Red Hats v Red Eagles


Message posted by Brian L on September 27, 2014 at 10:19:57 PST:

I've been reading Steve Davies' excellent book on the Red Eagles. Was fascinated by his detail on the aerodynamics that led up to the death of Lt Gen Bonds during his joyride in the Mig-23.

Question: the Red Hats (as opposed to the Red Eagles) did test/eval of the MiGs. But after the initial test/eval of the MiGs was complete, the book suggests that Red Hats would continue to fly them on Red Hat missions.

But how many sorties would that really take? The Red Eagles made hundreds of sorties in the MiGs because they were using them as training platforms, as Red Air aggressors. Once the Red Hats had completed their evaluation of the MiG-17/21/23/29 etc., what need would they have to continue making flights in the jets? I'm sure there's a very good explanation out there (Peter?) but would love to understand it better.

Any good online or in-print resources to research Red Hats history?

Thanks,

Brian L


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