46 years ago, Lt. Victor Belenko, landed his Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 “Foxbat” at Hakodate Airport, Japan (September 6, 1976). The defection provided an intelligence bonanza, and gave the West its first detailed assessment of the Mach 3 MiG-25 and a chance to debrief a front-line Soviet pilot. The aircraft was partially disassembled and flown to a JASDF base near Tokyo, where it is fully disassembled and inspected in detail. On November 12, the Foxbat, in crates, was loaded on a Soviet freighter and returned.
I heard the US government gave him a "reward" for bringing the aircraft over of 1 million dollars and citizenship. They took him to a shopping mall to buy clothes and shoes he could pick out. He asked what was the limit for how many pair of shoes he was allowed. They said all you want. He did not believe that. The took him down the mall and into several other shoe stores, all full of shoes. Then he said this must be for propaganda, and all a set up. So they drove to another mall and showed him the bounty of capitalism.
