Quote:
Originally Posted by Medic
There's an interesting story related to the topic from the late '80ies, just prior to the Unification of the Two Germanies.
A Warsaw Pact pilot (I think he was East German) defected to West by
flying his MiG-29 (which happened to be the ELINT-version of the said plane) in to West Germany. Now, this provided the NATO with an opportunity, but also was certain to cause trouble. The pilot they could keep without any major consequences, but the plane was a wholly different case. Realizing they would have to return the plane to the Pact shortly,the NATO intelligence dismantled and then rebuilt the plane in two days, returning it to the Pact before the deadline.
What they discovered, much to their surprise was that while the Western planes used the standard circuit boards, the said plane had vacuum tubes in their stead, which made it impervious to EMP...
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They found similar things when Belenko (?) defected in his MiG-25. Lots of vacuum tubes and such (though the radar was powerful enough to kill a rabbit at 100 feet if it was turned on on the ground). Titanium only on the nose and the leading edges of the wings, control surfaces, and air intakes. Their biggest surprise was the engines -- yes, they could propel the MiG-25 to Mach 3.2, but they could sustain that speed for only about 15 minutes -- and after that, you are either deadstick or running on very coughy engines.
We kept the MiG-25 for two weeks. In that time, an army of American, British, Japanese, and French technicians pored over every detail. Then we boxed it up and sent back to the Soviet Union.