Soviet "Area 51"
The "aliens" arrived at the Akhtubinsk airbase in large numbered boxes, which they carefully unloaded in one of the hangars, away from the prying eyes of the Air Force flight test center personnel. It was here, among the Astrakhan steppes, in a secret city that is not on geographical maps, that it was decided to conduct a study of objects from an alien world.
On July 20, 1976, a special commission of the Air Force Research Institute under the leadership of the leading engineer V. M. Chumbarova opened the first box with the "alien". Nothing unusual was found inside: just a set of fuel equipment and parts of a jet engine. In the next box, a more curious artifact was found - a weighty "Instruction to the Pilot" (at least, that's how the local polyglots defined it, deciphering the symbols on the first pages of the foreign tome).
The day passed quickly. It was only when the contents of the last box were taken out on the shelves that the tired engineers finally took a smoke break. In front of them, in the bright light of electric lamps, lay two heaps of metal. Now, without any drawings, diagrams or technical descriptions at hand, it was necessary to assemble working samples of the most complex equipment from these disparate elements. System of equations with many unknowns.
However, contrary to expectations, the difficult puzzle did not cause any particular problems. Soviet aviators regularly faced the solution of such problems even during the Great Patriotic War, when they had to prepare lend-lease planes for flights (and even modernize them under our conditions!) At an accelerated pace, often in the absence of foreign instructors, and, using instructions in a foreign language … So it was this time too - they gathered a team of the most competent people in the field of airframe design, engines, radio equipment, and began to fulfill the task. Domestic "Kulibins" quickly figured out all the details, mechanisms and wiring, returning the "aliens" to a working state.
There were no problems with the operation of the "aliens" either: the arrangement of their structures was simple and laconic, and the maintenance of most important units did not even require ladders and special tools. The technicians noted the convenient location and ergonomics of the service points, all the hatches required for prelaunch preparation were swung open with a simple movement of the hand and did not require additional devices, and opening the fuel filler necks was no more difficult than on a passenger car. However, the refueling process itself did not look the best - the technicians had to kneel under the car. This is the ergonomics.
Soviet aircraft technicians were annoyed by the abundance of exclamation marks and menacing warning inscriptions that began with the words "WARNING" and "DANGER" with seemingly the most obvious content - it seems that the creators of the "aliens" paid close attention to "protection from the fool." Before each flight from the car, it was required to remove from a dozen plugs and removable checks, protecting the "alien" from accidental retraction of the chassis in the parking lot or inadvertent operation of the weapon. With such unprecedented security measures, you have to be a complete donkey to do something wrong while preparing to fly.
Tigers vs MiGs
By the time the cycle of ground investigations was completed, an extensive flight test program was already ready; the leading test pilots of the Air Force Research Institute, Heroes of the Soviet Union N. I. Stogov, V. N. Kondaurov and A. S. Beige.
Big red stars were painted on the keel of the F-5E Tiger II tactical fighter (or else!) the plane rolled onto the runway of the Akhtubinsk flight test center.
The Honored Test Pilot of the USSR, Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel Vladimir Nikolaevich Kandaurov recalls:
… I knew that every company has its own "zest" in its products. Compared to serial domestic fighters, "Tiger" had pedal brakes, which we used only on heavy vehicles. The cockpit was not clogged with switches and petrol stations (circuit breaker) unnecessary in flight. All of them are in one "store" on a horizontal console, outside the working area. The F-5 is far from the most modern model and is inferior in its characteristics to the MiG-21. However, I liked the cockpit layout and the excellent visibility from it. A high-quality dashboard, enlightened glass devices did not give glare in any light, and the small AN / ASQ-29 collimator sight was about 2 times more compact than domestic analogs.
I decided to run on a second, longer runway. "The pocket does not hold the stock", - I thought, taxiing to the strip. Of course, why hide it, I was proud that this unique copy in the USSR was entrusted to me.
He switched on the rearing of the front pillar - the electro-hydraulic lift started working and the nose of the aircraft "climbed" up. “Wow!” I shook my head in surprise. In my opinion, not the most common method to reduce the takeoff run. We used this only aircraft designer V. M. Myasishchev on M-3 and M-4 - heavy long-range bombers.
From the very first seconds of the takeoff run, the pilot realized that increasing the angle of attack on takeoff was not a luxury, but a necessity. The frail Tiger engines reluctantly accelerated the car: the F-5E was equipped with two General Electric turbojet engines of 15 kN thrust each. For comparison, the thrust of the MiG-21bis turbojet engine reached 70 kN in the afterburner mode. As a result, even with a raised nose, the Tiger needed a 900-meter runway for a take-off run. A lot for such a small plane.
Alas, the first test run almost ended in disaster - the chassis of the American fighter was horrified by the quality of the Russian "concrete", and the large gaps between the plates finally damaged the front support. The takeoff run was urgently interrupted, and only the pilot's skill allowed serious damage to be avoided.
After a short-term repair, the F-5E returned to service in order this time to conduct training air battles with its peer - the front-line fighter MiG-21bis. The most exciting part of the test program began.
On paper, the MiG was almost 2 times superior to the Tiger in thrust-to-weight ratio, speed (about 2M versus 1.6M), rate of climb (225 m / s versus 175 m / s) and in all other dynamic characteristics. The best test pilots sat at the controls of the machines, all as one Hero of the Soviet Union. Equal conditions for the start of the battle, the optimal amount of fuel in the tanks, telemetry systems are on. Take off!
18 battles were fought by Soviet aces, and the MiG-21bis was never able to get into the tail of the F-5E. The devil was hiding in the little things: a lower specific wing loading, developed nodules in the root of the wings, slotted flaps and developed slats - all this gave the F-5E an advantage in close air combat. The "American" was also helped by his original "shark" nose, equipped with vortex generators - such a design significantly increased the stability of the Tiger at low speeds, and made it possible to conduct maneuverable air combat at critical angles of attack.
The armament of the small fighter was initially also "sharpened" for maneuverable battles - two built-in automatic cannons of 20 mm caliber with 280 rounds of ammunition for each barrel. All this, coupled with excellent visibility from the cockpit, made the Tiger an extremely dangerous enemy in close combat.
Experienced specialists also noted the great survivability of the F-5E, thanks to its twin-engine layout and the absence of wing fuel tanks - the plane could return from a mission with ridged planes.
It is fair to say that in the event of a real combat clash between the MiG-21bis and the F-5E, the American fighter did not expect anything good. The Soviet machine could have won a victory even when an air battle began - thanks to its more powerful Sapfir radar, the MiG could detect the enemy earlier and take an advantageous position for a surprise attack. The high thrust-to-weight ratio of the Soviet fighter gave him a chance to get out of the battle if the situation suddenly took an unfavorable and dangerous turn for him.
According to test pilot Vladimir Kondaurov, the advantage in maneuverability of the American "Tiger" was completely lost at speeds above 800 km / h, however, in this case, the bend radii became so great that the pilots lost visual contact with each other, and the air battle ceased …
Nevertheless, the results were clearly disappointing. The arriving commission of aircraft manufacturers was also at a loss - to bring such reports to Moscow means to get into big problems. There was no choice but to put up a more modern MiG-23 against the F-5E. The conditions of the battle were already initially unequal, but the results of the air battle were quite predictable. "Twenty-third" could not get involved in maneuverable close combat at all, because it was armed with an R-23 medium-range air-to-air missile. The MiG-23 could easily shoot the Tiger from a distance of 40 km. At the same time, in close air combat, the large MiG-23 was inferior in maneuverability even to the MiG-21: the nimble Tiger hovered around its enemy with impunity.
On this, the tests were completed - the planes were transferred to Moscow to the Chkalovskoye airfield, where a presentation for the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force P. S. Kutakhova. Predictably, the reaction was like a deafening clap of thunder. Since then, captured American vehicles have never taken off again, and a clause was added to the recommendations for conducting aerial combat, in which it was advised not to engage the F-5E Tiger II in close combat, preferring the more advantageous tactics of "hit and run." …
Fighter for export
The F-5 tactical fighter is a special American development for arming its allies. The specific designation determined the appearance of the machine: in contrast to the expensive, radio-rich and difficult-to-operate aircraft of the US Air Force, in 1959 the Northrop company created a light fighter that was as cheap as possible and adapted for local conflicts. Potential customers were not interested in high-tech equipment, on the contrary, the main focus was on reliability, low operating costs, ease of piloting and versatility of the machine.
The fighter with the telling name "Freedom Fighter" (Freedom Fighter) confidently pushed its competitor - the "flying coffin" F-104, which the Americans tried to attach somewhere, just to get rid of the obviously unsuccessful machine. The F-5 entered service with 30 countries around the world, and in many of them it is still in operation.
Despite the "export" status of these aircraft, the US Air Force ordered a small batch of these aircraft during the Vietnam War, a modification of the F-5C (which included the installation of "advanced" electronics, an air refueling system and 90 kg of armor). In Vietnam, the heavy name "Freedom Fighter" somehow by itself changed to the more sonorous "Tiger" (Tiger).
In 1972, a new modification of the F-5E "Tiger II" appeared, radically different from the basic F-5. More powerful and high-torque engines were installed, and a primitive radar station appeared. An aircraft of this particular type from the South Vietnamese Air Force ended up in Akhtubinsk in 1976.
The F-5 also left its mark in another field - on the basis of its design, the T-38 Talon aircraft was created, which has been the main training aircraft of NATO countries for 50 years.
Well, by the totality of its characteristics, the F-5 Tiger / Freedom Fighter is one of the best fighters of the Cold War, undeservedly forgotten in the shadow of its clumsy fellow F-4 Phantom.
Dragonfly
The attentive reader must have noticed that initially there was a conversation about two "aliens" - two trophies that we got for detailed study after the end of the Vietnam War. Where did the second "alien" go, what kind of plane was it?
The second was the A-37 Dragonfly light jet attack aircraft. At first, the unsightly flattened car did not cause any positive emotions from domestic experts: some kind of stupidity for a war with the natives and performance characteristics to match: max. speed 800 km / h, crew of 2 people (why? as if one cannot cope), combat load: built-in 6-barreled machine gun in the nose of the vehicle, up to 2.5 tons of bombs and napalm tanks on the underwing pylons (almost the same, how much the Dragonfly itself weighed).
However, even in this primitive aircraft, the Soviet military experts managed to find many "surprises": first of all, a fully armored cabin, which reliably protected the crew from small arms bullets. Return of the legendary Il-2 attack aircraft?
One of the participants in those tests jokingly recalled how long he had been looking in the Dragonfly's cockpit for a "multi-kilogram cabinet" of a 20-channel VHF radio station, which, as it later turned out, was a block that could fit in the palm of your hand. The trained eye of the specialists quickly highlighted the most curious moments of the American machine: for example, our aircraft technicians really liked the method of connecting wires by "crimping" without a soldering iron, which greatly simplified maintenance of the aircraft in front-line conditions.
results
After comprehensive tests in the interests of the Air Force, both captured aircraft were transferred to the Sukhoi Design Bureau, where at that time the design of an aircraft for direct support of troops - the T-8 product (the future Su-25 "Grach") was in progress. A close acquaintance with foreign technologies came in handy: on the basis of the successful servo compensators of the Dragonfly attack aircraft, a control system was designed for the Su-25 attack aircraft. Also, the American "Dragonfly" Su-25 inherited a rational booking scheme and an effective tank filler based on polyurethane foam with a cellular structure. No less interesting results were obtained from the study of the F-5E Tiger II tactical fighter, on the basis of which the Rook wing with advanced mechanization was designed.
The moral of this story is this: as has been said more than once, the devil is in the little things. Especially in such a high-tech industry as aircraft construction. Here, the quality of execution and the details imperceptible to the ordinary eye play a too big role, on which, in the end, the outcome of the air battle depends.
As for the beneficial influence of "overseas technologies" on the creation of the aircraft of the Sukhoi Design Bureau and the eternal moral and ethical questions about copying technical solutions: "Do we have the right?", "And how do we differ from China then?" is a normal world practice. Any technique is always created with an eye to foreign counterparts. Moreover, if the samples of aviation technology that fell into our hands contained truly innovative and useful ideas, then there was no reason to neglect foreign experience (by the way, not obtained by our blood in the jungles of Vietnam).
During the Cold War, the United States was able to obtain for detailed acquaintance the entire spectrum of Soviet aviation equipment, relatively speaking, from the MiG-15 to the MiG-25. There is no doubt that each sample was carefully studied with great passion and, for sure, foreign experts discovered a lot of new and interesting things.
Well, we were lucky only once.
