During the Cold War, secret test flying of Mikoyan-and-Gurevich Design Bureau (MiG) and other Soviet aircraft was an ongoing mission dating back to the acquisition of the first Soviet-built Yakovlev Yak-23 in 1953. This effort has continued to the present day.

Project Constant Peg was a secret program to train US Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps fighter aircrews to fly against Soviet-designed aircraft. The USAF’s 4477th Test and Evaluation Squadron (TES), nicknamed the “Red Eagles,” flew MiG-17 “Fresco,” MiG-21,

While U.S. sources claimed 195 North Vietnamese Vietnam People's Air Force aircraft were shot down in air to air combat, the North Vietnamese claim that only 134 aircraft were lost. [ 1 ] Date

USAF AWACS detected the first group of MiGs, and alerted ‘CITGO’ flight, four F-15s led by Capt. Draeger, patrolling near the Saudi border. He was accompanied by Capts. Tony Schiavi, Rodriguez, and Bruce Till.

May 4, 2024 · By the end of the 1970s, the United States Air Force finally began to acquire some Russian-built MiG fighters, which prompted the creation of the 4477th Test and Evaluation Squadron. The organization received its first jets, MiG-17s, and MiG-21s, loaned from the Israeli military, which had captured them in conflicts in Syria and Iraq.

Dec 1, 2019 · Just over 30 years after the U.S. Air Force officially shuttered the super-secret 4477th Test and Evaluation Squadron, or Red Eagles, and its fleet of Russian MiGs, the service has released a little film about the unit’s activities, also known as Project Constant Peg.

USAF F-5Es flying with a Soviet MiG-17 and MiG-21 of the 4477th Test and Evaluation Squadron. While the existence of classic “aggressor” squadrons equipped with American planes was no secret...

Late last year, USAF finally de-classified this MiG effort, officially named “Constant Peg.” Air Force officials thought that it was time to recognize the generation of pilots and maintenance personnel who made good use of the sometimes balky and often dangerous aircraft of the West’s main adversary.

May 14, 2019 · Such is the case of Air USA—the company has managed to acquire three two-seat trainer versions of the Mikoyan MiG-29UB Fulcrum. “The Air USA MIG 29 fleet was imported directly from a former...

Oct 19, 2015 · These programmes tested ex-Syrian MiG-17Fs which were loaned to the Americans just after the MiG-21 was. Then came the ambitious Red Eagles of the 4477th TES, a dedicated MiG squadron of the USAF. In this article you will thus get to …