American MIG Pilot - Rob Zettel

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Auteur(s) : Rob Zettel

Editeur : Bloomsbury Usa

Langue : Anglais

Parution : 01/02/2026

Format : Moyen, de 350g à 1kg

Nombre de pages : 368.0

ISBN : 9781472808554

Résumé :

After being outflown over Vietnam, the US launched a top secret operation to acquire Soviet aircraft, train pilots to fly them, and pitch them against American planes in training scenarios.

Get inside the head of one of America's most experienced MiG pilots, Lt Col Zettel, as he tells the thrilling tale of Constant Peg, a top secret US operation that wouldn't feel out of place in the plot of Top Gun.

At the height of the Cold War, America illicitly obtained Russian Fighters, transported them to the Tonopah Test Range, and pitted them against star US fighter pilots in simulated combat exercises. With controls labelled in Russian and the only spare parts being the ones they could salvage, the pilots who climbed into the MiGs accepted all of the risks associated with operating these aircraft. Vivid accounts of training engagements put the reader right there in the cockpit, flying alongside the Red Eagles as they trained the best pilots America had to offer. Historical photographs help paint the picture of an operation that took the US Air Force from its dismal performance in the Vietnam War to an unprecedented air-to-air kill ratio in Operation Desert Storm.

...

Biographie:
Lt. Col. Rob Z-Man Zettel, USAF (ret.) is a three-year Red Eagles veteran of the 4477th Test & Evaluation Squadron (TES). Flying both MiG-21 and MiG-23 fighters as an Instructor Pilot (IP) and Functional Check Flight (FCF) pilot from September 1983 to December 1986, he was an integral member of the squadron during its most prolific years. During this time Z-man completed hundreds of sorties engaging USAF, US Navy and US Marine Corps frontline fighter pilots in his MiG aircraft, demonstrating the Soviet jets' capabilities in simulated air-to-air combat training missions. Additionally, USAF Fighter Weapons School and US Navy Topgun students would routinely be paired against Lt. Col. Zettel to see for themselves how a first-rate pilot could employ these aircraft in close in air-to-air combat engagements. In his 42-year flying career he has flown extensively worldwide, logging more than 20,000 flight hours in everything from Stearman biplanes to frontline fighters in the USAF and, more recently, at the controls of both Boeing and Airbus' most advanced airliners....

Sommaire:

After being outflown over Vietnam, the US launched a top secret operation to acquire Soviet aircraft, train pilots to fly them, and pitch them against American planes in training scenarios.

Get inside the head of one of America's most experienced MiG pilots, Lt Col Zettel, as he tells the thrilling tale of Constant Peg, a top secret US operation that wouldn't feel out of place in the plot of Top Gun.

At the height of the Cold War, America illicitly obtained Russian Fighters, transported them to the Tonopah Test Range, and pitted them against star US fighter pilots in simulated combat exercises. With controls labelled in Russian and the only spare parts being the ones they could salvage, the pilots who climbed into the MiGs accepted all of the risks associated with operating these aircraft. Vivid accounts of training engagements put the reader right there in the cockpit, flying alongside the Red Eagles as they trained the best pilots America had to offer. Historical photographs help paint the picture of an operation that took the US Air Force from its dismal performance in the Vietnam War to an unprecedented air-to-air kill ratio in Operation Desert Storm.