MiG-23 Work Resumes

Work has resumed on the Cold War Air Museum's MiG-23UB.

As readers of this blog may know, the Flogger developed a mysterious fuel system leak after ground test in the spring. Replacement parts have now arrived allowing us to resume.

Here are a few photos of the inspection work:

With some clever modification a MiG-23 engine dolly can be made to work as a MiG-23 tail dolly. We were able to pull the tail back to expose inner connections of the single-point fuel port. Interestingly, a US/NATO single-point connection fits perfectly on the Soviet aircraft.

Initially we put 25 liters of fuel into the single-point connection and got 20 liters on the floor. With some fixing, we put 125 liters in and got only 0.5 liters to leak out. Hopefully with some new o-rings the leak will be completely fixed.

The museum's goal is to have the MiG-23 ready for more ground testing, including a test of the afterburner, some time this month.