A very simple test of knowledge of the post-war Soviet Air Force

[bf109xxl]

Which aircraft was the most beloved of the pilots of the postwar Soviet Air Force and why?

Hint 1: even those former Soviet citizens who was far from aviation, but knew the realities of the post-war Soviet army may know the answer.
Hint 2: The airplane had a nickname that reflected the reason for the pilots' love for it.

 

[GTX]

Antonov An-2 Colt, nicknamed "Annushka" (Annie)?

 

[bf109xxl]

Antonov An-2 Colt, nicknamed "Annushka" (Annie)?

Unfortunately, not. But I am curious, why do you think so?
PS, An-2 had more nicknames, one of the most popular was "kookooroooznick" ("kukuruznik", derived from "kookoorooza" - "corn"), initially it was the nickname of the Po-2.

 

[Snowman]

MiG-21 'Balalaika'?

 

[bf109xxl]

MiG-21 'Balalaika'?

I don't think MiG pilots were musical enough to like balalaika. Guitar was already much more popular in the USSR at that time. Besides, Su-9/-11s had this nickname as well.
But the direction of thought is correct, the deviation from the target has decreased.
One more hint: don't look for any romance in the motivation, only absolute pragmatism.

 

[bf109xxl]

More hints:

• It had a shoulder wing
• It was used in the air forces of other countries, where it wasn't as much beloved as in the Soviet Air Force
• It had some relation to the A-5 Vigilante (or vice versa)

 

[SaparotRob]

Well, so much for my guess of the Lisunov Li-2.

 

[bf109xxl]

Well, so much for my guess of the Lisunov Li-2.

It was a pre-war airplane.
It had a low wing and no relation to the A-5.
The previous answer was closer to the solution.

 

[SaparotRob]

It was a pre-war airplane.
It had a low wing and no relation to the A-5.
The previous answer was closer to the solution.

I was thinking you might have had a "trick" up your sleeve. Once I read "shoulder mounted..." I knew it wasn't that.

 

[bf109xxl]

I was thinking you might have had a "trick" up your sleeve. Once I read "shoulder mounted..." I knew it wasn't that.

No tricks, but the entire solution with the detailed explanation may be - I hope - a bit surprising.

One more hint: there were certain economic and social reasons for such tender love for this airplane.

 

[special ed]

MiG-23

 

[Snowman]

Then this is the MiG-25 'Flying Restaurant'.

 

[bf109xxl]

Explanation (I apologize for poor English, but I tried my best).
Every epoch has its "magic numbers", the meaning of which is clear to everyone. Such a "magic number" of the post-war Soviet era was "3.62". This is neither the maximum Mach number of the MiG-25, nor the caliber of a secret spy weapon, it is just the price of a half-liter of vodka in rubles, which remained constant for a long time. If we take into account that the cost of a bus or subway fare was 3-5 kopecks (i.e., ca. hundred times cheaper!), it was hard to call Soviet vodka cheap. Thus, a large part of the USSR population consumed alcoholic beverages that were not sold in stores. One of them was moonshine, but one had to pay for it too. Pilots, aviation technicians and partly Soviet Navy sailors had a special privilege - some types of equipment required 60% alcohol solution for cooling. Alcohol used for its production was of food quality, not technical. I don't know for what reasons it was prescribed to use food-grade alcohol, but I guess that they simply tried to prevent mass poisoning with denatured mixtures. The undisputed champions in terms of the amount of alcohol filled into the cooling systems on each flight in the Soviet aviation were two aircraft - Tu-22 and MiG-25. I do not remember the exact figures, but the first should be filled with about 400 liters, the second - with 200 or 250 liters. After each flight, the alcohol solution was supposed to be drained, than the system had to be filled with a fresh portion of coolant for the next flight. It is clear that technicians and pilots utilized the drained alcohol not as prescribed by regulations. Tu-22 though was more profitable, but the risk was too high - the airplane was very complex, the accident rate was one of the highest in Soviet aviation, the number of accidents was depressing. moreover, it was difficult for technicians to maintain it, etc. The MiG-25 was not simple either, and its accident rate was also high at the beginning of its deployment, but still not as high as that of the Tu-22. MiG-25 pilots ejected upward, not downward, as on the Tu-22, which gave them a much better chance to survive the ejection. There were even legends among military pilots that alcoholism was common in Tu-22 regiments (which I highly doubt). The MiG-31 already used for cooling substances unsuitable for "internal use" as alcoholic beverages. Therefore, the attitude towards it was not as cordial as the MiG-25.
The MiG-25 had several nicknames, the most common was probably "food store" ("gastronom" in Russian). I personally never heard "flying restaurant" used, but the meaning is correctly expressed as well.

 

[Snowman]

I just remembered that I read about this in John Barron's book 'Mig Pilot' (about the escape of Victor Belenko)

''...To fly seventy minutes, the maximum time it can stay aloft without refueling, a MiG-25 needs fourteen tons of jet fuel and one-half ton of alcohol for braking and electronic systems. So wherever MiG-25s were based, huge quantities of alcohol were stored, and in the Soviet Air Force the plane was popularly known as the Flying Restaurant. And officers from surrounding bases — Air Force, Army, political officers — seized on any pretext to visit Chuguyevka and fill their bottles.

According to a story circulated at Chuguyevka, a group of Air Force wives, distraught over their husbands' habitual drunkenness, staked a protest at a design bureau in Moscow, appealing to it to design aircraft that would not use alcohol. Supposedly a representative of the bureau told the ladies, "Go screw yourselves. If we want, we will fuel our planes with cognac."...''

 

[PStickney]

More hints:

• It had a shoulder wing
• It was used in the air forces of other countries, where it wasn't as much beloved as in the Soviet Air Force
• It had some relation to the A-5 Vigilante (or vice versa)

While I know you're intending the MiG-25, the Tu-22 also ranks high = for the same reasons - A number of the aircraft systems required the use of straight Ethanol (High-Quality Vodka), and it was considered a bonus when you're stuck at some base way out in the boonies, at the far end of a Soviet Supply Line.