Interview with VVS KW night fighter

[FPSOlkor]

http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/pilo...hvalenskii.htm
As usual - comments and criticism welcome
Feel free to post it to other forums either

[Flyfinn]

Hi..

Thx FPSolkor..
Fascinating reading as always.. keep up the good work..

[FPSOlkor]

I'm keeping, keeping...

[LEXX]

That is very new indeed.

I've read some about Korea night fighting. B-29s chased from the daytime skies. MiG-15s shooting them down. Low performance but radar equipped MARINE F3D and ADC F-94 escorting, something called a "MiG Trap" that Soviet pilots used to snare escorting night fighters. Alot like Lancasters, Mosquitos, Ju-88s and stuff.

The MiG pilots flew the basic Luftwaffe Wild Sau visual night interception mission, aided by searchlight, and later by ground control rader.

One thing I have read about this subject stuck out like a contrail under moonlight: The B-29 crews feared most contrails and full moon together. Its interesting to see Pavlovich talking about contrails alot, especially in searchlights which I have never considered before. That man understood the air warfare environment, and used it. Someday combat flight The Sim developers will learn about the air warfare environment so their customers can use it. But not today.

[FPSOlkor]

His Surname is Khvalenskii. Well, yes, I also noticed the similarities between WWII and KW night fighters. But note that in 1958 already he was preparing to fly radar equipped airplane, and is't it the true miracle of industrial age, that we used to so much that we don't notice it any more?

[LEXX]

— Was the vapor trail visible?

You could see it clearly if it was caught by a search light. But it was as far as 50 kilometers away at an altitude of 7–8 thousand meters.

50 kilometers is outside the industry standard "dogfight" grafix distance. And this at night. I'm still kicking myself over never having thought what contrails would look like in searchlights. I have never seen this in "peacetime" since nobody ever bombed Mississippie with strategic bombers. I've seen lots of moonlit contrails out to maybe 50km from the ground, much further in day, and at sunset when they shine bright yellow, near the distance of Earth's effective horizon seen from contrail height. But I don't feel too bad since The Devs never thought about it either.

Searchlights never illuminate contrails in The Sims, so I can't get it to work in The StrikeFighters...shucks no searchlights anyway. For daytime, I mod contrails and set them visible out to several hundred kilometers, less for short contrails seen here.