I like to think of the Avro Arrow as the older elegant cousin of this CHONKER
Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow
Canadian engineers made the Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow, an elegant delta-wing interceptor made of carbon-steel and titanium that either matched or outclassed their American counterparts. It was powered by a pair of proven Pratt & Whitney J75-P-3 turbojet engines that could push the plane past Mach 2. And this was just the beginning, as an even more powerful and advanced engine was in the works.
The plane had a generous payload of cutting-edge missiles and could even launch a pair of unguided nuclear weapons. [What the fuck????] All this with speed, performance, agility, and style.
MiG-25 'Foxbat'
Fast forward a decade and Soviet engineers made this absolute behemoth of an interceptor.
The MiG-25 'Foxbat' was built out of high-strength stainless steel, making it ridiculously heavy for its class. To lug all this plane, they slapped a pair of massive air intakes on the side to feed a pair of unproven fuel-thirsty Tumansky R-15 turbojet engines so powerful they could shred themselves apart if pushed past Mach 3. Two tails and four wings were added to keep the beast stable in flight. And under the belly, Mikoyan added some of the chunkiest landing gear I've ever seen.
The Foxbat was armed with the largest air-to-air missiles ever built. And on top of this, the avionics were based on vacuum-tube technology so as to make it resistant to extreme temperatures and to survive the electromagnetic pulse of a nuclear blast. You know, just in case.
If I had to choose two interceptors to fawn over, it'd be these Slavic cousins.
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