39 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I was there!, September 26, 2008
This review is from: Red Eagles: America's Secret MiGs (General Aviation) (Hardcover)
I'm Bandit #35 in the book! I was a Red Eagle pilot in the 4477th TES and am featured in the book. I flew 500 MIG 21 sorties in support of Project: Constant Peg. I just finished reading the book and it's factual! Must read. Col (Ret) Frank "Paco" Geisler
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent read!, October 13, 2008
This review is from: Red Eagles: America's Secret MiGs (General Aviation) (Hardcover)
Steve Davies has shined a light into one of the many dark corners that still remain after the end of the Cold War, and was able to tell a story that needed to be told. A fascinating look into one of those "black programs" that was arguably worth every penny the Department of Defense spent on it.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Incredibly Thorough and Overall Enjoyable Unit History, May 2, 2009
This review is from: Red Eagles: America's Secret MiGs (General Aviation) (Hardcover)
Red Eagles is largely a unit history of the 4477th TES (originally TEF, officially known as the "Red Eagles") that was based at the Tonopah Test Range in Nevada and which flew three types of MiG's to train American fighter aircrew against them, the MiG-17, -21 and -23, over a period of nearly twenty years. This history focuses primarily on the pilots and other officers who developed this unit and their flying exploits over the course of its life. As such has as its strongest flavor a stream of personal histories, and the characters, antics and interplay of the aircrew assigned to the unit ranging from hilarious to quirky to autocratic. But the unifying thread is the American efforts at exploiting captured, borrowed, and bought MiG's and as such the book also touches, sometimes briefly and sometimes more generously, on the squadron's maintenance efforts, how the MiG's were brought to America or how American pilots managed to fly foreign MiG's in their host countries, the corollary exploits of the "Red Hats" at Groom Lake -which was the equivalent of a test squadron vice the training squadron that the 4477th became and which explored a larger variety of Soviet designed aircraft-, and the technical details of the aircraft.
Suffering a rude awakening from its combat experience in F-4's and F-105's against North Vietnamese MiG-17's and -21's in the Vietnam War, the USAF was handed a golden opportunity to recover its aerial fighting prowess when Israel offered it the temporary use of several MiG's flown to her by pilots defecting from several other middle eastern countries. This was the simmering catalyst of what eventually grew into a much larger (but almost always infused with a rag-tag and secretive character as a result of being an extremely black program half dependent on chance for its continued operation) effort to acquire soviet aircraft from foreign countries for exploitation (notably Indonesia and Egypt). As such the Red Eagles continually grew from a ramshackle flight with a small handful of aircraft at a remote, dusty and nearly forgotten base to a fully professional, integrated Air Force squadron with a relatively large number of MiG's. On this foundation they could offer more consistent and reliable training exposures to Air Force units at Nellis, particularly during Red Flag, Navy units from TOP GUN at Miramar or undergoing work-ups at NAS Fallon, and USMC units from El Toro. The value of this training to US pilots, consisting of actual exposure to the type of aircraft they could expect to encounter in hostile situations and flying the spectrum from standard enemy tactics to anything goes, full out dogfighting, was obviously tremendous. The Red Eagles truly deserve many of the laurels for later American aerial victories against Libya and Iraq, and the story of the squadron is a great one well told by Davies.
The history of the unit is pretty captivating and exciting, with many fascinating details, particularly how the MiG's were acquired and maintained, the experiences the pilots had learning to fly them, and the results of match-ups between the best of what the Soviets built and the primary American fighters of the day. As a complete history it of course also includes the unfortunate deaths of several people involved in the squadron and the poignant effects these deaths had on the deceased's families, made worst by the fact that the details and true story of how they died and why could not be revealed even to loved ones until sometimes decades after the fact. The in depth thoroughness of this book is truly impressive though, and a great credit to its author who clearly spent a very long time investigating this recently declassified subject.
While the 80% of the book is the personal exploits of the pilots involved in the program and thus make this a great read for people who have served in military aviation, the technical and operational details of the MiG's themselves, although sometimes disappointingly scant, will also prove fascinating to those interested in aerospace engineering and aircraft design. The Russian philosophy of aircraft design was decidedly more rugged, reliable, and less complex than the American, but delivered mixed results. All of the Russian aircraft suffered from extremely poor range, and very poor cockpit design which hampered everything from visibility to ergonomic efficiency of use, but they also showed some surprising levels of performance and operability. The MiG-17 truly was an outstanding low speed dogfighter, and the MiG-21, in spite of its high energy bleed rate from its delta wing and supersonic dash optimized design, also held up admirably in the dogfight. The MiG-23 on the other hand was a dud as an individual aircraft, more dangerous to its own pilot and a nightmare to fly due to its poor handling characteristics. While it was practically useless in a dogfight it did deliver nearly stunning acceleration and high speed. Used with cunning tactics even this "turkey" could prove deadly, making dash intercepts against American AWACS (it was even able to out accelerate the F-15), chasing down F-111's, and being used either as a lure for more nimble MiG-21's or used to make lightning fast swiping runs against American fighters lured by the slower -17's and -21's.
There is a lot of great information in this book about a truly amazing chapter in aviation history, and it is well told in a very personal and humanizing manner. Definitely recommended!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
