![]() A composites-and-titanium Lockheed-Martin F-35A, the Air Force’s heaviest fighter, grosses just under 50,000 pounds. Fueled but without any ordnance, a steel MiG-25 weighed 64,000 pounds. Instead of titanium, the Soviets turned to stainless steel, even though steel weighs three times as much as the correspondingly strong aluminum. ![]() In the 1960s, the Russians lacked the cutting tools and the experience to work with the exotic metal. But titanium is expensive and difficult to machine and shape. The heat generated by skin friction at supersonic speeds softens and weakens aluminum, making titanium the best answer for flying extremely fast. The Soviets were short on titanium technology, however, and titanium is a key ingredient of high-speed flight. After Soviet pilot Viktor Belenko flew his MiG-25 to Japan, the airplane was no longer so mysterious or alarming (CIA Museum). Photographs of MiG-25s looming over its swarms of technicians and ground crews suggested that the airplane was maintained by toddlers. The Foxbat was the size of a World War II heavy bomber - 9 feet longer than an Avro Lancaster, two and a half feet taller than a Consolidated B-24 and with a gross weight almost 27,000 pounds heavier than a Boeing B-17. It kept the SR-71 out of Soviet airspace for several years while the West pondered the big MiG’s true capabilities. Kennedy exploited during the 1960 presidential campaign was also responsible for “Foxbat hysteria.” The Foxbat interceptor did achieve its mission in one way, though. The same kind of surveillance failure behind the so-called “missile gap” that John F. In truth, the MiG-25 turned out to be a Potemkin Village of an airplane. They could climb to 98,425 feet in four minutes and 3.86 seconds and ultimately reached an absolute altitude record of 123,520 feet. The lightened MiG-25 prototypes, designated YE-155R (reconnaissance) and YE-155P (interceptor), set 29 speed, altitude and time-to-climb records, some of which still stand. After the airplane appeared in public for the first time in July 1967 and went on a record-setting spree, it appeared the Soviets had a wonder weapon that could match the best in the West - the Mach 3.2 Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird spyplane. These were prototypes of what would become the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 Foxbat. The wings were huge, too, hinting at maneuverability far beyond anything America’s first-rank McDonnell F-4 Phantom II could achieve. They showed an enormous Soviet airplane, probably an interceptor, with engine intakes the size of small cars. The spy satellite photos created panic in the Pentagon. The MiG-25 Terrified the West Until a Defector Exposed Its True Nature Close
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