Wow pic. USAF F-15 Eagle Fighters Intercept Two Soviet Mig29

[Bluedharma]

Interesting pic. (if not photoshopped)
http://chamorrobible.org/images/photos/gpw-200701a-UnitedStatesAirForce-DFST9005759-vigilance-USAF-F-15-fighter-jets-intercept-two-USSR-MiG-29-aircraft-medium.jpg
I guess it was for Abbotsford International Airshow. first time I had seen this picture.

[bax101]

im wondering how that could be for an airshow b/c those aircraft are so high in the air.

[sdennison]

Sorry, I'm having trouble with this. At what altitude do you see the curvature of the earth? (as represented here)

Also, I have some difficulty identifying the subject aircraft....

[Bluedharma]

I am having trouble with this too.
I found the orginal link to this on digg.
http://www.digg.com/space/Stunning_2_F15s_Intercept_2_MiGs_in_Upper_Atmosphere
link goes here...
http://chamorrobible.org/gpw/gpw-200701.htm
Interesting picture... if true. I can't tell what the aircraft are from the picture. Do you guys know if this picture is "for real"?

[CAPFlyer]

Looks real enough to me. Altitude probably isn't over the high 30's but could be into the mid-40's as both aircraft are more than capable of getting up there.

My review of the photos & facts -

1) Taken in 1989. Consider film and filters in use then. (a lot of high-altitude pictures I've seen from the 80's and early 90's have a darker appearance to them)

2) Taken in Alaska. Much cleaner air and clearer sky. When it's colder (and it's a LOT colder at altitude over Alaska much of the year), the sky tends to get darker due to the lack of particles of ice and water droplets to refract the sunlight.

3) If you go down the link BD gives of the source of the image, you'll note additional pictures of both the escort flight and then also of the MiG's on the ground at Elmendorf and the AN-225 as well.

4) 2 MiG-29s and the AN-225 did attend the Abbotsford Air Show in 1989.

In conclusion - I think it's real.

[DoraNineFan]

From the info, the picture dates from 1989, which I think is around the time that Soviet military fighters toured North American air shows for the first time in the era of Glasnost.

It looks like a friendly intercept high over the Bering Straight or Alaska as the fighters made their way into Canada. The picture is stunning, and upper atmosphere flight above commercial airline routes must be spectacular.

[n5151ts]

From the info, the picture dates from 1989, which I think is around the time that Soviet military fighters toured North American air shows for the first time in the era of Glasnost.

It looks like a friendly intercept high over the Bering Straight or Alaska as the fighters made their way into Canada. The picture is stunning, and upper atmosphere flight above commercial airline routes must be spectacular.

[Randy Haskin]

Definitely looks like an intercept happening in the high 30s, but that's about all you can tell.

Impossible to know who the other two aircraft are just from the photo.

flight above commercial airline routes must be spectacular.

Much of the time, this is the same altitudes that airliners are flying! Although sometimes intercepts are going on in the high 40s, usually they are in the mid-high 30s.

I wouldn't use the adjective 'spectacular'; although occasionally in the very high 40s you get to see the sky turn deep violet/black directly above you. The airplane is not very maneuvarable at that altitude. Much of the time I'm flying the jet so as to simply fly level and/or maintain a good minimum Mach number so as to not flame out the engines!

I have had the somewhat humiliating experience in a heavily-loaded F-15E to be at FL390 in MIL power and be passed by a 737 nearly directly overhead at FL430!

Last edited by Randy Haskin on Tue Feb 05, 2008 2:21 am, edited 1 time in total.

[JDK]

Given you can't tell the aircraft, and the pics fit nicely into the narrative and other photos, I can't see why you'd fake something so inconclusive. A fake would 'show' the subjects better, IMHO.

[The Inspector]

In 1990 two Su 27's and the AN 225 visited Abbotsford,then Seattle for Flight Fest (where one of the 27's got 'zapped' by the guys with the Shakelton who were also visiting ) for the'GOODWILL GAMES". The next week they were@ KPAE for the Washington State Official Air Fair. The 225's APU exhausts point straight down so the airport brought in two steel sheets to keep the exhaust from melting the compass rose.
When the 27's left, it was with F-15 escorts, and the four aircraft put on one whiz bang of a rat race in and around the Everett area before departing for Elmendorf and home. It was the first time I'd seen an Su 26 perform, it made go home and throw my copy of Newtons Principles in the trash-
When the 225 left that evening, it rattled windows for blocks around and had the local airport haters calling my employer to 'stop all that damned noise or I'll call the cops!" You should have heard the calls in '91 when a B-1 from Dyess FODed an engine and the engine crew finished around 2245 and decided to run her up to around zone 5-- LOTS AND LOTS OF bright blue diamonds!!! Lots and lots of cranky callers, never understood knowingly living near an airport and bitching about noise, sell your house Einstein!

[n5151ts]

while trying to alter physical laws!

In 1990 two Su 27's and the AN 225 visited Abbotsford,then Seattle for Flight Fest (where one of the 27's got 'zapped' by the guys with the Shakelton who were also visiting ) for the'GOODWILL GAMES". The next week they were@ KPAE for the Washington State Official Air Fair. The 225's APU exhausts point straight down so the airport brought in two steel sheets to keep the exhaust from melting the compass rose.
When the 27's left, it was with F-15 escorts, and the four aircraft put on one whiz bang of a rat race in and around the Everett area before departing for Elmendorf and home. It was the first time I'd seen an Su 26 perform, it made go home and throw my copy of Newtons Principles in the trash-
When the 225 left that evening, it rattled windows for blocks around and had the local airport haters calling my employer to 'stop all that damned noise or I'll call the cops!" You should have heard the calls in '91 when a B-1 from Dyess FODed an engine and the engine crew finished around 2245 and decided to run her up to around zone 5-- LOTS AND LOTS OF bright blue diamonds!!! Lots and lots of cranky callers, never understood knowingly living near an airport and bitching about noise, sell your house Einstein!

[Randy Haskin]

In 1990 two Su 27's and the AN 225 visited Abbotsford,then Seattle for Flight Fest (where one of the 27's got 'zapped' by the guys with the Shakelton who were also visiting ) for the'GOODWILL GAMES".

I worked at the MoF at the time in Visitor Services (I was a High School senior in 1990). It was pretty funny to see those guys taxi into the cordoned-off parking lot at the Museum and taxi the jets between the light poles!

I got to go sit up in one of the Flankers...wish I'd paid more attention at the time! I've got some pictures of me sitting up there somewhere stored away. All I remember is that it was colored teal blue and looked as "advanced" as a Phantom!

The pilot of one of the jets was later killed in an airshow crash over in Asia.

[K5DH]

Not to hijack the thread, but. . .

Civilian airliners and some biz-jets routinely fly at surprisingly high altitudes. In 2001 on a flight from DFW to London aboard a British Airways Boeing 777, we were at FL460 for several hours. On a 2005 trip from Los Angeles to Sydney aboard a QANTAS Boeing 747-400 Longreach, we cruised at FL480 for quite a while, although most of the trip (when I wasn't sleeping) was at FL460. A friend of mine used to fly a Lear 35 for the Dillard family (as in Dillard's Department Stores). They routinely cruised at FL510, very close to Mach I, and occasionally at a little bit higher altitude than that. I understand that quite a few of the modern generation of biz-jets can cruise above FL450.

Cheers!

[The Inspector]

I've been to 52 and change in a Boeing 737 BBJ going to and from Wichita out of KPAE, pretty cool sitting up there with eight other mechanics listening to the sound system we had installed and waving to the very confused appearing F-16 driver who was along side for about 5 minutes, he kept looking over and shaking his head-

[262crew]

In 1990 two Su 27's and the AN 225 visited Abbotsford,then Seattle for Flight Fest (where one of the 27's got 'zapped' by the guys with the Shakelton who were also visiting ) for the'GOODWILL GAMES". The next week they were@ KPAE for the Washington State Official Air Fair. The 225's APU exhausts point straight down so the airport brought in two steel sheets to keep the exhaust from melting the compass rose.
When the 27's left, it was with F-15 escorts, and the four aircraft put on one whiz bang of a rat race in and around the Everett area before departing for Elmendorf and home. It was the first time I'd seen an Su 26 perform, it made go home and throw my copy of Newtons Principles in the trash-
When the 225 left that evening, it rattled windows for blocks around and had the local airport haters calling my employer to 'stop all that damned noise or I'll call the cops!" You should have heard the calls in '91 when a B-1 from Dyess FODed an engine and the engine crew finished around 2245 and decided to run her up to around zone 5-- LOTS AND LOTS OF bright blue diamonds!!! Lots and lots of cranky callers, never understood knowingly living near an airport and bitching about noise, sell your house Einstein!