When Canada had a squadron of MiG-21 - The best aviation hoax ever

in a previous video about to make 21. I explained how Finland became the first expert customer well I was wrong Finland received the first mig-21s in 1963. but many countries received me 21 before Finland they include East Germany Indonesia Romania Canada what Canada Yes you heard me right hello aviators how are you today my name is interest in aviation history the 1950s a rapid development in aviation technology at the beginning of the decade supersonic jet fighters are still on the drawing board but 10 years later five countries have developed interceptors that could exceed Mach 2. I spare twice the speed of sound United States was the first with the located F14 Starfighter then follow the English electric lightning the Soviet mig-21 the Swedish sub-35 dragon and the French dosso Mirage tree a sixth country could have been on the list because Canada had a project that had all the potential to outperform them all after a second world war the relation between the Soviet Union and the West quickly deteriorated and it didn't get better when the Soviet Union detonated the first atomic bomb in 1949 in 1951 the United States Air Force introduced the first modern jet pumper the Boeing b47 stratojets and a few years later can the B-52 strato Fortress which is still in service today the Soviet Union responded to polev tu-95 and the mycchef M4 the Cold War had become serious the United States and Canada needed a defense against the Soviet bombers which could attack the North American continent across the Arctic the first line of defense was the average Canada cf-100 this was a subsonic fighter that barely can match the cruise speed of the Soviet bombers but things developed quickly in 1956 the Conor b-58 Hustler took to disguise for the first time and this bomber had a top speed on Mach 2. and it was expected that the Soviets would follow suits which they did with the variable success anyway it was evident that Canada needed a faster Interceptor and the answer was that our Canada cf-105 Arrow the other Canada cf105 Arrow was a large twin engine Interceptor with a delta wing it was designed to exceed Mach 2 and there were even plans for a variant that could reach Mach 3. the area was a very Advanced aircraft for his time it pioneered several engineering Feats like flyby wire 4000 PSI hydraulic system and the use of titanium a metal that is very light and strong but at that time was expensive and difficult to process the first Arrow was rolled out to the public on the 4th of October 1957. the test flight were promising and few problems are encountered and the aircraft and supersonic on its third flight later it reached Mark 1.98 and 53 000 feet and this was achieved with an interim engine that will be replaced with a more powerful engine developed in Canada the orenda I require which was still under development five aircrafts were built and by 1959 the test program was Progressive towards the acceptance trials for the Royal Canadian Air Force rcif but then Uncle Sam interfered [Music] in 1957 there was a general election in Canada and the governing liberals lost the power to the conservatives led by prime minister John diven Baker and things started to change first the Canadian government signed the North American air defense NORAD agreement with the United States making Canada a partner with American commandant control at that time the United States Air Force was in the process of automating the air defense system and the system consisted of a chain of radio stations powerful computers from IBM and the Walmart anti-aircraft missile this missile could carry a nuclear warhead which was intended to explode in the middle of Soviet one reformations the Americans pursue the Canadians to buy this missile system as this will move the reductive downfall further away from the densely populated areas close to the border to the United States but this system was very costly and it became evident that Canada could not afford both the cf-105 arrow and the American defense system and then came Sputnik on the 4th of October 1957 the very day the cf-105 arrow was rolled out the Soviet Union launched the world's first satellite the Sputnik the payload was a radio transmitter emitting a ping ping but the implications were huge that meant that the Soviet Union will be capable to launch nuclear weapons via space and there was no defense against it and this changed a lot now the focus shifted from defense against bombers to building an arsenal of intercontinental ballistic missiles ICBM and in addition to nuclear armed submarines and the bomber Force the idea was to defer the enemy from starting a nuclear war as this will result in a mutual destruction the Canadians try to sell arrow to the United Kingdom and in the United States because the adult showed promising performance and it was more advanced than anything else in the sky but the British had the lightning and the Americans are their own fighter programs faced with the Holocaust of the blue Mark and the lack of export customers for the arrow the Canadian government on the 20th of February 1959 decided to cancel Arrow all airframes together with all two-link Jigs and drawings were ordered to be destroyed these work was completed in April and only an all section survived almost 15 000 employees at our Canada lost their jobs but Canada still needed a fighter to defend the airspace the Americans offered a North American f-108 a Mach 3 Interceptor that was under development but in September the project was canceled instead Americans offered the f-101 voodoo fighter that was an insult to the Canadians despite the name the voodoo was inferior to the arrow and the Canadians say no thanks they felt that they have been betrayed by The Neighbors so what now the British lightning didn't have the range Sweden was neutral so the dragon was altered the question and the Mirage was well French the solution will come from an unexpected place foreign not long after iron was broken a group of Air Force and government officials led by the air Commodore secretly started to investigate the opportunity to purchase aircraft from the Eastern Bloc this group was later referred to as the hunter boys it did not take long before they had meetings the diplomats and Communist Party officials from the embassy of the Soviet Union the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union for this to be an opportunity to burn Thai City Canada the Soviet Union already had an ally in Cuba and in the eyes of great chef Canada was with free education and Health Care on a path to becoming a socialist state in late August of 1959 a delegation of Canadian officials including the air Commodore top rcif press test pilots and aeronautical experts flew to templehof airport in West Berlin from here they were secreted through check on Charlie and to the East German Air Force Base at holdstorf inchless vehicle Style and here they were given access to their secret mig-21 with a full demonstration by an urban coming solid test pilot to the name of Eureka Guardian the Canadians are concerned about the mix short range but they were very impressed by its acceleration and top speed of Mach 2.05 therefore in November 1959 the Canadian government signed a contract for the purchase on mig-21f in what become known as the Redhawk program Canada would in total secrecy received 30 mig-21 interceptors straight off the assembly line as well as spares technical assistance and training tools and support equipment it was the largest Soviet Canadian weapon still since the landless program sent canadian-built hooker hurricanes to Russia in the 1940s it was rumored that the Soviets were pushing for bases in yokon and Labrador but these were never granted the Canadians needed aircraft and revenge of the Americans but not Soviet allies therefore for one Squadron was selected for the red oak program because of the many experienced pilots in the Squadron over the next three months 30 shiny new mix was selected from the line atomicoyan plant also Moscow disassembled created and shipped by Railcar to divide Seaport over several drinks where they under recover Darkness reloaded onto Russian cargo ships one by one the vessels left the harbor and set Course North and then West over top of Norway and all to the Open Sea born for the east coast of Canada each ship was secretly shadowed by a Russian submarine all the way under cover of darkness and its tight security measures the crates were offloaded at the portal bradhurst in New Brunswick and loaded onto flat cars to show the cars are then sent off to rcis station in Chatham where under airtight security McCoy and technicians supervised the reassembly of the fighters as they arrived and all the labels in the cockpit were translated to English two of the aircrafted tandem seeds trainers and a team of our instructors from the East German air force carried out nighttime flight training with the pilots of 451 Squadron the Royal Canadian Air Force had decided to call the fight to the cf-121 Redhawk with the coalside red fox but the more creative Squadron Pilots nicknamed it the Stratocaster or the Strat a name that paralleled the German instructors who called it the balalaika the Flight Training proceeded rapidly and on the 23rd of June 1960 the first 18 mix were varied via several refueling stops to the home Basin called Lake Alberta the remaining cell aircraft are kept in storage at Chatham the ferry flights went well except for one incident during approach to Saint Robert near Montreal for refueling the mix kept radio silence on the way but a radio operator who had not been informed about the arrival of the mix scrambled Two cf-100 fighters to intercept the fast approaching aircrafts a navigation enthusiasts managed to take a photo of the cf-100 taking off as one of the mixer circling overhead shortly after the military police confiscated the camera and the photographer will not get it back and this photo will not be published until the story broke in the Press later that summer this pictures also know the Red Hulk Stacks in after landing at Cold Lake the aircraft already have the 441 Squadron checkerboard pattern on the tail and later on the aircraft will receive a red lightning Flash painted along the fuselage Cold Lake is located close to Primrose air weapons range a vast playground far from populated areas the pilots enjoy the mixed handling and rocket-like acceleration and they love the low altitude supersonic dashes they made just about the Treetops what I didn't like was the poor railroad visibility and above all the short time Aloft and the afterburners [Music] the Canadians know it was just a matter of time before the United States learned about the Red Hawk program in fact I was surprised that they had managed to keep a lid on it so long as they did anyway it was decided to give the Red Hook a public debut at Canadian national air show in Toronto on 11th of September 1960. but just one week before that an American serviceman on a camping trip to Alberta managed to snap a pitch of the four Red Hawks in tight formation as they were practicing for the air show it didn't take long before the photograph was pasted onto every front page of every newspaper in North American Europe the security Focus for the United States turned 180 degrees from Cuba to Canada in just one day for the next week U2 flights were ordered day and night or Canadian military bases and Canada was not able to stop them U.S national guard units from Maine to Montana were mobilized and infantry units mechanized units and Walmart missile batteries began to pile up along the 49th parallel President Eisenhower was mad to say the least in October the United States sent a delegation that included members of the John ciso staff the Secretary of State to Ottawa and the light of the simple two-point ultimatum one get rid of the mix by February 1961 and two sectors responsible Canada as Canadians do promise to have a feasibility study done but first we'll have to create a parliamentary inquiry just as soon as the members of the parliament got back from their Christmas holiday which began on November 3rd and run until January 16th then they will look into the matter and most likely create an ombudsman who will look after American complaints of this nature once that person are chosen and a budget approved work could begin on designing a process for assuming compliance in National communication standards as outlined by treasury board then and only then could Headway be made into addressing the shape and size of the meeting table and sitting plate for delegates from both countries once all the mechanisms are in place to create a transparent process and the highest levels of accountability mid-level bureaucrats will take over the day-to-day mechanics of the process and free politicians to deal with their job governance and reload order this minor being bureaucracy and attention to the minute there or processor the narcotic effect of slowing down the pressure taking the edge of the ref and burning down even bullies like General Curtis LeMay it also helped that president candidate took office in January 1961. by mid-may of 1961 rhetorical schooling down and the interest if Canada guaranteed the end of the Red Hawk program by mid-summer the United States of the immobilized along the border and allow some American aircraft to be licensed built in Canada what the Americans wanted was the Canadian market for military aircraft Canada had at the time one of the largest air forces in the world with scores on large basis from Newfoundland to Vancouver and hundreds of fat aircraft and hundreds or more utility and transport aircraft the Canadians eventually accepted the f-101 will do which became the cf-101 and peace was restored though the United States had demanded the immediate withdrawal of all RedHawks from North American soil they asked that once cf-121 to be delivered to Edwards Air Force Base in California for tests and evaluation and this was the beginning of the constant Peg program which was set up to train U.S Air Force Navy and Marine Corps fighter acres to fly against Soviet design aircrafts Canada returned 27 of the 30 mix to the Soviet Union the Canadians tolerations are two aircraft had crashed during training in fact only one had crash landed when it ran out of fuel and the other had been secretly sent to the United States the third airframe was kept as a gate Guardian at Cold Lake where it remained until 1996 when it was replaced within cf-18 Hornets the Red Hawk is now under restoration and later this year it will be displayed next to a full-size replica of the cf-105 arrow at the Canadian Air and Space Museum in Toronto all the 27 makes return to the Soviet Union three were delivered to the North Vietnam two were shot down by American fighters near Hanoi and won't survives today in Auto display at the people's Garden of suffering and victory in Hanoi sun and hit the weather the Vietnam markings and brought out the faintest hint of our old Canadian 441 Squadron paints if you want to learn more about the mi-21 please check out those videos here and you will find links in the description below and that's all for this time thank you for watching have a wonderful April Fool's Day and happy learning foreign [Music]

Channel: Fly with Magnar

Views: 148,232

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Id: kO-L4Oil0Us

Length: 19min 3sec (1143 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 01 2023