Chapter 1

"032, bail out, 032, bail out immediately!" The base commander's voice kept coming through the earpiece.

Perhaps it was the noise in the earpiece, or perhaps the vibrations of the aircraft, but Lei Tian, who had almost fainted from the 9G overload, regained his clarity of vision.

However, the instrument panel in front of him was different from the one he had just been flying!

Originally, Lei Tian was a test pilot at the Shenyang Aircraft Industry Group, the old industrial base of China, the eldest son of the People's Republic. All the newly manufactured J-11 fighters needed to be test-flown before they could be delivered to the military.

Today, while flying, he skillfully performed various maneuvers to test the aircraft's performance. However, during a loop, an accident occurred. The anti-G suit did not pressurize as usual, and Lei Tian, who could withstand up to 5G of overload with his physical body, fainted. Ordinary pilots could withstand up to 4G, and test pilots could withstand up to 5G. Those who could withstand 6G could be selected as astronauts. Fighter jets, however, could generate 8 to 9G of overload, and the rest was offset by the anti-G suit.

Lei Tian remembered what had just happened, but now everything in front of him seemed to have changed.

The J-11, based on the Su-27, had been modified into a domestic model. The display equipment had long been replaced with LCD screens that could show multiple types of information. Now, the instrument panel in front of him was all gauges, with only one round cathode-ray tube screen, which seemed to be the radar screen.

The instrument panel was blue, with a cold, metallic feel, and all the markings were in a special alphabet, which looked like Russian.

Only when the Su-27 was first introduced were the markings in Russian?

His body was still tightly pressed into the seat by the overload. Lei Tian felt a constant pressure on his legs, pushing the blood back to prevent blackouts. Was the anti-G suit working again?

No! This was a high-altitude anti-G suit! Lei Tian felt his field of vision narrow. The visor in front of him was not the usual one on the helmet, nor was there an oxygen mask. His entire head was inside a sealed helmet, and he could only see outside through the front lens.

The view outside the cockpit was also quite narrow. The front windshield was in three pieces, with no rearward visibility. This was a typical second-generation aircraft!

"Andrei, bail out quickly!" A roaring voice came through the earpiece again: "You're at 500 meters!"

Bail out? Andrei? Am I Andrei? In an instant, countless memories flooded Lei Tian's mind.

Andrei Vladimirovich Tolstoy was born in Kyiv. His father was an engineer at a power plant, and his mother was a housewife. Andrei had always been passionate about flying and joined the Soviet Air Force, where he was selected and is now a MiG-25 pilot!

The MiG-25, a legendary fighter, is a source of pride for the Soviet Air Force and Air Defense Forces. It is the most advanced fighter in the Soviet Union!

Damn, it's 1976! Yes, 1976! I've time-traveled!

"Two hundred meters left, if you don't bail out, you'll end up as caviar in the Caspian Sea!" The voice in the radio was even more urgent.

Bail out? Lei Tian, no, Andrei, suddenly woke up. His aircraft was entering a terrifying spin!

The MiG-25, a high-altitude, high-speed fighter, has an exceptionally large vertical stabilizer to perform well in the thin air at high altitudes. Generally, it is not easy to enter a spin, but once it does, it is very difficult to recover!

This time, Andrei and the lead aircraft were flying in a two-ship formation in the southern airspace of the base. At an altitude of 10,000 meters, Andrei performed a vertical climb and then a dive. He pulled the stick too hard and started to fall!

To ensure the aerodynamic efficiency of the control surfaces in the thin air at high altitudes, the MiG-25 has an exceptionally large vertical stabilizer. However, at low altitudes, this can cause excessive aerodynamic moments, even leading to flight accidents! If there were fly-by-wire controls, the computer could set the stick force to the same level, but in this era, that was a fantasy.

The aircraft was spinning and falling vertically. Due to the lag in the anti-G suit, Andrei's vision went black, and when he slowly regained consciousness, he had already time-traveled!

Bail out? The ground was rapidly approaching, and the altimeter on the instrument panel was spinning quickly. Andrei knew that he absolutely could not bail out at this moment!

Damn, he had missed the best opportunity to bail out! This was an old Soviet aircraft, not the later Su-27 with the star-like K-36 ejection seat. The MiG-25 was still equipped with the KM-1 ejection seat from the MiG-21, which had been in use for over a decade. The ejection envelope was limited, and at this low altitude, ejection would result in a fatal crash!

Recover, recover! Andrei was an experienced pilot. In the other world, he had recovered from a spin over twenty times. In this world, although it was his first time, he knew how to recover from a MiG-25 spin during his training.

Reaching out, Andrei quickly pushed the control stick in the opposite direction of the spin, followed by the rudder pedals, also in the opposite direction. It wasn't enough, and the altitude was too low!

Deploy the landing gear, deploy the drogue chute!

Andrei freed his left hand and quickly flipped several switches. The Soviet ergonomics were terrible, and deploying these required flipping five switches!

Andrei couldn't complain anymore. When he quickly opened them, a white snowflake bloomed at the rear.

The spin chute is only equipped during test flights. Even if the pilot cannot recover, deploying the spin chute can help the aircraft return to normal. Now, the MiG-25 could only use the drogue chute as a spin chute.

At the same time, deploying the landing gear increased drag.

The ground was rapidly approaching, and the altimeter was spinning quickly. After performing these actions, the next thing Andrei could do was to silently pray, "Marx, protect me!"

Just before touching the ground, the fighter leveled out! The massive steel aircraft, a tamed wild beast!

"Sokolovka, 032 has leveled out," Andrei said over the radio. "Request to continue training."

"031, 032, return to base immediately," the base's voice came through the earpiece.

A near-flight accident had just occurred, and the base terminated the training plan. They would need to conduct an accident analysis upon return!