Hi Gang - Just finished latest painting - This depicts a mission during the Cuban Missile Crisis in '62. Two RF-8s were flying low-level recon to confirm if the Russians were pulling out thier nukes when they were jumped by two MiG-21s. Being unarmed, they hit the deck on full afterburner, exceeding mach 1.2 to evade. Flying as low as 30 feet at times, the lead jet actually ended up flying in between palm trees. The wingman later said it was easy keeping his lead in sight because everytime he passed over a plowed field the supersonic shockwave would blow up a big cloud of dust. The neatest thing about this project was working directly with the lead pilot of that mission - Lt. Cdr. Tad Riley. Hearing his first hand accounts of those missions was awesome. He was one of six that flew the very first mission on Oct. 23rd, 1962 (Depicted in the movie "Thirteen Days".) For those that have an interest, there's a new book out by Kenneth Jack called "Blue Moon Over Cuba" that chronicles all these missions. Definately a great read.
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