Red Eagles: America's Secret MiGs

CONSTANT PEG was one of the most audacious and successful training programmes of the Cold War.

From 1977 to 1988, the men and women of the 4477th Test & Evaluation Squadron operated Soviet-designed MiG fighters from Tonopah, deep inside the Nevada ranges. Their task was simple to state and perilous to execute: understand the enemy's aircraft from the cockpit, then expose America's frontline aircrews to the real thing.

The Red Eagles grew from earlier secret MiG exploitation at Groom Lake and became the operational heart of CONSTANT PEG at Tonopah Test Range—one of the Cold War's most closely guarded aviation programmes.

Steve Davies reconstructs their story from extensive interviews with pilots, maintainers and those who made the impossible programme work—giving the people behind decades of secrecy a voice.

Davies was the first journalist to tell the full story of the Red Eagles. This third edition is the definitive, expanded account of the programme and the people who made it possible.