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The Last Flight of VEGA 31 18x24
Oil on Canvas
18 x 24
$45.00 Available
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You can personalize your 18x24 version of "The Last Flight of VEGA 31". After purchasing thru Paypal button, go to the "contact the artist" page on this site and tell us exactly what you want it to say below the canopy rail and insure spelling is correct. Example: Lt Mike "MaGoo" McGee. That's what it'll say on your print where the pilot's name goes - it's seamless and actually looks better than the original as it's a digital change and not re-painted. I can change tail/side numbers as well if desired
March 27th, 1999, the fourth day of the NATO air campaign against Serbia-Operation Allied Force. Lt Col Dale Zelko of the U.S. Air Force’s 8th Fighter Squadron “Black Sheep” is flying this night under the call sign “VEGA 31.” He is in a borrowed “Black Jet” , tail # 82-806, from the Holloman based F-117 training unit 7th FS “Screamin Demons.” After successfully dropping his bomb load on an air defense related target in the Belgrade environs, his F-117 turns north to egress the area. About 25 miles northwest of Belgrade his onboard sensors alert him that a SAM target tracking radar is searching the night sky for his jet. Seconds later, he visually spots a SAM coming up through the ragged undercast at his 5 o’clock low. It is a Serbian modified SA-3 “Goa” missile rocketing up at him in a wild corkscrew pattern at better than Mach 3.5! The SA-3 is followed moments later by yet another from the same launcher in standard Soviet era firing doctrine to increase the probability of a kill and compound Zelko’s predicament. The first missile passes so close over the top of the canopy that it buffets his jet...but it doesn’t fuze and whisks by harmlessly into the night. Zelko “padlocks” visually on the second missile - combat experience from as far back as Desert Storm tells him that this one is tracking right at him. This time, the SA-3 fuzes in a blinding flash, it’s 160 pound high explosive warhead instantly blows off the jet’s left wing. Lt Col Zelko is violently thrown into a series of high negative G spirals before somehow gripping the ejection handles and punching out. He spends 8 tense hours on the ground evading enemy patrols before a massive allied combat search and rescue effort is able to daringly pluck him from Serbian territory.
Comes with this "back story" personalized with YOUR name/rank/callsign on frameable parchment paper as well as certificate of authenticity. Paypal will add $8 shipping/handling charge(comes in a re-usable "nuclear capable" shipping tube)and Mass. residents 6.25% sales tax.
If you want a specific print # specify a few on the "contact the artist" page of this site as the # may already be taken.
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