After the Arrow: Canadian MiG-21s

[MarkOttawa]

The Fishbed in RCAF service, 441 Squadron Cold Lake:

The Breaking Point - Canadian MiGs test American friendship...
...

Exercise Rolling Cossack. A rare view of twelve 441 Squadron Strats assembled at Cold Lake, Alberta in the late July of 1960 shows nearly the entire squadron readying their fighters for Exercise Rolling Cossack. Rolling Cossack would be the first full squadron exercise pitting their new interceptors against elements of the other Cold Lake-based interceptor squadron - the 433 Gigolos, equipped with the CF-100. The test proved the reliability and simplicity of the utilitarian Soviet fighter, but it also demonstrated its remarkably short legs and a vicious tendency towards uncontrollability should more than 2/3 of its fuel be consumed. By the end of  the five day exercise, 433 Squadron Gigolos had fended off nearly all “attacks” by  the 441 Red Foxes..
http://www.vintagewings.ca/VintageNews/Stories/tabid/116/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/285/The-Breaking-Point--Canadian-MiGs-test-American-friendship--2011-APRIL-FOOLS-HOAX.aspx

Mark
Ottawa

 

[NavyShooter]

Interestingly one of the aircraft resides in Hanoi:

Today, very little remains of the 441 Squadron Redhawk experiment with MiG-21 fighter aircraft. Because of the secret nature of most of the squadron's operations using the Strat, few images were ever released or even photographed for that matter. When the program ended in near political disaster, 27 of the 30 purchased airframes were hastily returned to the Soviet Union. Of the 27, three (59-324, 59-327 and 59-330) were offered to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Two were shot down by American fighters near Hanoi, and one (59-324) survives today - in outdoor display at the People's Garden of Suffering and Victory in Hanoi. Sun and heat have weathered the DRV markings and brought out the faintest hint of her old RCAF 441 Squadron paint.

 

[Nfld Sapper]