Question: MiG Pilot: The Final Escape of Lieutenant Belenko is a 1980 biography by John Barron about the life and 1976 defection of which Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 fighter pilot, who defected to the West while flying his MiG-25 'Foxbat' jet fighter and landed in Hakodate, in which country?

Context articles: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25
Rudolf Perešin
Mikhail Gurevich (aircraft designer)
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23
1989 Belgian MiG-23 crash
Operation Moolah
Defection of Viktor Belenko
Viktor Belenko
K-9 (missile)
MiG Pilot: The Final Escape of Lieutenant Belenko

The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 (Russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-25 ; NATO reporting name: Foxbat) is a supersonic interceptor and reconnaissance aircraft that was among the fastest military aircraft to enter service.
 It was designed by the Soviet Union's Mikoyan-Gurevich bureau, and is one of the few combat aircraft built primarily using stainless steel.
 It was the last plane designed by Mikhail Gurevich before his retirement.
Rudolf Perešin (25 March 1958 – 2 May 1995) was a Croatian fighter pilot serving in the Yugoslav Air Force (JRZ) during the 1991–95 Croatian War of Independence who defected to the Croatian side in October 1991, by flying his MiG-21 fighter jet from Željava Air Base to Klagenfurt, Austria, on a reconnaissance flight for the JRZ.
 He was the first pilot to desert from the Yugoslav Air Force.
 Following his defection he continued to fly missions for the Croatian Air Force and was shot down in May 1995 by Serb Krajina military forces, resulting in his death.
Mikhail Iosifovich Gurevich (Russian: Михаи́л Ио́сифович Гуре́вич ) (12 January 1893 [O.S. 31 December 1892] – November 12, 1976) was a Soviet Jewish aircraft designer, a partner (with Artem Mikoyan) who co-founded the famous MiG military aviation bureau.
 MiG is an abbreviation of their surnames.
 The bureau now simply known as Mikoyan, is famous for its fighter aircraft, rapid interceptors and multi-role combat aircraft which were staples of the Soviet Air Forces throughout the Cold War.
 The main focus in designing the aircraft were on high speed, fast ascent, and high flight altitude.
 The bureau designed 170 projects of which 94 were made in series.
 In total 45000 aircraft of "MiG" brand have been manufactured domestically, of which 11000 aircraft were exported.
 Over 14000 "MiG" fighters have been produced under licence abroad.
 The last plane which Gurevich personally worked on before his retirement was the Mig-25.
The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 (Russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-23 ; NATO reporting name: Flogger) is a variable-geometry fighter aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich design bureau in the Soviet Union.
 It is considered to belong to the Soviet third-generation jet fighter category, along with similarly aged Soviet fighters such as the MiG-25 "Foxbat".
 It was the first attempt by the Soviet Union to design look-down/shoot-down radar and one of the first to be armed with beyond visual range missiles. Production started in 1970 and reached large numbers with over 5,000 aircraft built.
 Today the MiG-23 remains in limited service with some export customers.
The incident started as a routine training flight.
 Colonel Nikolai Skuridin, the pilot, departed from the Soviet Bagicz Airbase near Kołobrzeg, Poland.
 During takeoff, the afterburner failed and the engine began losing power.
 At an altitude of 150 meters and descending, the pilot assumed he had a complete engine failure and ejected without incident.
 The engine had not failed completely, and the aircraft remained airborne, flying on autopilot in a westerly direction.
 The unmanned aircraft left Polish airspace, crossing into the airspace of East Germany and then West Germany, where it was intercepted by a pair of U.S. Air Force F-15s of the 32d Tactical Fighter Squadron, of the United States Air Forces Europe, stationed at Soesterberg Air Base in the Netherlands.
 As the MiG-23 crossed into Dutch airspace the F-15 pilots reported the plane having no pilot, radioing ""There is definitely no pilot in the plane"" and continuing the intercept into Belgian airspace.
 The escorting F-15s were instructed to down the plane over the North Sea.
 As the MiG ran out of fuel, it started a slow turn to the south.
 The French Air Force put armed Mirage fighters on readiness in case the MiG approached French territory.
 After flying over 900 km the MiG crashed into a house, killing a Belgian teenager.
Operation Moolah was a United States Air Force (USAF) effort during the Korean War to obtain through defection a fully capable Soviet MiG-15 jet fighter.
 Communist forces introduced the MiG-15 to Korea on November 1, 1950.
 USAF pilots reported that the performance of the MiG-15 was superior to all United Nations (U.N.) aircraft, including the USAF's newest plane, the F-86 Sabre.
 The operation focused on influencing Communist pilots to defect to South Korea with a MiG for a financial reward.
 The success of the operation is disputable since no Communist pilot defected before the armistice was signed on July 27, 1953.
 However, on September 21, 1953, North Korean pilot Lieutenant No Kum-Sok flew his MiG-15 to the Kimpo Air Base, South Korea, unaware of Operation Moolah.
The defection of Viktor Belenko took place on September 6, 1976 when Lieutenant Viktor Belenko of the Soviet Air Defence Forces flew his Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25P “Foxbat” aircraft from near Vladivostok in the Far East of the Soviet Union to Hakodate Airport in Hokkaido Prefecture of Japan.
Viktor Ivanovich Belenko (Russian: Виктор Иванович Беленко , born 15 February 1947) is a former Soviet pilot who defected to the West while flying his MiG-25 'Foxbat' jet fighter and landed in Hakodate, Japan.
 The opportunity to examine the plane up close was an intelligence bonanza for the West.
 Belenko later became an American aerospace engineer.
The Raduga K-9 (NATO reporting name AA-4 'Awl') was a short-range air-to-air missile developed by the Soviet Union in the late 1950s.
 It was designed by MKB Raduga, a division of aircraft maker Mikoyan-Gurevich.
 The K-9 was also known as the K-155, and would apparently have had the service designation R-38.
 It was intended to arm the Mikoyan-Gurevich Ye-152A (NATO reporting name 'Flipper'), an experimental high speed twin-engine aircraft, predecessor to the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 'Foxbat'.
 When the Ye-152A was shown at Tushino in 1961, a prototype of the K-9 missile was displayed with it.
MiG Pilot: The Final Escape of Lieutenant Belenko is a 1980 biography by John Barron about the life and 1976 defection of Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 fighter pilot Viktor Belenko to the United States.