Stolen Airplanes?

[hlg6016]

Speaking of stolen airplanes here is a story that is well known in the Herky community. Ssgt Meyer's flight did not end as well as L/Cpl Foote's. It has been speculated that he was taken down by fighters.
http://www.sammcgowan.com/meyers.html

 

[jmcquate]

Here's a couple.

 

[Hozer]

Man, just how sweet would to pick up the phone at Langley and hear..."so yeah, a Mig-25 just landed over here, wanna take a look?"

 

[Catmando]

Not a stolen aircraft story, but one of the lax security during the ‘70s.

TINS – I had pre-positioned an A-4 at Eglin AFB for a special Navy R&D project. We were to sometime later load special sonobuoys on it for testing in the Gulf of Mexico.

The civilian scientist conducting the tests was an absent-minded-professor type. He also was one who had invented, designed, and built some of the remote sensors of Operation Igloo White. He worked out of what looked like a mad-scientist’s garage at the Naval Air Development Center (NADC). Let’s just call him “Fred.”

Although not as lax as the Navy at the time, the Air Force – excepting SAC – still had some very lax security that Fred unwittingly exploited.

So this little old man Fred having driven all night, unshaven and dressed in shoddy civilian clothes drives up to, and on the flight line at Eglin AFB,. He is in his old, brown, beat-up ugly Dodge station wagon that is fully loaded with a bunch of shiny tubes in the back. But nobody bothers to stop or question him.

He rolls up in his old beater and parks next to my (beautiful) A-4, right on Eglin’s flight line in between other aircraft. Fred then proceeds to start unloading these strange shiny tubes from his personal station wagon, and is putting them onto my A-4.

Suddenly, but very much belatedly, he is spotted. Alerts sound! The AF Military Police come out in full force, armed and serious. The poor old man is shaken. (This was not at all like the flight line at NADC where he was a hero to most, and had free access anywhere.) The MPs immediately take him into custody.

Meanwhile, I am sleeping in late at my beachfront hotel after a fabulously fun night in Ft. Walton Beach. Abruptly, the damn phone ringing awakens me. Oh-oh! It is from Eglin Operations, asking… ah, no actually screaming, “Do you know this guy, WTF, who do you think you are, and just what the hell is going on here?????!!!!!

A good ass-chewing later followed. But that was all. Anyway, good ol’ Fred along with my good small crew of Navy Sailors and I all had a good laugh about little old Fred easily sneaking by the Air Force’s supposed, rigid and airtight security!

 

[jmcquate]

So Fred was the guy that invented all of those fake plants with microphones and seismic sensors.

 

[Catmando]

Back in the day, ‘stolen’ aircraft were fun to fly, and especially to fly against during the Have Drill and Have Doughnut major projects [click for slide show] ... but you could not tell anybody then. Now unclassified.

 

[jmcquate]

Back in the day, ‘stolen’ aircraft were fun to fly, and especially to fly against during the Have Drill and Have Doughnut major projects [click for slide show] ... but you could not tell anybody then. Now unclassified.

I was always under the impression that those aircraft were a gift from Egypt. Did you fly Red air Cat or were they fam flights?

 

[helolumpy]

?..Have Doughnut...

How does this relate to Cops and/or SWOs?

 

[Catmando]

I was always under the impression that those aircraft were a gift from Egypt. Did you fly Red air Cat or were they fam flights?

The aircraft came from more than one source. Actually several and in some interesting ways.

No, I never flew one, but I knew some of the few who did. Fortunately I did have the opportunity to fly against the 'types' as they were called. Quite an experience, back in the day.

 

[Catmando]

So Fred was the guy that invented all of those fake plants with microphones and seismic sensors.

Yep.

 

[Catmando]

When you flew against them back in the day did you come away impressed or unimpressed?

Mostly just surprised! Despite their lack of technology and their expected disadvantages, they could easily outmanuever and kill the untrained in an F-4 or F-14. However if you knew and trained the tactics for them, they were grapes. But if you did not, and were foolish expecting an easy kill, you were dead.

Have Drill and Have Doughnut were the precursors and foundation of the early TOPGUN, and turned things around immensely.

 

[CAVU]

here's one from the history books. https://www.nytimes.com/1993/09/24/world/another-cuban-fighter-pilot-defects-to-the-us-in-a-mig.html I suspect it took several days for State to clear the Cubans to come and get their jet back. Lot's of possibilities...

 

[Renegade One]

When you flew against them back in the day did you come away impressed or unimpressed?

Respectful would be my description…the teaching point, I think, was "it's all about the nut behind the stick". Obviously, the exposure was great…that whole thing about getting the "buck fever" out of your system.

 

[jmcquate]

Respectful would be my description…the teaching point, I think, was "it's all about the nut behind the stick". Obviously, the exposure was great…that whole thing about getting the "buck fever" out of your system.

The MiG-15 pictured in me above post was sent to the Philippines for test and evaluation. Chuck Yeager and some of the best F-86 pilots there to do some ACM (BFM?) against one another. Whether Yeager was in the MiG or the Sabre, he always got the kill. The nut behind the stick matters.

 

[PropAddict]

Whether Yeager was in the MiG or the Sabre, he always got the kill.

Sure. It's his story, he can tell it how he wants.