MIG-15

28/05/2026

Sergei Krikalev launched into space as a Soviet cosmonaut. He came back to a country that didn't exist anymore.

311 days on Mir while the USSR collapsed beneath him. Then his hometown changed names.

Full story: https://migflug.com/jetflights/sergei-krikalev-last-soviet-citizen-311-days-mir/

Sergei Krikalev launched as a Soviet citizen and landed in a country that no longer existed. The cosmonaut who outlived the USSR — in orbit.

28/05/2026

In 1973, Poland built one of the strangest production aircraft in aviation history. Two wings stacked biplane-style. A 14,500-pound-thrust jet engine bolted to the back. Two massive pesticide tanks slung between the wings like industrial luggage.

They named it the PZL M-15 Belphegor — after a demon. The Soviet bloc's jet-powered crop duster might be the most absurd aircraft ever built. And it nearly worked.

https://migflug.com/jetflights/pzl-m-15-belphegor-jet-biplane-crop-duster-soviet-bloc/

The Polish PZL M-15 Belphegor is the only jet-powered biplane ever mass-produced — a Soviet agricultural disaster that pilots nicknamed after a demon.

18/05/2026

Both engines dead at 35,000 feet. What happens?

Most people assume the plane drops like a stone. It doesn't. A modern jet glides about 10 miles for every 1,000 feet of altitude — that's nearly 70 nautical miles to find a runway.

But here's the catch: pilots only have a few minutes of unpressurised time before hypoxia sets in.

https://migflug.com/jetflights/both-engines-fail-35000-feet-what-happens/

At 41,000 feet over the Atlantic, Air Transat Flight 236 ran out of fuel. Both Rolls-Royce engines on the Airbus A330 wound down to silence. For the 306 people aboard, the next 19 minutes would be the longest of their lives — a powerless glide toward a runway in the Azores that most of them […]

12/05/2026

Before GPS, before the first satellite even existed — fighter jets were screaming across continents at supersonic speed and arriving within metres of their targets.

How? Spinning brass disks called gyroscopes. The Cold War tech that guided supersonic jets.

https://migflug.com/jetflights/before-gps-the-gyroscopes-that-guided-supersonic-jets/

Before the Global Positioning System existed — before the first satellite was even launched into the constellation — fighter jets were already screaming across continents at supersonic speed and arriving within metres of their targets. They did it using a technology so elegant and so deceptively...

12/05/2026

27 September 1956. Captain Mel Apt became the first human being to fly at three times the speed of sound, dropped from beneath a B-50 Superfortress at 65,000 feet over Edwards. Mach 3.196. Then the Bell X-2 went into a violent yaw — and inertia coupling killed him before anyone on the ground understood what had happened.

The story: https://migflug.com/jetflights/bell-x-2-mach-3-mel-apt-inertia-coupling-1956/

On 27 September 1956, Captain Mel Apt of the US Air Force became the first human being to fly faster than three times the speed of sound. He was at 65,000 feet over Edwards Air Force Base, in California, dropped from beneath the wing of a Boeing B-50 Superfortress, riding a Bell X-2 rocket plane. [....

08/05/2026

Imagine taking off from a carrier deck off North Korea and tangling with seven Soviet MiG-15s alone. Lieutenant Royce Williams did exactly that on November 18, 1952 — came home with two engines on fire, no hydraulics, and a kill count the US classified for 50 years. Now, finally, the Medal of Honor. https://migflug.com/jetflights/royce-williams-medal-of-honor-f9f-panther-soviet-mig-15-korea/

On 18 November 1952, Lieutenant E. Royce Williams climbed into the cockpit of a Grumman F9F-5 Panther on the deck of USS Oriskany, off the coast of North Korea, and went looking for trouble. Forty-five minutes later he came back with two engines, one wing on fire, no hydraulics, 263 holes in his fus...

07/05/2026

F-22 Raptors are landing back at Kadena Air Base — the spiritual home of US air power in the Pacific.

Why? Because Japan is still waiting on the F-15EX Eagle II, and the gap had to be filled with America's stealthiest fighter.

Read the full deployment story: https://migflug.com/jetflights/f-22-raptors-deploy-kadena-air-base-japan-f-15ex-delay/

F-22 Raptors are now standing alert at Kadena Air Base, plugging the gap left by retired F-15C Eagles while the late F-15EX Eagle II replacement is still months away.

07/05/2026

DID YOU KNOW: In 1960, Soviet Su-9 pilots were ordered to RAM Gary Powers' U-2 — no missiles, no guns, just throw their unarmed interceptors at it. The story of the men told to die so a spy plane couldn't escape. https://migflug.com/jetflights/soviet-su-9-pilots-ram-gary-powers-u-2-1960/

On May Day 1960, two Soviet Su-9 pilots were ordered to climb to 20,000 metres without pressure suits and ram Gary Powers' U-2. The story they were told never to tell.

05/05/2026

com/jetflights/chinas-b-2-sized-stealth-drones-spotted-at-secret-base/

MilitaryAviation

04/05/2026

Eighty crew. Sixteen bombers. Zero chance of landing back on the carrier.

On this day in 1942, Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle led the most audacious air raid of the Pacific War — launching fully loaded B-25 Mitchells from USS Hornet, 650 miles out from Tokyo. Every pilot knew it was a one-way ticket off that flight deck.

The physical damage was modest. The psychological shockwave changed the course of the war.

https://migflug.com/jetflights/sixteen-bombers-one-aircraft-carrier-and-the-attack-that-changed-the-pacific-war/

On 18 April 1942, Jimmy Doolittle launched 16 B-25 bombers from an aircraft carrier to bomb Tokyo. The damage was small. The consequences were enormous.