The Stolen Soviet Jet Fighters. Secret Cold War CIA Covert Operations | MiG-15 And Yak-23

This is the story of how the U.S.A. managed to acquire two Soviet jet fighters during the Cold War: the feared Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 and the lesser-known Yakovlev Yak-23 Flora.
The operation was codenamed:"Project Alpha."
The story is still a partially classified Cold War operation that occurred in the 1950s.
Both aircraft were powered by the copies of Rolls Royce turbojet engines, directly derived from British inventor Sir Frank Whittle.
Perhaps the most interesting operation, and the most secret of the two, is the one of the Yak-23.
In October 1953, intelligence agents of a Balkan country approached the Central Intelligence Agency resident in their nation, offering to hand over to the US a current Soviet-built fighter—a Yak-23 Flora—on a very short-term basis. Thus began a project involving a small number of Air Force and CIA personnel. It was called “Project Alpha.”
The Air Force declassified much of the project’s technical material in the mid-1990s, but it had expunged the names of the Balkan countries involved, and three foreign officials were sent as escorts.
The CIA was even less forthcoming. Fifty years after the fact, the agency refused to divulge any information. It would not even acknowledge that such a project ever existed.
However, interviews with some Air Force personnel who participated in Project Alpha have helped to lift the veil.
The story went something like this: Agents of an unnamed Balkan country (call it “Balkan Country
No. 1”) knew a crated Yak-23 fighter was being transported by train through their country to another nation—Balkan Country No. 2. The agents of No. 1 suggested that the US could take the fighter, study it, flight-test it, and then return it in the crates exactly as it had been picked up.
Soon, all parties shook hands on the deal.
USAF sent a C-124 to Balkan Country No. 1. The C-124 flew the crated and disassembled Yak-23, along with the three foreign escorts, to USAF’s Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) at Wright-Patterson AFB...

MiG-15 General characteristics
Crew: 1
Length: 10.102 m (33 ft 2 in)
Wingspan: 10.085 m (33 ft 1 in)
Height: 3.7 m (12 ft 2 in)
Wing area: 20.6 m2 (222 sq ft)
Airfoil: root: TsAGI S-10; tip: TsAGI SR-3
Empty weight: 3,681 kg (8,115 lb)
Gross weight: 5,044 kg (11,120 lb)
Max takeoff weight: 6,106 kg (13,461 lb) with 2x600 L (160 US gal; 130 imp gal) drop-tanks
Fuel capacity: 1,420 L (380 US gal; 310 imp gal) internal
Powerplant: 1 × Klimov VK-1 centrifugal-flow turbojet, 26.5 kN (5,950 lbf) thrust
Performance

Maximum speed: 1,076 km/h (669 mph, 581 kn) at sea level
1,107 km/h (688 mph; 598 kn) / M0.9 at 3,000 m (9,800 ft)
Maximum speed: Mach 0.87 at sea level
Cruise speed: 850 km/h (530 mph, 460 kn) Mach 0.69
Ferry range: 2,520 km (1,570 mi, 1,360 nmi) at 12,000 m (39,000 ft) with 2x600 L (160 US gal; 130 imp gal) drop-tanks
Service ceiling: 15,500 m (50,900 ft)
Rate of climb: 51.2 m/s (10,080 ft/min)
Wing loading: 296.4 kg/m2 (60.7 lb/sq ft)
Thrust/weight: 0.54
Armament

Guns:
2 × 23 mm Nudelman-Rikhter NR-23 autocannon in the lower left fuselage (80 rounds per gun, 160 rounds total)
1 × 37 mm Nudelman N-37 autocannon in the lower right fuselage (40 rounds total)
Hardpoints: 2 , with provisions to carry combinations of:
Bombs: 100 kg (220 lb) bombs
Other: drop tanks, or unguided rockets

Yak-23 General characteristics
Crew: 1
Length: 8.13 m (26 ft 8 in)
Wingspan: 8.73 m (28 ft 8 in)
Height: 3.31 m (10 ft 10 in)
Wing area: 13.5 m2 (145 sq ft)
Empty weight: 1,980 kg (4,365 lb)
Gross weight: 3,384 kg (7,460 lb)
Powerplant: 1 × Klimov RD-500 centrifugal-flow turbojet engine, 15.6 kN (3,500 lbf) thrust
Performance

Maximum speed: 925 km/h (575 mph, 499 kn) at sea level
Range: 1,200 km (750 mi, 650 nmi)
Service ceiling: 14,800 m (48,600 ft)
Rate of climb: 47 m/s (9,300 ft/min)
Thrust/weight: 0.46
Armament

Guns: 2 × 23 mm Nudelman-Rikhter NR-23 with 90 rpg

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