shift, on buses. Anyone who wanted, and for free. Just pick mushrooms. I have nothing, not a bucket, not a knife, this is my first time. But it was interesting, I went. I hardly know only a couple of people, but they immediately gave me both a bucket and a knife. The most interesting thing was when Tolya, my friend, asked his friend for a spare knife for me. I don’t know my friend, and he doesn’t know me, but he has a good folding knife. He averts his eyes and says that the knife is rusty and does not open. Tolya took the knife from someone else, but all this was incomprehensible to me. Why did the first one make excuses? Why did I lie about my knife? Why not just say that he doesn't know me and doesn't want to borrow a good thing? Is he obliged? I asked Tolya, he could not explain. He just looked at me in surprise. And I didn't understand then. Now it seems to me that I already understand better. But in America, this could hardly be so. The customs are different. It's normal there when everyone is for himself.
- And the KGB didn’t bother you?
- Well, they probably followed. Not very tight. Several times I specially went out of town alone, checked. No one followed me, no one later summoned me for interrogation. They interrogated me only at the very beginning. After the flight, still in a hospital bed. Yes, then again, a few weeks later, they summoned to some major. He showed an American newspaper. I don't remember which one, but I remember that the room was fresh. There is a note about the Blackbod that crashed while landing in Okinawa, and a photo of the crashed plane. In the picture, the keels were turned sideways to the camera, so that 5-digit numbers and emblems are not visible. But that major gave me a magnifying glass and showed me. Three-digit numbers were visible on the engines. And these were the numbers of our Rapid Rabbit! If I had not crashed the Rabbit here in the steppe myself, I would have believed that our plane was lying in Okinawa! In the note, the names of the crew members were named, they were not injured in the accident. They were ours, from Kadena, I knew these people. But these were other people, not me and my RSO! I even got dizzy. Didn't know what to think. And the major just asks what I think about it …
- Fake? But why?
- This is the question why. Then I guessed. Maybe, of course, they somehow fabricated an American newspaper in order to arrange some incomprehensible test for me. And most likely, everything was written in American newspapers … You see, this is how they could “cover up” the death of our plane. He fell somewhere in the ocean. Well, that's how the command should have thought. The crash site was never found. What if he fell into shallow water? What if they look for him and find yours? There's a secret equipment at least … eat. It would be difficult to completely hide the loss of such an aircraft. So that the plane is not looked for by anyone who does not need, they made a mock-up, photographed and announced to everyone that our SR-71 actually crashed in Okinawa. And there is nothing to look for him, here he lies. Is it logical? So I told the major. He nodded. We, too, he said, thought so, but wanted to hear your version.
- Well, how, after so many years - do you regret that you flew to us?
- I never regretted it. Katyusha and our daughters would not be exchanged for anyone. If I was somewhere happy in life, then my happiness is here.
Afterword by Vladimir Urubkov
I sent the finished recordings to Vasily Bondarenko, and also asked a few additional questions. Vasily replied with a letter, which is better given here in its entirety. If we count the letters from the first part of the article ("Winged robot against the air defense system"), then this will be the 4th, so this is a subheading.
The fourth letter
In general, you wrote everything down correctly. I authorize this to be "thrown on the site" or as it is correctly called. I honestly said I didn't know if this was true or not. Maybe someone else knows something and will write to you. I told you about his wife, she worked for us as an OTC inspector. Tried to check through her. Baba is simple, if she pretends or plays, it would be visible. I ask her by the way - where, they say, are Sanych's parents from? The answer is that he seems to be from Latvia.“I,” she says, “didn’t know them, they died during the war.” I ask again: "But did you know your husband's other relatives?" She replies that no, she did not know, he had no relatives left. “I always felt so sorry for him,” he says. She also added that no one had ever sent letters to Sanych.
About the patch that Sanych showed me then. She was old and shabby. Beautiful emblem, colored. The diamond is like this, the black silhouette of the Blackbird is on a blue background, red stripes seem to stretch behind the silhouette. On top of the airplane there is an inscription "3+". There were no other inscriptions.
Let's sit in the same place on Friday, I'll pick up the cassettes. Let's take a beer, remember the service. Will it go at 6 pm?
Best regards, Vasily Bondarenko
Commentary by Vadim Medinsky
The text is certainly interesting. As the saying goes - "if this is not true, then it is well invented." There are a lot of obvious Englishisms and sloppiness, which are in sloppy translations from English (just such things Oleg Chernyshenko and I constantly eradicated in our translations). It is possible that this is just a dramatization based on some kind of translated text. On the other hand, such "bloopers" can just say that the narrator continues to think in English, speaking in Russian words. What is even the feminine word "airplane" worth, which sometimes slips by this Sanych! I agree with Volodya that it is better not to iron out all these clumsy written off from oral speech - let them remain as they are. I just corrected the spelling and punctuation marks in some places, and also suggested rearranging some parts of the "interview" - to make the story more coherent. I cannot judge how reliable this is, I am not competent. Having searched the Internet hastily on the topic of "Blackbird", I did not find anything that would clearly contradict the story set out, although there is not a lot of confirmation either. Here https://www.wvi.com/~sr71webmaster/srloss~1.htm is listed, apparently, most of the "Drozdov" lost in different years. So far, I have overlooked this site diagonally - it turns out that only one case is known when the plane disappeared without a trace and the wreckage was not found: it was a disaster on June 5, 1968, aircraft number 60-6932. It was over the South China Sea, and it was the "Blackbird" that took off from the Kadena base in Okinawa. The catch is that it was a single A-12, and indeed in many details it does not agree with Sanych's story. Although there is an interesting place there:
Investigation revealed no clue as to the disappearance of the A12 and pilot Jack Weeks. It remains a mystery to this day. There was speculation by some that Jack Weeks had defected to the other side. This is not true. Jack Weeks' widow was given posthumously his “CIA Intelligence Star for Valor” medal. The U. S. government would have never done that if there were indications that a defection occurred.
Translated, in short, something like this: “… The investigation did not help to find out the reason for the disappearance of the A-12 and pilot Jack Weeks. This remains a mystery to this day. Some speculated that Weeks had gone over to the other side. This is not true, because Wicks' widow was awarded the CIA Star for Valor in Intelligence Medal, which Wicks was awarded posthumously. If he had gone over, he would not have been awarded …"
It is not this "iron" logic that is interesting ("where he went, no one knows, but since he was awarded, it means he did not run away"), but the fact that the version of the pilot's escape to us is generally considered. Brought up by perestroika, this would never have occurred to me: it was firmly instilled in me that it was our people who always tried to escape there, but on the contrary, it never happened and cannot be. I learned about Dean Reed only from Vladimir Urubkov, when we discussed this text with him.
I would also like to add my "five kopecks" about some of the doubts of Vladimir Urubkov, which he expressed in the comments on the text. Regarding the deep penetration of the "Drozdov" into our territory: the Americans hardly flew over the USSR as brazenly as they had before the downing of U-2 in May 1960. Many English-language sources on the "Drozd" emphasize: its original purpose was to fly over the entire territory of the USSR, as at one time the U-2 and the Canberra variants flew - and remained on paper. After they were caught by the hand with the U-2, the amas promised that there would be no more manned flights over the USSR. I have not found any mention of significant violations of this promise in serious sources. Yes, they often allowed themselves to violate borders on different types of aircraft, but they did not fly far. As for our North - there were supposed to fly "Thrush" from among those based in England: it turns out too far from Okinawa or from California. Sanych, "inhabited" in Okinawa, could not communicate closely with colleagues from the English base and not know how and where they flew, but he could simply not mention them in the story. As for the possibility of flights of "Drozdov" in the 1980s, then "Drozdov" flew for sure - at least the last lost aircraft on the list on ww.wvi.com/~sr71webmaster is listed for 1989, and it was a reconnaissance flight (by the way, also from Okinawa).
An unexpected continuation
Once upon a time, about a year ago, amazing events happened in my life with an almost incredible spy story.
I decided to record these events and publish with the purpose that one of the eyewitnesses would respond, if there are any.
Alas, no one responded, although I tried to interview all the fellow soldiers, their acquaintances and the acquaintances of their acquaintances who served in those parts.:) Their answers are in the text on the links above. And in routine I completely abandoned this story, especially since all the threads were almost broken, when suddenly I receive a letter from my fellow soldier Vladimir Yakimenko. The letter is very short: "Read about the Black Bird", and the link:
I follow the link, and I see an amazing text:
1976, 22.09 - Kazakhstan - a narrow object with the dimensions of a fighter was found (length about 12-15m, weight 4.5t), a tailless scheme, similar to the "Black Bird" (it was named "Black Cat"). The object was badly burned, the hood was torn off by an explosion (self-destruction equipment), inside the cabin was burnt out. The BS bodies were not found, but if there were any, they burned out or were thrown out in the explosion. The strength of the case was striking - neither a drill nor a gas cutter took it (it turned out - a titanium alloy). However, when lifting on an external sling, it began to sway strongly and the suspension had to be unhooked in order to avoid a helicopter crash. At the same time, the device received even greater damage than during landing. Exported (disassembled) on an external sling Mi-6 PSS from Arkalyk to one of the military airfields in Western Kazakhstan, and then to Zhukovsky (Ramenskoye) of the Moscow region (airfield LII) - to the Moscow machine-building plant "Experience", where it was examined by a commission (and personally Alexey Andreevich Tupolev) and where it was kept in the hangar and was studied in detail. During the ascent, the excellent aerodynamic qualities of the apparatus were revealed - it soared up, began to swing strongly and almost rammed the helicopter from below, so the suspension had to be unhooked and the object crashed to the ground, after which it was not possible to pick it up again, since it was badly damaged, so they took it apart in place. (According to the lieutenant colonel who served in the PSS (space search and rescue service of the Air Force) at the Arkalyk airfield, later the lieutenant colonel was transferred to Zaporozhye, to the military transport regiment. The well-known Ukrainian ufologist Y. A. Novikov from Zaporozhye, vice-president of the Zaporozhye UFO center). (The name of the lieutenant colonel is not named for ethical reasons - at his request). The information is absolutely reliable.
It turned out that it was an American unmanned reconnaissance aircraft D-21 "Lockheed" (launched from an SR-71 or B-52). This story has nothing to do with UFO disasters!
At first, I generally thought that this story is somehow directly related to that one, but alas, the years do not coincide. I wonder why exactly that area is crammed with all sorts of events about UFOs, which in fact turn out to be alien planes? Why were the spies so curious? Baikonur, or numerous Kazakhstani proving grounds with the latest experimental equipment? It seems that now it is my turn to look for Vasily, and ask what he knows about this? If he did not find that story, then they probably told it.
The fifth letter
Hello Vladimir, this is Vasily Bondarenko from Kramatorsk again. A couple of years ago we were talking about the drone and about Sanych and his bike. Sorry I didn't answer earlier. I have my own problems and worries here. "Internet" generally abandoned for a long time. Have I already told you that I showed you your article to Sanych? He is now very bad after the operation, he hardly leaves the house. I'm already afraid to even ask how he is there. The last time I talked to him for this new year. I just called him to congratulate. Even then I printed your article from the Internet and showed it to him. This was back in 10, when he was just discharged from the hospital. He read it with interest and laughed. I, he says, speak so fluently, I myself did not know. Well, you literally processed our conversations. I then asked him if he could fix something. He said no, in general it was so. In response to your comments on the story, he told me something, explained. In general, he has a reasonable answer to everything. I just don't remember, it's been 2 years already, and I didn't take the tape recorder with me that time. Yes, I just remembered about the "wedges". Sanych said that in English it would be "spikes" (in my opinion, if I remember the word correctly). And yes, he said that these are such central bodies in the engines.
Best regards, Vasily Bondarenko
That's all for now. Maybe we will be able to find out more sometime …
