To say that the world's most advanced fighter research country, the first one is undoubtedly the United States. The US fighter jets are now equipped with most countries in the world. Currently, the United States not only has the most advanced fifth-generation stealth fighter F22, but also the largest number of stealth fighter F35 in the world. In addition, the world's only stealth strategic bomber B-2 also belongs to the United States.
But half a century ago, there was a country's fighter jets that were not inferior to American fighter jets, and that was the Soviet Union. This fighter that once scared the United States was the MiG-25 fighter developed by the Soviet Union. The biggest difference between the MiG-25 fighter is that most of its fuselage is made of stainless steel, which is simply outrageous.
Soviet MiG-25 fighter
data shows that the MiG-25 fighter is a high-altitude high-speed interceptor fighter developed by the Soviet Migoyang Design Bureau. It began to be equipped with Soviet troops in 1969. The MiG-25 has a fuselage length of 22.3 meters, a wingspan of 13.95 meters, and an empty weight of 15 tons. It is the world's first fighter with a flight speed of more than Mach 3, and it is also one of the three manned fighters in the world to break through the "thermal barrier". The other two are the Soviet MiG-31 and the United States SR-71 reconnaissance aircraft. When MiG-25 was designed from the beginning, it targeted the US high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft , which could hunt reconnaissance aircraft that dared to break into Soviet airspace at an altitude of 24,000 meters. It once scared the US Air Force.
Soviet MiG-25 fighter
MiG-25 and Western fighter jets took place during the Middle East War. At that time, MiG-25 fighter jets equipped by Syria and other countries left the US F-15 fighter jets far behind in air combat, and even the US AIM-9 "Saturday" missile could not catch up, which scared the US pilots to a great extent. At that time, the AIM-9 "Saturday" missile had a speed of Mach 2.5, but the MiG-25 was able to fly to Mach 3. The reason why MiG-25 has such a powerful speed advantage is mainly due to the advantages of the Soviet engine and the MiG-25's powerful aerodynamic layout design.
However, what the United States doesn't understand the most is the body structure of the MiG-25, which actually uses a large amount of stainless steel. The United States also obtained a MiG-25 fighter jet during the Middle East War, and felt very uncomprehensible after research. At that time, stainless steel was a very common material, mainly used to make daily necessities, so how could it be used to build fighter jets? For a time, the United States began to hype the stainless steel design of the MiG-25, which made many Americans at that time think that the performance of the Soviet fighter jets was actually very backward.
Soviet MiG-25 fighter
But on the other hand, the United States has also begun to quietly develop stainless steel fighter jets.
Based on the MiG-25, the United States once developed a stainless steel fighter XB-70 with a body length of 60 meters, with a speed of Mach 3, but it is very easy to disintegrate in the air due to high temperatures. In addition, there is the US XF-108 fighter called "Falcon". Although this fighter can barely be used, it was later eliminated by the US Air Force. The high-speed fighter developed by the US military itself used titanium alloy materials comparable to gold at that time, and barely reached the level of the MiG-25.
Soviet MiG-25 fighter
At the same time, this also made many American experts feel scared. At that time, the Soviet Union obviously had a great shortage of materials, so it used stainless steel. If the Soviet Union had more advanced aviation materials at that time, the combat effectiveness of the MiG-25 would have been even more amazing. After realizing its shortcomings in the field of high-altitude high-speed fighter jets, the United States launched a plan to study the new generation of air superiority fighter , which is the later stealth fighter jet. Since the speed is not good, I have to hide it.
