"Brian Kelly" wrote:

Rust's stunt was a whole 'nother level up, To
successfully get away with penetrating the
Soviet air defenses in that global hot spot with
a just Skyhawk then having the audacity to
fly it all the way to Moscow unchallenged
*and* plop it onto Red Square has to be one
of the all-time government-shaking stunts
pulled off by an individual. (snip)


While nice propaganda, it's somewhat foolish to believe that, Brian. To do
what you say, the guy would have had to avoid detection by Soviet, American,
and NATO, radar installations, which is clearly not very likely. Using
normal operating procedures, civilian radar installations would have
contacted NATO within moments of him flying off his approved flight path.
NATO, American, and Soviet, radar facilities would have detected his plane
as it approached the restricted airspace bordering East and West Germany.
NATO would have immediately tried to contact the pilot and aircraft would
have been dispatched in an attempt to intercept him before he could leave
NATO airspace (can't have spies flying out of West Germany). At the same
time, to avoid any possibility of confusion and again using normal operating
procedures, NATO would have immediately contacted the Soviets to assure them
it was not a NATO controlled aircraft flying into their airspace and to
explain their unusual air activity so near the border. If the Soviets had
not already detected the plane and sent aircraft to intercept, they
certainly would have after being contacted by NATO. The Soviets, for
whatever reason, did not shoot down that plane. Whatever the reasons, it was
certainly not because he had penetrated Soviet air defenses undetected.


Dwight Stewart (W5NET)

http://www.qsl.net/w5net/