There were a number of ex-Soviet Bloc aircraft that turned up on the fire dump at Farnborough around the early 90s, presumed to be from a ‘clear out’ at RAE/DERA. They were belived to have been used in a UK equivalent of the Nellis ‘petting zoo’ and to evaluate systems rather than from any flight trials (Any such trials for the UK would have been more likely carried out at Boscombe, West Freugh or Woomera – or possibly Cyprus).

India and/or Egypt were always seen as the most likely source for these.

But they weren’t the first time Soviet hardware had been seen at Farnborough – I once spoke to a chap who recalled seeing ‘substantial parts of Soviet aircraft’ there during his RAF Service in the 60s. He wouldn’t be anymore specific.

Other sources have led me to beleive that some Soviet jet hardware was recovered from Egypt during the Suez Crisis, and there is apparently a document in the PRO giving an evaluation of the Hunter and/or Lightning against the MIg-15 (I haven’t seen it, but the guy who did says it doesn’t say that flying trials were carried out.)