**Context**: When the U.S. first got intel on the Soviet MiG-25 in the early 1970s, they thought the Soviets had unleashed the final boss of aviation.
It could go over Mach 3, fly higher than anything America had, and was made almost entirely out of stainless steel, like someone welded a fridge to two rocket engines.
U.S. analysts assumed it was some kind of hyper-agile superfighter that would obliterate everything in the sky. In reality, it turned out the MiG-25 was more of a “go fast in a straight line and pray” machine. Amazing at speed, terrible at turning.
But before they figured that out, the Pentagon basically panicked and said:
“Ok boys, time to build a plane that can bully this thing.”
The result was the F-15 Eagle, one of the most successful fighters ever built.
So yes, the MiG-25 didn’t destroy the U.S. Air Force.
It unintentionally invented the next one.
So the plane created by the US was the actual final boss of this rivalry and not the Soviet plane
thelostnz on
And then they built the f15 then learnt the mig was useless
Kian-Tremayne on
Persistent theme in history- “make myself look big and scary” can backfire badly if someone takes your shit at face value but decides to roll their sleeves up rather than back down.
Rex_Africae on
But let’s be honest: even if the MiG-25 was indeed all that jazz that the U.S feared about, the scare wouldn’t last for long.
It’s almost like building a high performance aircraft around a cruise missile engine isn’t the best recipe for a long service life. Proof of this is that the Foxbat was completely phased out (okay, there’s the MiG-31, but at that point its a complete new aircraft, it has different radar, different engines and different wing platform) and today you still have new F-15 variants still coming off the production line. (U.S peeps, can you confirm this for me?)
Striking_Smile6594 on
The Clint Eastwood film FireFox is loosely based on this.
9 Comments
then you realize the opposing plane is shit
**Context**: When the U.S. first got intel on the Soviet MiG-25 in the early 1970s, they thought the Soviets had unleashed the final boss of aviation.
It could go over Mach 3, fly higher than anything America had, and was made almost entirely out of stainless steel, like someone welded a fridge to two rocket engines.
U.S. analysts assumed it was some kind of hyper-agile superfighter that would obliterate everything in the sky. In reality, it turned out the MiG-25 was more of a “go fast in a straight line and pray” machine. Amazing at speed, terrible at turning.
But before they figured that out, the Pentagon basically panicked and said:
“Ok boys, time to build a plane that can bully this thing.”
The result was the F-15 Eagle, one of the most successful fighters ever built.
So yes, the MiG-25 didn’t destroy the U.S. Air Force.
It unintentionally invented the next one.
[What the fuck is this piece of shit?](https://youtu.be/bApd0QFsErU?si=AgALLdpjgeowujH8)
The foxbat is all bark no bite.
So the plane created by the US was the actual final boss of this rivalry and not the Soviet plane
And then they built the f15 then learnt the mig was useless
Persistent theme in history- “make myself look big and scary” can backfire badly if someone takes your shit at face value but decides to roll their sleeves up rather than back down.
But let’s be honest: even if the MiG-25 was indeed all that jazz that the U.S feared about, the scare wouldn’t last for long.
It’s almost like building a high performance aircraft around a cruise missile engine isn’t the best recipe for a long service life. Proof of this is that the Foxbat was completely phased out (okay, there’s the MiG-31, but at that point its a complete new aircraft, it has different radar, different engines and different wing platform) and today you still have new F-15 variants still coming off the production line. (U.S peeps, can you confirm this for me?)
The Clint Eastwood film FireFox is loosely based on this.