Lockheed CL-1200 / X-27 Lancer

[riggerrob]

The only recall a plan to build and sell Mig 21's as a low cost fighter but that made as much sense as building a reverse engineered copy when so many Mig 21's were available for less money.

There was an April Fools’ Joke about the Royal Canadian Air Force buying MiG 21s.
Silly you could purchase Communist-surplus MiGs for a fraction of the price of North American-built airplanes.

Back during 1993, the (American) FAA placed a temporary ban on the importation of any more foreign-built airplanes, simply to allow FAA bureaucrats time to catch up on all the paperwork for recently-imported: Antonovs, Cheetahs, Delphins, Drakkens, Galebs, Gemsboks. L-39s, MiGs, Nanjings, Sukhois, Yakovlevs, etc.
Most imported warbirds were registered in the experimental, exhibition or restricted categories.
I was working for Butler Parachutes at the time and packed a bewildering array of Pilot emergency parachutes for warbird, aerobatic, glider, etc. pilots.
Most of those communist-surplus airplanes got their avionics upgraded to 1990s North American standards, partly to allow them to talk with North American air traffic controllers and partly to avoid hassles with sourcing radio parts from Eastern Europe. I suspect that some of those communist-surplus airplanes were “sold out the back gate.”
Hah!
Hah!

 

[datafuser]

This is an image I haven't seen anywhere so far.

Found in a Japanese book published in 1975.

 

[Scott Kenny]

I suspect that some of those communist-surplus airplanes were “sold out the back gate.”

Doc Rockknocker of Reddit fame acquired a couple of Mi8/17s that way. Appropriately lubricated the gatekeeper at one of the storage depots in Siberia, who was also responsible for taking the inventory.

If you saw an Mi8 rattling around the Texas/Gulf of Mexico in the 1990s, that was his.

 

[robunos]

Why the change in inlet design from a translating shock cone to what looks like a rectangular inlet with a variable ramp?

A (very) long time in replying, but it's my understanding that the shock-cone intake went with the J79 engine ala Starfighter, whereas the ramp intake was intended for use with the F100 engine . . .

cheers,
Robin.