Chapter 19 ** Flower Location
When the Americans first came into contact with the MiG-25 that Belenko defected from, they concluded that the fighter's maneuverability was poor based on the fact that it was made of steel. In fact, this was completely wrong.
Even in the Gulf War, the MiG-25 was still able to fight against the Americans alone, and it had shot down American fighter planes. This steel-made fighter plane, with its powerful engine, still had impressive performance.
Moreover, the high strength brought by stainless steel allows this fighter to perform high-overload maneuvers. Like now, Andre felt his body being pressed on the seat, and the previous roll had caused him to experience an overload of 4G.
Although this got rid of the opponent's lock, it also meant that the distance between them was increasing. The solution was quite simple, which was to make another turn! These two side turns formed an S-shaped route, which was the most basic serpentine maneuver in air combat.
The MiG-25 has already slowed down to subsonic speed, and the previous turn has also created a turning radius of one thousand meters in the air.
In later times, many people criticized the MiG-25 for being able to fly in a straight line, and it was nicknamed the straight-line fighter. Indeed, if the MiG-25 flew at top speed, it would be impossible to turn without a radius of several dozen kilometers. But now, after the MiG-25 slowed down, the required turning radius began to shorten rapidly, especially the differential tailplane of the MiG-25, which provided additional steering torque, allowing this fighter, which already had sufficient steering torque, to complete the turn more quickly.
In order to adapt to high-altitude maneuvers, the various control surfaces of the MiG-25 are very large. When it reaches low altitude with sufficient air, the torque of the control surface is further amplified, and even the situation of over-control due to excessive torque may occur. From another perspective, it means that as long as the operation is proper, this fighter will also have strong maneuverability!
You know, the current second-generation aircraft, even the F-4, has a turning radius of 1,500 meters!
Let those experts who only talk about military affairs on paper cool off! Andre operated the huge steel fighter and completed two turns under the control of the large-area rudder. At the same time, the altitude dropped from 22,000 to 18,000. Andre looked outside and found two bright spots in the clear sky.
Already within visual range!
The signal of intercepted target has appeared on the display panel of the fighter's newly added TP-26-SH1 forward-looking infrared search/tracking system. In such a clear sky, the interception distance of this system can reach 40 kilometers!
The Soviets' individual electronic technologies were very poor, but by integrating these not-so-advanced systems, they were able to produce powerful results. This was the Soviets' advantage!
Andre flipped the switch with his finger, and the R-60 missile under the wing began to warm up. The infrared missiles of this era did not have the ability to attack head-on, so they could only chase from behind. For the time being, there was no need to worry about the opponent launching missiles to intercept them.
The two sides were approaching each other quickly, and when they passed each other, a striking plaster red appeared in Andre's pupils.
They are from the island country! These shameless dwarves! Andre pushed the joystick to the right and stepped on the right rudder at the same time. The huge control surfaces of the double vertical tails turned, and the differential vertical tails and the control surfaces of the wings followed the movement. The entire steel fighter was turning rapidly.
Almost at the same time, Andre turned on the engine afterburner. When turning, the altitude and speed would be lost, and all of these required powerful power.
Eleven tons of fuel have been burned, plus missiles, the total weight of the aircraft is now around twenty-five tons. The two engines can each provide a thrust of more than eleven kilonewtons, which adds up to twenty-three kilonewtons. The thrust-to-weight ratio exceeds 0.92, which is almost the same as that of the light and flexible J-7. The engines that burst out with strong thrust replenish energy continuously to make up for the loss during the turning process, and the speed of the fighter is further improved.
At the same time, the two F-4 fighters were also turning. Their mission was to intercept this terrible invading fighter. In the beyond-visual-range air combat, the opponent had broken free from the lock. Now, after flying head-on within visual range, they also began to turn quickly.
His body was pressed tightly against the seat by the huge overload. Warrant Officer Yamada tried hard to turn his head and look to the side and rear. He had to turn around first and then aim the nose of his plane at the opponent's back hemisphere!
Although it was only a split second when it flew head-on, he had already seen clearly the huge fighter plane with twin engines and twin vertical tails painted with a red five-pointed star. It was the Soviet Union's latest weapon, the MiG-25 fighter!
When this fighter plane first appeared at the Moscow military parade, the West fell into an inexplicable panic when they heard the commentator say that it could fly at three times the speed of sound. It is impossible to say that they were not afraid of this fighter plane.
And now, even though he encountered this kind of fighter plane, in order to protect the early warning aircraft in the rear, Warrant Officer Yamada had no choice but to intercept this fighter plane!
As I turned sideways, the sky in my field of vision also rotated, but where was the target?
"Captain, he's behind you at six o'clock!" Just after turning almost 270 degrees, the voice of the wingman pilot came through Warrant Officer Yamada's headset.
Two fighter planes came in formation and turned in different directions. When the wingman completed the high-g maneuver and almost recovered from the black vision, the wingman pilot found that the MiG-25 had flown right behind his leader!
Six o'clock! This is the position where the anus was blown up! The opponent's fighter plane is so flexible?
After only a few seconds of afterburner, Andre already felt bad for the burned fuel. However, looking at the F-4 fighter in front of him, the two J79 turbojet engines at the tail were emitting hot flames, and the R-60 missile he was carrying had completed the pre-launch lock. As long as he pressed the button on the joystick, he could pierce the anus of the F-4 fighter.
Japanese people, I am the top and you are the beast!
Suddenly, the flame at the tail of the F-4 fighter in front became hotter. Obviously, the opponent had turned on the afterburner and wanted to get rid of it.
This is an inexperienced pilot! He's still using afterburner at this time. Are you afraid that your missiles won't lock firmly enough? Andre looked at the fighter through the narrow goggles of his helmet. In this case, I'll play with you!