Lt Col Rob “Z-Man” Zettel is the author of American MiG Pilot - Inside the Top Secret USAF “Red Eagles. He tells the Red Eagles story for the first time through the experiences of a pilot who flew Soviet MiGs to their maximum performance in simulated combat engagements, often several times a day, against some of the very best fighter pilots hand-picked from the ranks of the USAF, US Navy and US Marine Corps.

With controls labelled in Russian and the only spare parts being the ones they could salvage, the pilots who climbed into the MiGs - the Red Eagles - accepted all of the risks associated with operating these aircraft.

Rob’s vivid accounts of training engagements put the reader right in the cockpit as he describes what it was like to be there day in and day out at one of the most access-restricted airfields in the entire USAF, flying MiGs.

In part two of our story, we join him for his first interview for the Red Eagles.

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Similar episodes:

The first Western pilot to fly the MIG-29 Soviet fighter plane https://coldwarconversations.com/episode106/
Low Flying the USAF F-111 Nuclear Bomber & Operation EL Dorado Canyon https://coldwarconversations.com/episode358/ ⁠

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American MiG Pilot: Inside the Top Secret USAF "Red Eagles" MiG Squadron Part 2 (445)