Western Aircraft in Soviet hands

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
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I was curious about exactly what, if any Western aircraft were captured by the Soviet Union, considering we managed to get some of their aircraft it’s only reasonable to think they managed to get a hold of some of ours. Here are some photo’s, see what you think.

This was taken in 1971, it appears to be an F-4 and Mirage-III. Both covered in canvasses, but the shape is obvious.

This is the escape capsule from an F-111 shot down over North Vietnam, no idea what they would want with it, but then, as if I would know!

This is the vertical stabilizer from Scott O’Grady’s F-16C shot down over Bosnia in 1995. It now resides in Moscow, I think it was to look at US building techniques?

Here is an F-5E and another US aircraft looks like a Thunderjet? Or Thunderstreak? I am not sure in the Czech republic.

And another in Poland, Originally tested in Krakow

And an A37 in Poland, not sure if this is an attacker or trainer, but I am sure some of you guys will.

If any of you know of any more, post away, it’s an unusual topic to me, as I had never thought of the Soviet Union getting hold of US/Western aircraft. Like I said, there are persistent rumors online about Soviet Tomcat evaluations after being refurbished for the IRIAF, however this is something that is as yet to be confirmed, I have no idea whether or not it true, but many think online it is, plus many do not. Any information on this would be appreciated, just for interest sake.

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The aircraft behind the F-5E is a T-33. I can imagine that the crew capsule from the F-111 could be evaluated along with any of the other remains for technical reasons. That F-4 in the top B&W photo just does not look quite right to me. The proportions seem to be off a bit. At least to my eye. As far as an F-14 being obtained from the Iranians goes? Hard to say. In public The Soviets were godless commun ists to the Islamic Republic, as well as supplying and supporting the Iraqis in their war against one another. But most anything is possible in the shadow side world of realpolitik. After all, at that time they were getting back channel support from the Israelis as well as the Iran Contra dealings going on. Very gray times.

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Dean30, that is an A-37. An attack version of the T-37 and a badass little machine.

The F-4 and Mirage look like they could be inflatable decoys used to conceal/fool attackers, but it’s hard to tell from the photo. They could also just be the real thing covered loosely.

They had some of our stuff, and we had some of theirs. While I have not heard of the Iranians supplying the soviets with a Tomcat, it is likely they did.

I’m told the wing sweep mechanism of the MiG 27 flogger is an exact copy of the F-111. Obtained from

wreckage in the Vietnam war.

The Chinese advances in stealth is most likely from the lost F-117 in Serbia.

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The F-5’s and the A-37 are from the South Vietnamese Air Force after the Communist takeover in 75. Those are SVAF markings on those aircraft. I would imagine they were Communist trophies passed to the rest of the Soviet Bloc, and became gate guards later as they were very obsolete.

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The nose on the F-4 almost looks like a single seater. Very short

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Yes, and the vertical stabilizer seems out of proportion to the airframe

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I heard the Phantom was at Zhukovskiy airfield I looked on Google maps and found this.theres a building with a red roof at the northern side of the airfield, you will see the Mig 29 OKB Demonstrator on the left of the red building and to the right, roughly the same distance away from the building you will see what looks like an F-14, it is an airshow day as there are B52’s and F-15’s 16’s etc but the Tomcat is far away where all the Russian aircraft are, far away from foreign aircraft, the image looks to have been deliberately distorted so it is hard to make anything out besides the basic shape, but the aircraft that appears to be a tomcat is parked directly beside an SU-33 the dimensions look correct as the Tomcat and slightly larger Flanker are similar in size, but the photo shows what looks like the rumored Tomcat. There is also the Phantom but I forgot where I saw it and cant find it again.

Ramenskoye Airport, search for this on google maps and you will see it.

https://maps.google.co.uk/

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One more thing the Mig 29OVT (not OKB, I made a mistake,) Has a red colour scheme. This really stands out near the red buliding.

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There’s gotta be pieces of a U2 lying around somewhere

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As well as several RB aircraft… The soviets downed several of our recon flights over their territory during the Cold War.

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Theres all sorts on the map, curiously much of it has been distorted, whether or not it was on purpose or, perhaps some kind of glare I don’t know, but it looks like a good airshow either way!

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Hello!

As for those aircraft in Kraków, the F-5 and the A-37, I’ve seen them in person. From what I heard they were captured by North Vietnam in 1975 and then transferred to Poland as means of “expressing gratitude for the brotherly help” - Poland supplied North Vietnam together with other soviet bloc countries.

Paweł

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The F-4 look like the proto-type F4H. check out this link:

en.wikipedia.org/…/File:F4H-1F_CVA-62_1_NAN5-60.jpg

what you all think.

Owen

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Nah the nose in the photo looks big enough to house a radar in the Russian photo, after all they in all probability got their hands on many aircraft the IRIAF had, which include F-4 and the speculated F-14, I don’t see it as surprising if they did.

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The Mig 27 was of course a variant of the Mig 23, which first flew in 1967. The first F 111 combat loss was in 1968. But I suppose that the technology could have been stolen the old fashioned way.

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As open as much of the US aerospace industry is in open source publications, Mig could easily have gotten enough information from there to look in those directions well before and downed aircraft parts were even made, let alone shot down.

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The Phantom in the first photo looks more like an F-4J to me. The J model had the short nose. The overall proportions like pretty good for a J model, too.

Stik, good call on that being a T-33, too. I was thinking F-80 until you mentioned T-33, and I looked more closely at the canopy. Good set of Mark 1 eyeballs you have there!

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I spent a LOT of time teaching tank and aircraft ID classes :wink: The F-4 B/C/D/G(USN)/J/K/M/N/S all had the short nose. But if that photo was taken in 1971, I can’t imagine where the Soviets got their hands on an intact F-4.

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Its under a tarp it could be a reconstructed F-4B that was shot down in Vietnam. It could also be two F-4B stitched together from wrecks.

US intelligence had a few coups of their own on the Soviets. A peer review physics article in a Soviet science journal gave the US the mathematics to design a true low observable aircraft. (F-117)