Back in 1978, I was admitted to Northwestern Polytechnical University.

Chapter 229 Their planes are too cunning!

Medium- and short-range air-to-air missiles can be ignited on the pylon and then launched forward using the pylon as a guide rail.

However, long-range air-to-air missiles are not suitable, or rather, heavy missiles are not suitable, since the missiles themselves are too heavy. If they are ignited on the pylon, the effect would be the same as the Super-7 vs. Monster Snake-3, with too much recoil that the missile itself cannot withstand!
Therefore, these missiles are all thrown down, leave the rack, undergo a projectile motion for a few seconds, and then ignite and launch.

The billowing white smoke spread rapidly forward. After flying forward for more than ten seconds, the Lightning-20 missile began to climb upward under the action of the control surfaces. The two white smoke trails slowly dispersed and merged together, while in the distance, the smoke trails continued to climb upward, like a ladder to heaven!
The half-ton Phoenix missile is designed to be more like a dough ball with more water, and more water ball with more dough. To fly farther, more propellant is needed. More propellant makes the missile thicker, increasing drag and reducing range. The solution is a high-altitude trajectory! The thin air at high altitudes allows it to fly farther!
If it were launched directly, despite its large size, it would only fly forty or fifty kilometers, not much farther than a sparrow.

If you're shooting down a bomber, you'd fly close to the target and then dive down again to gain speed and accelerate. But now, to shoot down a MiG-25, you'd fly to a similar altitude to the MiG-25 and hunt it down directly!

Without this missile, there's really nothing we can do against the MiG-25!
The missile had already been launched, but Imtyaz did not return. He continued to maneuver the fighter jet, flying steadily forward and using radar to search for targets.

It seems the other party was completely unprepared and continued to fly steadily.

Since you're here, don't go back!

"Missile is 50 kilometers from target, all is normal!"

"Missile is 20 kilometers from target! The active seeker is about to acquire the target!"

At this moment, on the MiG-25 which had already reached an altitude of 25,500 meters, Summit suddenly felt his eyelids twitching involuntarily.

what happened?

High in the air, with the helmet visor down, he couldn't rub his eyes. He could only blink hard while peering outside, and then…

The sky was exceptionally clear at this moment, and on the curved edge of the earth, it seemed as if two things were reflecting light.

He was lucky; he chose to fly in the morning when the sun was in the east. He was flying west, and the missiles that came to attack him were also flying directly from the west. So... he actually saw the reflection of the missiles!

However... he didn't care.

Pakistan has no weapons that can deal with the MiG-25, so it must have been seeing things!
This is not unusual. When flying at high altitudes, you can see many things in outer space. The ghostly figures are never seen, which is a special phenomenon of the thin atmosphere.

He was flying a MiG-25R reconnaissance aircraft, which did not carry the legendary radar that could burn rabbits. Besides, that was just a legend; radar is not a microwave oven.

So he had no idea what was in front of him. He closed his eyes, rested for a moment, and then opened them again.

Those two bright spots on the other side are still rapidly approaching; they're probably only ten kilometers away now.
What exactly is that thing?
Summit stared intently, his eyes wide.

Five kilometers, three kilometers...

When Samit saw the four wing-shaped objects, he gasped in surprise.

"Damn it, it's a missile!"

He broke the radio silence to inform the rear with this astonishing news, quickly flicked the boost knob with his left hand to adjust it to maximum boost, and pulled the control lever with his right hand to begin the ascent.

At an altitude of 25,500 meters, the air is thin, the aerodynamic torque of the control surfaces is very small, and the tens of tons of the fighter jet have great inertia, which also limits its movement. Pilots who have flown over it have compared it to an oxcart.

Now, the massive MiG-25 begins its ascent, little does Summit know that this is suicidal!

After all, when flying head-on, the radar cross-section is the smallest. Now he plans to fly to a higher altitude for safety, but the result is that he exposes the belly of his aircraft to the other side, which has a larger radar cross-section!

Almost simultaneously, the radar warning receiver finally sounded.

The MiG-25 doesn't yet have an omnidirectional radar warning receiver! It can only receive information from the rear hemisphere. Now, as it climbs, its tail is finally exposed!

The distance between the two sides is rapidly closing!
Two kilometers, one kilometer, five hundred meters...

On the seeker of the first Lightning-20 missile, the radio proximity fuse was operating at full power when it approached the target at a distance of about ten meters.

boom!
The 61-kilogram warhead exploded, sending out numerous rod-like objects that crashed into the MiG-25!

Even a fighter jet made of stainless steel is useless. At speeds of several Mach, even a bird can be smashed to pieces, let alone this kind of continuous rod warhead!
The massive 5300-liter auxiliary fuel tank under the MiG-25's fuselage was hit first, and the K-60's fuel rapidly gushed out at high altitude, followed by... a fireball.

damn it!
Hearing the explosion and seeing the fire alarm on the dashboard, Summit cursed inwardly, then brought his legs together, pulled the ejection pin, and left his survival to fate.
In the era of propeller planes, as speeds increased, pilots faced increasing dangers when trying to escape. A German night fighter ace was killed when his own tail fin struck him while he was parachuting.

Therefore, in the jet age, ejection seats became standard equipment, similar to the seats Wan Hu used to fly. Rockets were attached to them, and when needed, the rockets would ignite to send the seats out directly.

As technology has progressed, ejection seats for ordinary jet aircraft are now quite mature, but those for the MiG-25…

The ejection seat in the MiG-25 is exactly the same as that in the MiG-23! At an altitude of over 25,000 meters and a speed of Mach 2.5, whether one can survive depends on luck!
Fortunately, because we are climbing, the fuselage is blocking the airflow in front of us, thus blocking the oncoming high-speed airflow!

Bang!
The canopy flew out first, followed by a burst of flames beneath his rear as the ejection seat carried Summit out of the cockpit and into the sky.

The famous Hollywood sci-fi film "Interstellar" starts off like a blockbuster: while repairing a space elevator, the protagonist falls from a height of tens of kilometers and plunges into the atmosphere, yet he still manages to survive!

While science fiction movies may not be true, in reality, Google's 57-year-old senior vice president rode a helium balloon to an altitude of 41 kilometers, successfully parachuted in a specially designed spacesuit, and reached a maximum speed of 360 meters per second, making him the fastest man in the world.

Now, Summit is going to become that kind of man!

After the ejection seat leaves the aircraft, it collides with the outside airflow, and whoosh! It flies even faster!
As he moved further away, Summit took one last look at his aircraft. A second missile was hurtling towards him, blasting his fighter jet into an explosion in mid-air, leaving hardly any wreckage behind.

Summit shuddered.

It was extremely hot inside the cabin, and his inner protective suit was soaked with sweat. Now, the frigid temperature of minus eighty-five degrees Celsius outside was quickly taking hold of his body.

Fortunately, he was wearing full-body clothing, and even his helmet was completely sealed; otherwise... in this situation, he would definitely have suffered severe frostbite, or even frozen solid right there.

His buttocks remained against the seat, and his body moved with the seat.

His horizontal speed eventually decreased to zero due to air resistance, while in the vertical direction he continued to fall, and his speed increased.

Although he experienced Mach 3 speeds in the MiG-25, that was with an aircraft; now, he has no cover whatsoever!

The feeling of weightlessness made him feel like he was falling into hell.

He closed his eyes in despair, thinking that lying flat would be more comfortable, but then a ferocious demon appeared before him... He screamed and then... fainted!
He woke up when he felt a sharp pull on his back. He slowly opened his eyes and saw a blue sky all around him and a white parachute overhead.

The ejection seat opens at an altitude of 6,000 meters, which means he has fallen for about 20 kilometers. Now, he is finally safe!

The seat disappeared; the person and the seat separated before the parachute opened. That weightless feeling that made you lose your soul was gone. It's so good to be alive!

Summit started moving his legs. The adventure at high altitude had left his body stiff, and if he didn't move them, he would break his legs when he landed.

Many laymen ask why passenger planes aren't equipped with parachutes. The idea that they could parachute to safety in case of a crash is pure wishful thinking!

Can untrained passengers overcome their fear and jump out of the plane? Even if they do, they'll likely suffer broken bones upon landing! Paratroopers practice just the landing motion tens of thousands of times before their actual jumps!
As for installing ejection seats in cars... that's just ridiculously naive!
The earth is getting closer and closer.

Boom!
Severe pain shot through his legs. Summit screamed and lay on the ground, untied his parachute, and quickly checked his legs. Thankfully, they weren't broken. Next... was to take off his compensation suit.

Wearing a compensatory suit will impair your ability to walk and make it difficult to escape!

After each mission, the compensation suit is always removed by others, but now, to escape, I have to do it all by myself!
After removing his helmet, Summit stretched his body, then quickly took off his flight suit and began untying the dense ropes. He was only halfway through when he heard a voice.

"Mom, there's a pervert here! He's taking off his clothes outside! Is he... trying to poop here?!"

"Child, run! Those are the enemy!"

Summit instinctively reached for his sidearm, but... he wasn't sure he could escape. If he killed someone here, would he even survive?

He sped up his process of getting ready, took off the damned flight suit, and then put it back on, hoping to steal a motorcycle from a nearby village...

But... it was too late; a large number of military vehicles had already arrived!
Seeing the soldiers carrying Type 56 assault rifles, Summit could only obediently raise his hands. Kamra Base.

The J-8 fighter jet roared as it circled the field, even shaking its wings to show off its empty inner hardpoints. Long-range missiles had been fired, and the invading enemy aircraft had been shot down!

After showing off, Imtyaz maneuvered his fighter jet, aligned it with the runway, and landed. As soon as the plane came to a stop, ground crew rushed over to set up the gangway. When Imtyaz jumped off the plane, he was lifted high into the air by the crowd.

Long live!

Long live!

At this moment, glory belongs to the Pakistani Air Force!

General Haidar exclaimed excitedly, "Fox Hunt, you did a great job!"

"This professional interceptor from the East is the best! With it, we no longer need to worry about the MiG-25 threat. No matter how many come, we can make sure they never return!"

"That's right, the planes from the East are better! The aviation industry in the East is excellent; they can produce the fighter jets we need most!" Haidar said. "Let's go back to the capital and receive commendation from our superiors!"

Soon, the wreckage and the pilot appeared on television. The entire nation of Pakistan cheered!
Meanwhile, the other side was completely dumbfounded.

Indians, MiG-25 base.

"Report!" A communications soldier rushed to Borges's door: "Samit Mukherjee just broke the radio silence and sent a call."

"What did he say?" Borges hadn't paid much attention yet.

"Damn it, it's a missile!"

what?
Borges immediately stood up and strode out: "Go and call the Soviet instructors over right now!"

These advanced fighter jets are beyond the capabilities of the Indians alone. Therefore, the Russian instructors also came with the MiG-25. Now that the plane has been shot down, they need to quickly consult with the Russians!
"They... probably won't be able to get here."

"why?"

"He's still not sober."

I drank last night, and it's almost noon now, and I'm still not sober? How much did I drink?
"Doesn't our base only supply each of them with one bottle per day?"

"Yes, but... they frequently visit the depots where MiG-25 liquid fuel is stored..."

The Indians have cigarettes and alcohol, but ordinary people don't smoke or drink much because it's too expensive. Even if you give it to a Russian instructor, he can only have one bottle a day. For a Russian who is addicted to alcohol, that's not enough.
Fortunately, the MiG-25 has one! To achieve high-altitude, high-speed performance, it has a spray system inside the air intake, and alcohol is the best choice!

In Russia, due to complaints from families, they have switched from ethanol to methanol, and people are free to drink it if they're not afraid of dying. But in India, the Russians are demanding the use of ethanol!

"Damn it, do everything you can to wake them up, even if it's just splashing them with cold water, this is a disaster!"

Twenty minutes later, several Russians sauntered into the conference room.

"Hey, Borges, what's going on?"

"Our MiG-25 was shot down by Pakistan."

"Impossible, absolutely impossible!" The instructor leading the team, Varisi, shook his head: "The Super-7s that Pakistan has are simply incapable of shooting down our MiG-25s!"

Even though the MiG-25 has been declassified in the West, it is still an advanced weapon in the hands of the Russians! Especially when dealing with second- or third-rate countries, how could it possibly be shot down in Pakistan?

"Pakistan has released images of the wreckage of the downed plane and the captured pilot."

"That could be a mechanical malfunction."

"Then what should we say for this call?" Borges, unable to contain himself any longer, ordered his men to play the recorded call.

"Damn it, it's a missile!"

That short sentence was enough to freeze the atmosphere in the meeting room.

“Damn it, how is that possible!” Varisi said. “How did the Pakistanis do that? In recent months, they rejected the F-16s that the US was selling. Did they buy F-15s instead? That’s impossible. Only the F-14, equipped with Phoenix missiles, can shoot down a MiG-25… We need to report back home and mobilize reconnaissance satellites to monitor Pakistani air force bases!”

The Indians were definitely unhappy that their newly purchased MiG-25s were shot down. At this point, they had to mobilize their forces to find out what had happened!

That evening.

Now fully awake, Varisi produced a photograph.

"After careful analysis, we believe that Pakistan relied on this aircraft to shoot down the MiG-25."

Borges glanced at it; the fuselage was slender, with air intakes on both sides, delta wings, and a single vertical tail…

"Su-15? You've gone too far! You actually exported this kind of aircraft to Pakistan? We protest! We protest!"

"No, no, this aircraft looks a lot like our Su-15, but it is definitely not our Su-15. This is a twin-engine enlarged version developed by the East based on our J-7, codenamed J-8."

"Eastern planes? What about missiles?"

"The missile must also be from the East; the flashes in the sky can't fly that high."

"How could that be? Eastern technology isn't even as good as ours Indians. Where would they get such advanced equipment? Don't try to fool us! Today isn't April Fool's Day!"

“Yes, I wish it were a joke.” Borges took a deep breath. “But it’s the truth!”

Their planes are so clever!

Pakistan rejected the F-16 and decided on the Super-7. What does this tell us?
Aviation technology in the East is developing rapidly!

East, capital, airplane terminal.

"The J-8 has really shown its power this time! It successfully intercepted the MiG-25, proving the reliability of our Eastern weapons. From now on, we no longer need to worry about the Russian bombers in the north. Even if a MiG-25 flies over, we will have a way to shoot it down!"

"That's right, our aviation industry in the East is developing rapidly!"

"Gentlemen, the J-8 is now ready. Should the Air Force procure a batch?"

The lively atmosphere in the conference room quickly cooled down.

"Old Lin, what exactly does your Air Force mean?" Leader Duan frowned.

"The J-8 is mainly for export," Old Lin said with a smile. "This time, with such a successful start, the J-8's reputation will soon spread all over the world! At that time, there will definitely be a lot of orders! Our air force will not settle for less."

"Your Air Force actually looks down on the J-8?"

"Old Duan, we've analyzed it. High-altitude, high-speed is outdated. Third-generation fighters emphasize high maneuverability. Our Super-7 has good maneuverability and is also cheap. As for the 611, the J-9 is already being developed as a prototype. It can intercept and engage in air combat. Our air force isn't in a hurry. Let's wait a bit longer!"

The J-8, which can only fly at high altitudes and high speeds, is not favored by the Air Force!

The leader's expression was complicated; he didn't know whether to object or be pleased.

"Report! The Kingdom of David has sent a strong protest!"

(End of this chapter)