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An amusing anecdote (disclaimer: not sure if true), was that the Soviets were having trouble making tires that were durable enough. The KGB tried to hire a Fren

An amusing anecdote (disclaimer: not sure if true), was that the Soviets were having trouble making tires that were durable enough. The KGB tried to hire a French runway worker to collect rubber samples. The runway worker went to the French authorities, and a phone call to Michelin was placed: "Give us the very worst tire compound you can come up with." A batch was whipped up, and our runway worker sent some samples of it on to his KGB handler. Needless to say, their tire problems persisted.

Zenst 5y ago
Very probably and I had heard of some plans taken that were doctored so they got flawed plans. Also espionage spying was common then (probably still is today) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/447464.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/447464.stm
zepearl 5y ago
As well funny, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-144#Early_flights https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-144#Early_flights : > ...an alarm siren went off immediately after takeoff, with sound and volume similar to that of a civil defence warning. The crew could not figure a way to switch it off so the siren stayed on throughout the remaining 75 minutes of the flight. Eventually, the captain ordered the navigator to borrow a pillow from the passengers and stuff it inside the siren's horn.
perl4ever 5y ago
It's often mentioned how the US covertly imported titanium, I think, from the Soviet Union for use on advanced aerospace projects.
- dghlsakjg 5y ago
  Not just any project, the A-12/SR-71 spy-plane project which was specifically designed to penetrate soviet airspace.
kilroy123 5y ago
Amazing, I hope this is true.
panick21 5y ago
They should have done one that was very complex and would almost work but then be horrible to maintain.
0x_rs 5y ago
This was somewhat common voluntarily or not thanks to the Farewell double-agent "revelations" of an actual massive technology siphoning operation from the west to the Soviet Union. There's a funny anecdote on Buran's TPS, which was allegedly based on a very early US iteration of the Shuttle tiles that was discarded and "given away like candies" to foreign spies.
- refurb 5y ago
  The FOIA files are on cia.gov, but that disinformation campaign around the Shuttle is a pretty epic story. They basically took STS blueprints and added a bunch of fatal flaws then let the double agent pass it to the Soviets.
  - sandworm101 5y ago
    Except the soviets ended up building a very different craft. Buran was visually similar but radically different in basic layout (no main engines on orbiter etc). The Soviets didnt fall for all the bad intelligence they were fed. And there is a flip side. Bomber gaps, missile gaps, the MiG-25 fiasco, that time the CIA double-counted bombers because the russians painted different tail numbers on either side ... America gobbled up its share of false intelligence too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-25#Western_intelligence_and_the_MiG-25 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-25#Wester... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqKE5xCogH0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqKE5xCogH0
  - papito 5y ago
    Speaking of. The pictures of the remains of the program are fascinating: https://www.boredpanda.com/abandoned-soviet-space-shuttle-program-buran-baikonur-cosmodrome-kazakhstan-ralph-mirebs/ https://www.boredpanda.com/abandoned-soviet-space-shuttle-pr...
sandworm101 5y ago
Given that this was an airliner, one wonders how they might have felt should a hundred people have died due to a faulty tire based on that bad intelligence. It is one thing to sabotage an enemy weapons system, very much another to damage a civilian aircraft. Ironically, a blown tire caused the fatal crash that led to the demise of Concorde. It struck debris, but there are always eerie similarities between western and russian programs.
- detritus 5y ago
  As worthy a consideration as this sounds, one would trust that problems would either be fixed through development - allowing your poor civilians on the plane in the first place; Or be so thoroughly instrumental in meddling with development that the aircraft couldn't be completed at all.

Zenst 5y ago

Very probably and I had heard of some plans taken that were doctored so they got flawed plans. Also espionage spying was common then (probably still is today) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/447464.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/447464.stm

zepearl 5y ago

As well funny, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-144#Early_flights https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-144#Early_flights : > ...an alarm siren went off immediately after takeoff, with sound and volume similar to that of a civil defence warning. The crew could not figure a way to switch it off so the siren stayed on throughout the remaining 75 minutes of the flight. Eventually, the captain ordered the navigator to borrow a pillow from the passengers and stuff it inside the siren's horn.

perl4ever 5y ago

It's often mentioned how the US covertly imported titanium, I think, from the Soviet Union for use on advanced aerospace projects.

dghlsakjg 5y ago
Not just any project, the A-12/SR-71 spy-plane project which was specifically designed to penetrate soviet airspace.

kilroy123 5y ago

Amazing, I hope this is true.

panick21 5y ago

They should have done one that was very complex and would almost work but then be horrible to maintain.

0x_rs 5y ago

This was somewhat common voluntarily or not thanks to the Farewell double-agent "revelations" of an actual massive technology siphoning operation from the west to the Soviet Union. There's a funny anecdote on Buran's TPS, which was allegedly based on a very early US iteration of the Shuttle tiles that was discarded and "given away like candies" to foreign spies.

refurb 5y ago
The FOIA files are on cia.gov, but that disinformation campaign around the Shuttle is a pretty epic story. They basically took STS blueprints and added a bunch of fatal flaws then let the double agent pass it to the Soviets.
- sandworm101 5y ago
  Except the soviets ended up building a very different craft. Buran was visually similar but radically different in basic layout (no main engines on orbiter etc). The Soviets didnt fall for all the bad intelligence they were fed. And there is a flip side. Bomber gaps, missile gaps, the MiG-25 fiasco, that time the CIA double-counted bombers because the russians painted different tail numbers on either side ... America gobbled up its share of false intelligence too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-25#Western_intelligence_and_the_MiG-25 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-25#Wester... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqKE5xCogH0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqKE5xCogH0
- papito 5y ago
  Speaking of. The pictures of the remains of the program are fascinating: https://www.boredpanda.com/abandoned-soviet-space-shuttle-program-buran-baikonur-cosmodrome-kazakhstan-ralph-mirebs/ https://www.boredpanda.com/abandoned-soviet-space-shuttle-pr...

sandworm101 5y ago

Given that this was an airliner, one wonders how they might have felt should a hundred people have died due to a faulty tire based on that bad intelligence. It is one thing to sabotage an enemy weapons system, very much another to damage a civilian aircraft. Ironically, a blown tire caused the fatal crash that led to the demise of Concorde. It struck debris, but there are always eerie similarities between western and russian programs.

detritus 5y ago
As worthy a consideration as this sounds, one would trust that problems would either be fixed through development - allowing your poor civilians on the plane in the first place; Or be so thoroughly instrumental in meddling with development that the aircraft couldn't be completed at all.