As a Navy F/A-18E/F/G maintainer, I cannot overstate how much I appreciate the mention of the maintainers that were crucial to this program. I've always found the acquiring and maintaining aspects of Constant Peg to be the most intriguing.
I was wondering the same thing - how did they know what lubricants were needed, were did they find spare parts, etc. Somehow they must have gotten service manuals, as well. Or maybe not?
Check out the “10 percent true” channel. That guy wrote the book on Constant Peg. Has lots of videos about it. The book is crazy, what the mechanics had to do to keep those aircraft flying is truely above and beyond!
It has to be a real challenge to keep those aircraft flyable, I guess they did an incredible job. Same happened with the IRIAF F-14, but in my opinion their project was more focused on cannibalization of other aircraft but still incredible how ground engineers could copy and manufacture real components or manufacture HYD fluid through an analysis of the real fluid. As a ground engineer it blows my mind 😂😂
Soviet pilots did get to fly American aircraft. If you want to know more about the tests and to see how the F-5 also held up against the MiG-23M, you can read this excerpt from the book Life-Long Runway written by Soviet Air Force test pilot Vladimir Kondaurov. "In the summer of 1976 a disassembled American F-5 fighter jet was delivered to our base at Aktubinsk. To be correct, it was F-5E - the latest variant with increased engines thrust. By the size it was smaller than MiG-21, had two engines installed side-by-side in the fuselage, a sharp swept-down nose and short tapered wings. The war in Vietnam had finished, and the United States Air Forces were leaving this long-suffering country, hastily abandoning several aircraft of this type on one of the airfields. One of them was handed over to the USSR together with its pilot manual. There were no technical descriptions, but our engineers figured everything out, assembled it to the last bolt and made it flyable, bringing not only the foreign hard pieces together, but also tons of electric wiring. A test brigade was formed to conduct special flight tests, and a program was written, which assumed 35-40 test flights. I was one of the test pilots, our lead was Nikolay Stogov." theaviationgeekclub.com/soviet-pilot-who-test-flew-captured-f-5-against-mig-21-mig-23-explains-why-the-tiger-beat-the-fishbed-flogger-in-every-engagement/
@@dennisa7784Agree, its just not the same. By the time Russians had access to F5s F4s and F14s (most likely not) US was already done with them and switched to superior aircraft which Russians never had access to. Meanwhile US had access to 21s 23s when Russians and USSR relied on them heavily.
I was told by my friend who served as a pilot in Indonesia Air Force (TNI AU) that beside Bulgaria and warsaw pact countries, the US acquired the MiGs are from Indonesia service too. It was happened in 1965 after the 30th September coup, the Soviet imposed sanction to Indonesian government. To paying the debt and searching a new aircraft, the Indonesian then turn to US after the Soviet bloc. The US acquired the MiG fleet after the Indonesian government agreed to exchange the MiG-21F-13 fleet it had previously purchased from the Soviet Union for the F-5E/F Tiger II.
Wings Over the Rockies is producing some VERY nice videos! I'm impressed by what's been popping up in my YT video feed lately. This guest from the secret US MiG program in particular has been an excellent one. I've read and heard a little bit about the US MiG program -- believe it or not, some things WERE leaked in the 1980s and early 1990s when I was at the peak of my aviation reading -- but hearing a frank appraisal of the MiGs vices and pluses from a US pilot is night insight. I think the MiG-29 was the prettiest fighter design the Soviets produced.
I was a brand-new USAF 1Lt and had been flying the F-15 for about 7 months when my squadron was headed to Nellis for my first Red Flag. During the predeployment briefing the squadron's deployment project officer put up a slide showing the calendar of events for the two weeks. The first Monday was fam day where we would fly across the Nellis ranges and familiarize ourselves with the geographical references. Day two showed I was scheduled for something called Constant Peg. My reaction was what's up with this? I want to go do Red Flag. The person sitting behind me leaned forward and told me not to worry, I was going to like Constant Peg. On the Tuesday after fam day, I and my flight lead went to the Red Eagles' facility at Nellis, which was a single-wide trailer. I got in-briefed and flew two sorties against MiG-21s that day. My thought was "is this a great country or what?" My next assignment after the F-15 was to fly F-5s as an Aggressor pilot. The two Nellis-based F-5 squadrons and the Red Eagles made up what was called Adversary Tactics, meaning that the commanders of the three squadrons worked for the same colonel. Unfortunately, as much as I wanted, I never got a chance to join the 4477th. I was probably too young in the fighter pilot business anyway. The 4477th shut down in 1988 and over the next year the F-5s went the way of the dinosaur. I did, however, get to fulfill my dream of flying MiGs when in 1995 I was selected as the first of three USAF pilots to fly MiG-29s as an exchange pilot with the German Air Force, which I did for 2 1/2 years from Jan 96 until Jul 98. Germany inherited 24 Fulcrums with the reunification. My last job in the Air Force was as commander of the Red Eagles from 2002 to 2004 in the unit's then incarnation.
Mustve been an incredible experience getting hands on with the real threat! Im sure you put that first-hand Fulcrum experience to good use when you got back to Nellis ;)
Thanks for this second episode. Would love to hear more about Constant Peg and the MiG-21s. Speaking about aircraft maintenance people, my late father-in-law was a maintenance Staff Sergeant in the Air Force until he retired. He worked on B-52s and later several types of fighters.
I was just a young lad back then, But today in my DCS World cockpit and sim, it is the next best thing. Thanks guys great show, both of them. I salute you.
I have flown AN-2s and I love the design philosophy. Really rugged, self sufficient, we were carrying a 1400 kg load out of a 600' rough, dirt strip. It has an onboard electric fuel pump so someone can leave fuel drums out in the middle of nowhere, and you can fill up the plane with no ground facilities. If the battery goes you can crank up the starter by hand to get yourself started, Pneumatic system for brakes, and to pump up tires, struts, and to blow out the cabin after working; it has no registered stall speed at all, and are available all over. Perfect bush plane for Alaska, but Cessna lobbied our congress to not grant certificate, because they want you to buy a 5M dollar Caravan that does less. I'll take Antonov over Caravan. Put a turbine on it if you want to work with it, and it's a beast.
Annies have been around for eeeever and their reputation is thoroughly justified. Some tech crosses political lines and the AN-2 is absolutely one of them. I'd love to have one! Would have been a fabulous bush plane here in the Canadian North.
I was a civilian tech at the tonopah test range.I was on range, talking to a AF lcol and we stopped talking to watch a b52 fly by at about a thousand feet. From behind us a mig 17 comes over makes a simulated flank attack on the buff and flies off. I"m standing there slackjawed and said "holy crap, that was a freaking mig". The AF officer says " What?? I didn't see anything!!!!! The fact that I didn't see anything was emphasized by a series of more important civilian and military types. This was f117 time and despite being on the same test range we never had a clue about it. I remember that mig sounding like a high time vacuum cleaner being dragged through the air sideways.
Thanks to John Mann for coming back for MORE Constant Peg. We couldn't cover everything, so leave your questions and comments and Watch Part 1 ua-cam.com/video/0H3NfLNu6z4/v-deo.html
I have a question for any info as to what had happened to around 14 MiG-29s(bunch of 29As, one 29UB, and bunch of 29Cs) acquired by the US under the CTR program, purchased from Moldova around 1996, are they still around? Are they being used to now test US munitions on them to help Ukraine deploy HARM'S?
Great video you guys. For part 3 can you also bring in a person from the maintenance of Constant Peg. I'm curious about the technical hurdles these guys must have gone through to keep these planes up and running. Love from Romania ❤
Would have been fascinating if they wouldn’t have told them the aggressors were going to be actual migs, then get the adrenaline going by being unexpectedly being approached by actual migs while they were unarmed for training.
The problem with that is they were not to blurt out the words , "Mig-17, 21, or 23" over the radio for security reasons and had other names to designate their new identities over the radio..That is why they were told in advance.
I did hear on another interview from an F-14 pilot that they actually didn't tell them what they were flying against for the first sortie and they only used call signs over the radio.
And the F-14 pilots were shocked at how much faster the Mig-23 accelerated than the F-14. They would fly next to each other and go full throttle at the same time and the Mig-23 would leave the F-14 behind fast.
I love these interviews...I spent 4 years on Kandahar airfield and stayed at the hotel on there. The room across from me housed pilots that flew U2 spy planes, I think from NASA from memory, they gave me a patch and other cool memorabilia - I'm not a pilot and know nothing about planes or flying them - the many chats I had with those lads over time were memorable. Many of them worked on different projects over the years and had some amazing stories.
Thank you sir for this interview. I was at TTR July 1982 - DEC 1988. Supply 4450th. The first time i got off that airplane the first thing i saw was a few Migs on the runway. It blew my mind. The Red Hats could never beat us in softball at Nellis.
Would love to have him talk more about the aircraft and even have him talk us through all the startup procedures and emergency procedures for the aircraft!! Just watched both videos back to back would love to see this guy again.
The Mig-23 is a very exotic looking fighter. A single powerful engine, swing wings, and its unique landing gear. That’s why I love it. Hopefully we’ll see another Flogger flying at air shows.
One of the most interesting video and interview i've ever seen on the web. Many compliments to you and to mr. Mann, who gave us great and exhaustive answers without revealing more that he could really talk about. Thanks from Italy
I actually had the pleasure of sitting inside a MiG-21 cockpit when I was in high school. I was in JROTC and for a history class film project, the colonel in our JROTC program got in touch with the Threat Museum folks on Nellis Air Force base to let us film a short video. They were even nice enough to lend us a fighter pilot helmet. It’s incredible to see this same magnificent jet all these years later
@@JoJo-vm8vk Mig 29 is super interesting since the engines give absolute insane amounts of thrust and many pilots say they are a dream to fly in that aspect
@29:16 absolutely they carried on doing it with more modern Russian planes. I can't remember where I heard it but apparently there was an accident involving a US pilot flying a Flanker. Post cold war the need for it dipped but also there was the availiability to train with German MiG 29s for example
As a matter of fact, flying against Mig-29Gs taught as how effective Helmet Mounted Missile Queuing Systems and HOBS missiles were, which jump-started development on the AIM-9X
As Marine EOD our team was invited by Nellis EOD to do some bombs and bullet training out at Tonapah, after clearances and official stuff we were granted acess to training areas very few ever see was witness to some high speed low drag stuff pertaining to the subject of this video, it was a blast no pun intended. Military pilots a cut above, God Bless America
Ben Rich in his Book about the Skunkworks talks about how they would roll aircraft into hangers to keep them from being seen by Soviet spy satellites. They found out that the Soviets were using infared photos, so if an aircraft was parked in the sun and removed, they could still see a thermal shadow and identify what might have been sitting there. They could also see the after image of the heat from a power plant and make useful estimations from that. With that knowledge in hand, plywood shapes and kerosene heaters were put together to fabricate wing shapes and heat signatures to give Soviet intelligence annalists something to look at and puzzle over.
Reason number 194874 why the USAF is so far beyond the scope of its nearest competitor. Props to the air force for actually wanting to and not being afraid to put their aircraft to test against our soviet adversary. -old army sergeant
you really think they were not also doing the same thing? they got a mountain of us technology when they pulled out of vietnam. they were playing the exact same spy games
Interesting. How the opposing sides took different routes from the Vietnam experience. The U.S. went from powerful aircraft (including F4s, crusaders, and Starfighter) to agile aircraft and the Soviets went from maneuvetable MiGs (incliding MiGs 17 and 21) to pwerful engines with wings.
Yes, the soviets had something similar to the Americans. They got their hands on some F 5s from Vietnam and if I'm not mistaken, some A 37s as well. That helped them somewhat with tactics on how the American aircraft were used in ground attack, interception, etc
Declassified information on acquisition of Soviet/Russian aircraft is all out there. They came from Israel, Morocco, (East) Germany, Indonesia, Pakistan, Cambodia, Bulgaria, Egypt, Somalia, China, Belarus, Poland, Ukraine, etc.
Its a american propaganda channel. No wonder they copy a lot of Russian technology, given everything they could steal. But they still can't shoot down a Chinese weather balloon 🤣🤣
No doubt there. US cares so it obtained few MiGs 29s but also SU 27(few variations of it). But never MiG 31 or its derivatives. Also, this kind of thinking and actually make it real is expected from a superpower country like the USA. Military, economy, technology and all that means superpower. That does not mean that it's best in all those fields, but probably it is. Of course that US learned something(much)through industrial and high tech espionage(Soviet Phasotron engeneer who saved US probably 15 years in super advanced phased aray radar systems and countless more). What an impressive country ! That also shows how impressive and smart were Soviets(Russians) when they were far ahead od a gigant like Raytheon (or Hughes aviation and aerospace).
The US also obtained a Mig-25P when a Soviet traitor flew it to Japan in 1976. As a result, the Soviets had to change all of their friend-or-foe identification system equipment. Even though the Americans later returned the plane to the Soviets, many parts were missing.
3:42 Nellis is in Nevada, not New Mexico.... 29:20 you have Draken, ATAC and Top Aces. Proof has also been provided of Su-27's spotted over Groom lake, take that how you want.
What an excellent interview! Two gracious hosts, and Col. Mann is such a great interviewee, not a single superfluous word from him and so spot on with everything. As a UK citizen saddened to see the current state of the Royal Air Force, it's good to know that at least somewhere in the West there is a top notch Air Force that manages to run such advanced programmes and learn things that benefit the West. And Constant Peg proved that the Russian design and training philosophy was a long way behind in 2nd place to Western design and training philosophy. For me the best line from Col. Mann was this one: "I wonder why people even buy their equipment". Yes indeed! These MiGs, compared to Western designs, were clearly not in the same league. Why would any non-Russian air force want to use them?
This reminds me of a second-hand tale I heard about some shady military types turning up in the machine shop of a German factory that makes lighting fixtures and such and gave them some exotic material to machine into certain parts which was astonishingly hard and resilient. At the time, my friend of a friend thought it was for a German navy submarine but that makes no sense - no reason a German shipyard outsource that kind of work to some company from a completely different industry. They'd just make it in-house or source it from their regular suppliers. The sensible explanation would be that it was foreign, and acquired through intelligence channels for classified purposes.
The graphic said Nellis AFB in New Mexico. It’s actually Las Vegas , Nevada. I was assigned to TTR in the late 80s-1992 with the 37th TGW. Some of the best days of my life. Also some of the harriest flights from Nellis to TTR haha.
Back when I was in at the end of the first Gulf war I think we had a mig 21 in our Hanger, I can't remember but I think it was Chinese. Our squadron went to Red Flag at Nellis. The let us go into the war room and see the battle unfolding. The ACMI PODS were pretty neat.
Probably the reason they can discuss details about how they acquired the planes, is because they are probably still doing the same thing to this day with newer planes and obtaining them them in similar ways.
Not sure if the MiG-21s (genuine Russian ones, not the Chinese version) came from Algeria or Indonesia. The MiG-23s came from Egypt. The Chinese version of the MiG-21 might have come from Egypt as well.
So where is area 17? This is like ranger battalions having large numbers when few exist. To mislead foreign intelligence. Unless there really is area 1-50-something but me thinks not the case. I’m really curious how we ever learned the name of Area 51. Leak or was it always posted?
Very, VERY informative session... what a great speaker- like maintainers another underappreciated asset as the masses flock to youtube to produce all manner of webcasts!
Great video, had never heard of this until now, and thanks to UA-cam for recommending this video to me about 10 times in the last few days so it knew I'd like it I guess! Also the vid makes me want to take a trip to the USA and see the museum, as it looks a great place!
Did you know Canada purchased 30 Mig 21s in 1960...designated CF-121 Redhawk...they were trialed for 1 yr and sold back to the Soviets....deemed unsuitable.
Interviewer: How did u acquire these planes? Ex-pilot: The word "SECRET" is an interesting word, right. He's so polite, considerate and he's definitely demure.
My question revolves around the other program at TTR about the same time frame. Did the "Red Hats" know what the "Black Hats" was doing or working on? I.E. the F-117. As one of those "Black Hats", getting a Red Hat was a prized trophy. Enjoyed the viedo.
them are fast from what i understand but todays jets are better but how they got them there is only two ways they could obtain them i know of great videos keep up the great work
As a Navy F/A-18E/F/G maintainer, I cannot overstate how much I appreciate the mention of the maintainers that were crucial to this program. I've always found the acquiring and maintaining aspects of Constant Peg to be the most intriguing.
I was wondering the same thing - how did they know what lubricants were needed, were did they find spare parts, etc. Somehow they must have gotten service manuals, as well. Or maybe not?
@@Tubes12AX7k Reverse Engineering on everything i guess? (including fluids)
but surely through intel work they got hold of manuals too.. right?
@@Tubes12AX7k❤😊
Check out the “10 percent true” channel. That guy wrote the book on Constant Peg. Has lots of videos about it. The book is crazy, what the mechanics had to do to keep those aircraft flying is truely above and beyond!
It has to be a real challenge to keep those aircraft flyable, I guess they did an incredible job. Same happened with the IRIAF F-14, but in my opinion their project was more focused on cannibalization of other aircraft but still incredible how ground engineers could copy and manufacture real components or manufacture HYD fluid through an analysis of the real fluid. As a ground engineer it blows my mind 😂😂
Soviet pilots did get to fly American aircraft.
If you want to know more about the tests and to see how the F-5 also held up against the MiG-23M, you can read this excerpt from the book Life-Long Runway written by Soviet Air Force test pilot Vladimir Kondaurov.
"In the summer of 1976 a disassembled American F-5 fighter jet was delivered to our base at Aktubinsk. To be correct, it was F-5E - the latest variant with increased engines thrust. By the size it was smaller than MiG-21, had two engines installed side-by-side in the fuselage, a sharp swept-down nose and short tapered wings. The war in Vietnam had finished, and the United States Air Forces were leaving this long-suffering country, hastily abandoning several aircraft of this type on one of the airfields. One of them was handed over to the USSR together with its pilot manual. There were no technical descriptions, but our engineers figured everything out, assembled it to the last bolt and made it flyable, bringing not only the foreign hard pieces together, but also tons of electric wiring. A test brigade was formed to conduct special flight tests, and a program was written, which assumed 35-40 test flights. I was one of the test pilots, our lead was Nikolay Stogov."
theaviationgeekclub.com/soviet-pilot-who-test-flew-captured-f-5-against-mig-21-mig-23-explains-why-the-tiger-beat-the-fishbed-flogger-in-every-engagement/
nice read.
I mean it was just an F5 though. The mig 23 and 21 was top ussr spec at the time whereas the f14 and f15 would've been the top US spec
When Iran changed governments, the Russians had access to Iranian F-4s, F-5s, and the F-14s.
@@stevetobe4494 sure but by then the US were on to f16s f15s and fa18s which there is no evidence they aquired
@@dennisa7784Agree, its just not the same. By the time Russians had access to F5s F4s and F14s (most likely not) US was already done with them and switched to superior aircraft which Russians never had access to. Meanwhile US had access to 21s 23s when Russians and USSR relied on them heavily.
Who’s here because of the short?
Guilty as charged.
@@ottonormalverbrauch3794 me too
Present
🫡
😂me
I was told by my friend who served as a pilot in Indonesia Air Force (TNI AU) that beside Bulgaria and warsaw pact countries, the US acquired the MiGs are from Indonesia service too.
It was happened in 1965 after the 30th September coup, the Soviet imposed sanction to Indonesian government. To paying the debt and searching a new aircraft, the Indonesian then turn to US after the Soviet bloc.
The US acquired the MiG fleet after the Indonesian government agreed to exchange the MiG-21F-13 fleet it had previously purchased from the Soviet Union for the F-5E/F Tiger II.
Wings Over the Rockies is producing some VERY nice videos!
I'm impressed by what's been popping up in my YT video feed lately.
This guest from the secret US MiG program in particular has been an excellent one.
I've read and heard a little bit about the US MiG program -- believe it or not, some things WERE leaked in the 1980s and early 1990s when I was at the peak of my aviation reading -- but hearing a frank appraisal of the MiGs vices and pluses from a US pilot is night insight.
I think the MiG-29 was the prettiest fighter design the Soviets produced.
One of the most sincere shout-outs to the maintenance team. 👍🏼👍🏼
I was a brand-new USAF 1Lt and had been flying the F-15 for about 7 months when my squadron was headed to Nellis for my first Red Flag. During the predeployment briefing the squadron's deployment project officer put up a slide showing the calendar of events for the two weeks. The first Monday was fam day where we would fly across the Nellis ranges and familiarize ourselves with the geographical references. Day two showed I was scheduled for something called Constant Peg. My reaction was what's up with this? I want to go do Red Flag. The person sitting behind me leaned forward and told me not to worry, I was going to like Constant Peg. On the Tuesday after fam day, I and my flight lead went to the Red Eagles' facility at Nellis, which was a single-wide trailer. I got in-briefed and flew two sorties against MiG-21s that day. My thought was "is this a great country or what?" My next assignment after the F-15 was to fly F-5s as an Aggressor pilot. The two Nellis-based F-5 squadrons and the Red Eagles made up what was called Adversary Tactics, meaning that the commanders of the three squadrons worked for the same colonel. Unfortunately, as much as I wanted, I never got a chance to join the 4477th. I was probably too young in the fighter pilot business anyway. The 4477th shut down in 1988 and over the next year the F-5s went the way of the dinosaur. I did, however, get to fulfill my dream of flying MiGs when in 1995 I was selected as the first of three USAF pilots to fly MiG-29s as an exchange pilot with the German Air Force, which I did for 2 1/2 years from Jan 96 until Jul 98. Germany inherited 24 Fulcrums with the reunification. My last job in the Air Force was as commander of the Red Eagles from 2002 to 2004 in the unit's then incarnation.
Mustve been an incredible experience getting hands on with the real threat! Im sure you put that first-hand Fulcrum experience to good use when you got back to Nellis ;)
I'm sure you have some awesome stories!
Username checks out
Absolute legend, I envy your life. Lucky/hardworking man
I was expecting to read some reviews of the MiG, not biography... 😐
Thanks for this second episode. Would love to hear more about Constant Peg and the MiG-21s.
Speaking about aircraft maintenance people, my late father-in-law was a maintenance Staff Sergeant in the Air Force until he retired. He worked on B-52s and later several types of fighters.
Listening to these guys talk is something else man, so much appreciation for what these men have accomplished
I was just a young lad back then, But today in my DCS World cockpit and sim, it is the next best thing. Thanks guys great show, both of them. I salute you.
I have flown AN-2s and I love the design philosophy. Really rugged, self sufficient, we were carrying a 1400 kg load out of a 600' rough, dirt strip. It has an onboard electric fuel pump so someone can leave fuel drums out in the middle of nowhere, and you can fill up the plane with no ground facilities. If the battery goes you can crank up the starter by hand to get yourself started, Pneumatic system for brakes, and to pump up tires, struts, and to blow out the cabin after working; it has no registered stall speed at all, and are available all over. Perfect bush plane for Alaska, but Cessna lobbied our congress to not grant certificate, because they want you to buy a 5M dollar Caravan that does less.
I'll take Antonov over Caravan. Put a turbine on it if you want to work with it, and it's a beast.
Annies have been around for eeeever and their reputation is thoroughly justified. Some tech crosses political lines and the AN-2 is absolutely one of them. I'd love to have one! Would have been a fabulous bush plane here in the Canadian North.
I was a civilian tech at the tonopah test range.I was on range, talking to a AF lcol and we stopped talking to watch a b52 fly by at about a thousand feet. From behind us a mig 17 comes over makes a simulated flank attack on the buff and flies off.
I"m standing there slackjawed and said "holy crap, that was a freaking mig".
The AF officer says " What?? I didn't see anything!!!!!
The fact that I didn't see anything was emphasized by a series of more important civilian and military types.
This was f117 time and despite being on the same test range we never had a clue about it.
I remember that mig sounding like a high time vacuum cleaner being dragged through the air sideways.
Thanks to John Mann for coming back for MORE Constant Peg. We couldn't cover everything, so leave your questions and comments and Watch Part 1 ua-cam.com/video/0H3NfLNu6z4/v-deo.html
I have a question for any info as to what had happened to around 14 MiG-29s(bunch of 29As, one 29UB, and bunch of 29Cs) acquired by the US under the CTR program, purchased from Moldova around 1996, are they still around? Are they being used to now test US munitions on them to help Ukraine deploy HARM'S?
No secret I heard about these jets I live next to Nellis AFB IN LV NV NOT NEW MEXICO NEW MEXICO IS WHITE SANDS AFB AND TEST SIGHT
Hell we even have a hind 24 and hind 25 helicopters along with the other helicopters of Russian manufacturing
Colonel John Mann is a great pilot , mentor and friend. His career reads like fiction!
Crazy how much knowledge was packed into a 30 second short that led me here, well worth the watch
Flew against the MIG-21/23 in 1987 out of NFWS. Awesome, and a pretty cool looking bird up close in the air.
Great video you guys. For part 3 can you also bring in a person from the maintenance of Constant Peg. I'm curious about the technical hurdles these guys must have gone through to keep these planes up and running.
Love from Romania ❤
This was an amazing interview! Please thank everyone who participated, I absolutely loved this
Would have been fascinating if they wouldn’t have told them the aggressors were going to be actual migs, then get the adrenaline going by being unexpectedly being approached by actual migs while they were unarmed for training.
The problem with that is they were not to blurt out the words , "Mig-17, 21, or 23" over the radio for security reasons and had other names to designate their new identities over the radio..That is why they were told in advance.
I did hear on another interview from an F-14 pilot that they actually didn't tell them what they were flying against for the first sortie and they only used call signs over the radio.
And the F-14 pilots were shocked at how much faster the Mig-23 accelerated than the F-14. They would fly next to each other and go full throttle at the same time and the Mig-23 would leave the F-14 behind fast.
The US always was the aggressor
@@sgsheffThe MiG-23 was just a large engine with Variable Sweep wings attached after all
I love these interviews...I spent 4 years on Kandahar airfield and stayed at the hotel on there. The room across from me housed pilots that flew U2 spy planes, I think from NASA from memory, they gave me a patch and other cool memorabilia - I'm not a pilot and know nothing about planes or flying them - the many chats I had with those lads over time were memorable. Many of them worked on different projects over the years and had some amazing stories.
Thank you sir for this interview. I was at TTR July 1982 - DEC 1988. Supply 4450th. The first time i got off that airplane the first thing i saw was a few Migs on the runway. It blew my mind. The Red Hats could never beat us in softball at Nellis.
Haha!
Would love to have him talk more about the aircraft and even have him talk us through all the startup procedures and emergency procedures for the aircraft!! Just watched both videos back to back would love to see this guy again.
The Mig-23 is a very exotic looking fighter. A single powerful engine, swing wings, and its unique landing gear. That’s why I love it. Hopefully we’ll see another Flogger flying at air shows.
One of the most interesting video and interview i've ever seen on the web. Many compliments to you and to mr. Mann, who gave us great and exhaustive answers without revealing more that he could really talk about.
Thanks from Italy
That guys hair piece is next level.
I actually had the pleasure of sitting inside a MiG-21 cockpit when I was in high school. I was in JROTC and for a history class film project, the colonel in our JROTC program got in touch with the Threat Museum folks on Nellis Air Force base to let us film a short video. They were even nice enough to lend us a fighter pilot helmet. It’s incredible to see this same magnificent jet all these years later
Love the idea of some Soviet MIG pilot standing on the tarmac trying to remember where he left his plane.
I love the MiG-21 and MiG-29. Such beautiful aircraft and impressive performance.
Expandable engines 😅
@@JoJo-vm8vk Mig 29 is super interesting since the engines give absolute insane amounts of thrust and many pilots say they are a dream to fly in that aspect
@29:16 absolutely they carried on doing it with more modern Russian planes. I can't remember where I heard it but apparently there was an accident involving a US pilot flying a Flanker. Post cold war the need for it dipped but also there was the availiability to train with German MiG 29s for example
As a matter of fact, flying against Mig-29Gs taught as how effective Helmet Mounted Missile Queuing Systems and HOBS missiles were, which jump-started development on the AIM-9X
As Marine EOD our team was invited by Nellis EOD to do some bombs and bullet training out at Tonapah, after clearances and official stuff we were granted acess to training areas very few ever see was witness to some high speed low drag stuff pertaining to the subject of this video, it was a blast no pun intended. Military pilots a cut above, God Bless America
good times in those dorms, and cheep drinks at the bar.🍻
Great interview.
Fascinating to hear the accounts of DACT and the various models of MIG and how they flew.
Greetings from across the pond! 🇬🇧
The more you know about, What you're flying. "The Better Pilot You Are". thank u CL JOHN MANN & CHUCK STOUT for this grt episode.
Seeing these videos of TTR is crazy, not a thing has changed!
God this is an amazing conversation.
This was so amazing to watch. Thanks for the great content !!!
Thank you so much for this episode!
I remember driving past and marveling at the big hangar at Lowry in Denver.
This was absolutely fascinating! Thank you for sharing!
Ben Rich in his Book about the Skunkworks talks about how they would roll aircraft into hangers to keep them from being seen by Soviet spy satellites. They found out that the Soviets were using infared photos, so if an aircraft was parked in the sun and removed, they could still see a thermal shadow and identify what might have been sitting there. They could also see the after image of the heat from a power plant and make useful estimations from that. With that knowledge in hand, plywood shapes and kerosene heaters were put together to fabricate wing shapes and heat signatures to give Soviet intelligence annalists something to look at and puzzle over.
Great video. I love hearing first hand stories of pilots and soldiers.
Reason number 194874 why the USAF is so far beyond the scope of its nearest competitor. Props to the air force for actually wanting to and not being afraid to put their aircraft to test against our soviet adversary.
-old army sergeant
you really think they were not also doing the same thing? they got a mountain of us technology when they pulled out of vietnam. they were playing the exact same spy games
Interesting. How the opposing sides took different routes from the Vietnam experience.
The U.S. went from powerful aircraft (including F4s, crusaders, and Starfighter) to agile aircraft and the Soviets went from maneuvetable MiGs (incliding MiGs 17 and 21) to pwerful engines with wings.
Interview is GOLD. That last point about stovepipe is key. Its why WE are ahead.
Another amazing video! I’d love to hear more about constant peg and another episode.
Yes, the soviets had something similar to the Americans. They got their hands on some F 5s from Vietnam and if I'm not mistaken, some A 37s as well. That helped them somewhat with tactics on how the American aircraft were used in ground attack, interception, etc
😎 Thank you for doing this interview.
Declassified information on acquisition of Soviet/Russian aircraft is all out there. They came from Israel, Morocco, (East) Germany, Indonesia, Pakistan, Cambodia, Bulgaria, Egypt, Somalia, China, Belarus, Poland, Ukraine, etc.
Its a american propaganda channel. No wonder they copy a lot of Russian technology, given everything they could steal.
But they still can't shoot down a Chinese weather balloon 🤣🤣
@Phantom-rb8yv it is better to be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.
No doubt there. US cares so it obtained few MiGs 29s but also SU 27(few variations of it). But never MiG 31 or its derivatives. Also, this kind of thinking and actually make it real is expected from a superpower country like the USA. Military, economy, technology and all that means superpower. That does not mean that it's best in all those fields, but probably it is. Of course that US learned something(much)through industrial and high tech espionage(Soviet Phasotron engeneer who saved US probably 15 years in super advanced phased aray radar systems and countless more). What an impressive country ! That also shows how impressive and smart were Soviets(Russians) when they were far ahead od a gigant like Raytheon (or Hughes aviation and aerospace).
The US also obtained a Mig-25P when a Soviet traitor flew it to Japan in 1976. As a result, the Soviets had to change all of their friend-or-foe identification system equipment. Even though the Americans later returned the plane to the Soviets, many parts were missing.
Been to that museum about a year ago. Highly recommend if you’re an aviation guru! Lotta cool stuff in there
3:42 Nellis is in Nevada, not New Mexico....
29:20 you have Draken, ATAC and Top Aces. Proof has also been provided of Su-27's spotted over Groom lake, take that how you want.
So true I heard about that Russian pilot back in the 80s bringing I think a mig 25 or was it a su27 one of the top Russian fighter jets to America
@@tylerbuckley4661 was a mig 25, which was a real bogeyman at the time.
@@blakeskidmore523 I know I have books on migs and other Russian built aircraft
From 1977 to 1981 I was a USAF Aircraft Maintainer (Jet Engine Mechanic.) Glad to be of service.
Thanks for this👍 we have a MiG-21 here in NZ ✈️🇳🇿
A truly wonderful interview. Thank you.
What an excellent interview! Two gracious hosts, and Col. Mann is such a great interviewee, not a single superfluous word from him and so spot on with everything. As a UK citizen saddened to see the current state of the Royal Air Force, it's good to know that at least somewhere in the West there is a top notch Air Force that manages to run such advanced programmes and learn things that benefit the West. And Constant Peg proved that the Russian design and training philosophy was a long way behind in 2nd place to Western design and training philosophy. For me the best line from Col. Mann was this one: "I wonder why people even buy their equipment". Yes indeed! These MiGs, compared to Western designs, were clearly not in the same league. Why would any non-Russian air force want to use them?
There is an excellent book about these MiG's and operating them called "Red Eagles". Worth a read.
What a well produced show awesome!
This reminds me of a second-hand tale I heard about some shady military types turning up in the machine shop of a German factory that makes lighting fixtures and such and gave them some exotic material to machine into certain parts which was astonishingly hard and resilient. At the time, my friend of a friend thought it was for a German navy submarine but that makes no sense - no reason a German shipyard outsource that kind of work to some company from a completely different industry. They'd just make it in-house or source it from their regular suppliers. The sensible explanation would be that it was foreign, and acquired through intelligence channels for classified purposes.
The graphic said Nellis AFB in New Mexico. It’s actually Las Vegas , Nevada. I was assigned to TTR in the late 80s-1992 with the 37th TGW. Some of the best days of my life. Also some of the harriest flights from Nellis to TTR haha.
Great presentation and editing fellas! Best wishes from the UK 🇬🇧
Wow what a fantastic interview, such an informative and interesting video. John is a great guest!
Back when I was in at the end of the first Gulf war I think we had a mig 21 in our Hanger, I can't remember but I think it was Chinese. Our squadron went to Red Flag at Nellis. The let us go into the war room and see the battle unfolding. The ACMI PODS were pretty neat.
DECLASSIFIED!😂 The Mig-23s came from Egypt. It's not like it's top secret anymore...
Probably the reason they can discuss details about how they acquired the planes, is because they are probably still doing the same thing to this day with newer planes and obtaining them them in similar ways.
Not sure if the MiG-21s (genuine Russian ones, not the Chinese version) came from Algeria or Indonesia. The MiG-23s came from Egypt. The Chinese version of the MiG-21 might have come from Egypt as well.
Great interview ....the Mig 23 from what I have heard is not easy to fly....hats off to the pilots that did that job
They took it from Bulgaria and Romania, they accualy said it in one of the episodes, so there u have it its not a secret.
Really like this channel and should be a bit longer..I would also hold a bit back on the word *cool* Too much cool can freeze the lot up😮
The only replica that's better than the original. Wait there's also Valmet.
Very cool program - never knew the US actually had adversary aircraft to train with.
So where is area 17? This is like ranger battalions having large numbers when few exist. To mislead foreign intelligence. Unless there really is area 1-50-something but me thinks not the case. I’m really curious how we ever learned the name of Area 51. Leak or was it always posted?
Very, VERY informative session... what a great speaker- like maintainers another underappreciated asset as the masses flock to youtube to produce all manner of webcasts!
Terrific. What a great story.
Great episode. Really enjoyed it.
There is a book called "Red Eagles" that talk about this program. In the end, book strongly hinted that program hasn't been ended.
Pure speculation
Great video, had never heard of this until now, and thanks to UA-cam for recommending this video to me about 10 times in the last few days so it knew I'd like it I guess!
Also the vid makes me want to take a trip to the USA and see the museum, as it looks a great place!
We hope to see you soon in beautiful Denver, CO
Awesome very interesting just love watching your show thanks to the pilots for there service 🛩❤️🇬🇧
Loved this!
That was great, thank you.
This was my dream job as a kid. USAF Aggressor pilot.
What a great content!
What a great video i always knew about the agressor squadron but this was completely new to me. Left a follow and ill watch every video from now on.
I'll be very interested to hear, once the Ukraine-Russia war is over, the Ukrainian pilots' reactions to flying F16s vs their Soviet/Russian craft.
"What the hell is this Ivan, where is Vodka dispenser"
BTW you mis-titled Nellis AFB in you video. It is in Nevada outside of Las Vegas.
Did you know Canada purchased 30 Mig 21s in 1960...designated CF-121 Redhawk...they were trialed for 1 yr and sold back to the Soviets....deemed unsuitable.
In reference to video, at least two planes were Mig-27s. More of a ground attack airplane. No radar that 23 had
Interviewer: How did u acquire these planes?
Ex-pilot: The word "SECRET" is an interesting word, right.
He's so polite, considerate and he's definitely demure.
Very impressive presentation.
This was a solid interview with solid men , absolutely loved it !! Thanks this was fun to watch ❤
O boy what I’m salivating, just started the video.
Not disappointed, it was great!
👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Awesome video guys very informative
Very very interesting thank you
25:10 - in the seventies, the Soviets found the F-5 and conducted training battles
They got former South Vietnamese Air force F-5s and A-37s.
Exactly, not sure how that's a "I don't know" answer among three experts.
Awesome Video, Thanks!
I'd like to know what car is this superb pilot driving, please ...?
Hold on - learning about Taosim @ 3:14?
Pretty sure we were trying to understand the enemy at their core.
Area 52. Been there. Saw those MIGS daily.
Area 51
My question revolves around the other program at TTR about the same time frame. Did the "Red Hats" know what the "Black Hats" was doing or working on? I.E. the F-117. As one of those "Black Hats", getting a Red Hat was a prized trophy. Enjoyed the viedo.
This was so cool
I was at macdill in77 78 working in red shack on F 4s
them are fast from what i understand but todays jets are better but how they got them there is only two ways they could obtain them i know of great videos keep up the great work
What truck was shown at 20:24
Is that a tatra? I think it was a fuel truck
USAF wanted volunteers to do maintenance on MIGS in 1977, all top secret and must be SSGT or above..
I have seen those Migs on old satellite photos sitting on a dry salt lakebed due west northwest of Area 51.