nothing else on the phantom and firebar incedent…another incedent i can remember was the su-15 and p-3 orion collition. apparently a flagon intercepted a p-3 orion over the baltic, the pilot of the flagon got abit carried away and got too close to the p-3 and clipped the wing or tailplane. both aircraft thankfully returned to base ok, though both aircraft was damaged. has enyone have more imfo on this….
im not sure about mig-17s but im sure the soviets kept mig-21s in storage or reserve for point defence. the RAF equiped some of there hawk trainers with a cannon pod and sindwinders in the 80s for emergency air defence, they even painted them air defence grey….i think even today the russian airforce keep a large number of mig-23s in storage….just in case….

I always imagined Tu-14 as an up-scaled version of Il-28.Can anyone else see the similarity?

oh yes the bosun and beagle look very similar…i have been doing a bit of research into early soviet jet bomber designs and found some interesting things….the tu-14 and the beagle where designed for the same role. there first flights only being a few months apart. ln late 1948 the two designs had a fly off, even though the tu-14 was larger then the il-28 there performance was similar. the il-28 was eventully chosen, being much more pleasing to fly….so the soviet airforce rejected the tu-14. the AV-MF on the other hand was still interested in the tupolev design. eventully about 100 bosun was made and served as torpedo bombers. entering service in 1952 they proved popular with there crews. though retirement came in 1962.
there was a few other designs that resembled the il-28, like the il-30 and the il-46 that flew in the early 50s. but with the arrival of the tu-88 [later to become the famous tu-16 badger] these aircraft never went beyond prototype status..
the il-54 blowlamp was designed as a supersonic tactical bomber and flew in mid 1955 its rival for the job was the tu-98 backfin witch flew in mid 1956, both of these aircraft never went beyond the prototype stage as, as more reserach was deemed neserssery, the breakthrough came in mid 1958 when the fantastic tu-22 blinder took to the air….. :rolleyes:

oh yea the good old yak-25 flashlight..the soviets first purpose built all weather interceptor…the mother of the yak-28 series..about 500 was built and they served from 1953 to 1965…on wihdrawal i think quite a few was converted to target drones..to me a cross between a NF-14 meteor and a french vataur.
i think the first firebar to carry the attoll missiles was the yak-28pm, the one with the longer more pointed nose, these enterd service about 1965-66…a total of 435 firebars where produced, the last leaving the factory in 68….there intended role was low to medium leval interceptors…according to the soviets the yak-28 was never offically in service though mainly artic regiments used them to 1980..

we have all talked about the bison and badger..what about the amazing tu-95 bear…in my veiw the most unusal sratigic bomber made in modern times…with them huge turboprops. a awesome bit of kit….and they are still in sevice too..
can enyone tell me when the badger went out of service, one minuite the russians had loads of them then they where gone, as if they went over night….also when did the blinder retire, are there eny still in service with libiya… 🙂

no it dosent happen that often enymore sadley. years ago when the A-10s where based over here and the RAF still had phantoms, they used to play over here alot. mostly nowadays aircraft roar over on there way to the welsh valleys, where they do most of there low leval training.

take a good look at the irainian su-24. they wont be around for much longer [if you know what i mean]…i do like the fencer, a gorgeous looking aircraft. does enyone have eny idea how meny are in russian and ukrainian service today…