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Posted

When I was stationed at Nellis AFB in the 1980's, the 4477th was being inactivated and several of their personnel were assigned to my squadron. This was (I think) in the 1988-1990 timeframe. Nellis was (and still is) a hodgepodge of different units so none of us paid much attention.

Posted (edited)

The video is supposedly posted up by Steve Davies, who wrote the book about the Red Eagles called, erm Red Eagles. Well worth getting.

 

Supposedly the pilots were scared shitless of the Mig23. It was fast as hell, would even run down F111's at low altitude. The problem was it had this problem in the early models that it would depart without much in the way of warning. And when it did, the engine used to deform which meant the turbine blades bit into the side of the engine, detach, which kind of exploded the fan blades through the aircraft fuselage. A least one pilot managed to deadstick a Mig23 back that was misbehaving like that (largely because there as no warranty on the ejection seats and nobody trusted them). Another tried and died in the attempt. It will also be remembered a USAF General died flying one of these things as a retirement present.

 

The pilots did love the Mig21 though, especially the early ones. They were slightly flawed in how they were reassembled so the pilots used high angle of attack to depart, and then fairly easily gain control again. They were an amazing aircraft.

Edited by Stuart Galbraith
Posted

Regarding the maintenance of the Constant Peg MiGs:

 

 

 

The MiG-17s were straightforward, but eventually the 4477th crews lost faith in the engines. It was an obsolete airframe, in any case, flown mainly by developing nations, so the MiG-17 was phased out in 1981.

The MiG-21 had a few more problems than the MiG-17, including spotty fuel couplings. One day, the fuel couplings of a MiG-21 failed and caught fire as the crew was testing its engine on the trim pad. “Fortunately, it was right across the street from the fire station,” said Stringer.

It was the MiG-23 that was the maintainers’ nightmare. The Flogger was a compromised design, in the US view. Made light for speed, the airframe didn’t have sufficient strength. The wing box which carried the weight of the swing wings was particularly prone to cracks.Link

 

It is probably not surprising that after the Cold War many air forces removed their MiG-23s from service before the MiG-21s.

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Posted

Looks a bit more than a simple engine fire. Catastrophic engine failure could result in loss of authority of the right wing's control surfaces (it shouldn't, but who knows what the design standards are for Russian milspec), which could cause what is seen.

Posted
On 8/17/2021 at 11:25 PM, lucklucky said:

The engine is flush with wing, it is not in a pod like in jet commercial aviation. So potentially more dangerous. I wonder what made the aircraft turn right.

Was not just some pilot in that aircraft.

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

 

This isn't really true - the engine is in a pod, and the pod is mounted forward and below the centreline of the wing. This is fairly typical of turboprops, I think. Sure, it isn't on a pylon, but it is underslung.

One would expect that the rotating parts of the engine would be fully forward of the wing so that the (typical) 30 degree debris "ring" for thrown, uncontained engine parts would not hit the critical parts of the wing.

It's also possible that the prop separated and critically damaged the wing, too.

Posted

You are correct that turboprops have generally that configuration, being different than jets. I think it is more dangerous.

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