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Currently Playing: The Yakovlev Mandrake Was a Cut-Price Soviet U-2

The Soviet Air Force's battle against high altitude intruders actually began with the scourge of drifting balloons. Attempts by its interceptors to reach these Western recon assets were generally foiled by the very challenging geometry and lack of high altitude manoeuvrability. And then the U-2 arrived. So the PVO turned to OKB Yakovlev. His solution was the intriguing Mandrake. This video is a brief summary of its origin story and characteristics. If you'd like more information on the Yak-25, including an interactive family tree, then please considering joining and subscribing to notapound.com