Nguyễn Nhật Chiêu Explained

Nguyễn Nhật Chiêu (born 1934 in Nam Sách District in Hải Dương Province) was a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 pilot of the Vietnamese People's Air Force (VPAF); he flew with the 921st Fighter Regiment first with the MiG-17 before transitioning into the MiG-21, and is tied for fourth place amongst Vietnam War fighter aces with six kills.^[1]

Contrary to popular accounts in U.S. text, Nguyễn Nhật Chiêu preferred flying the MiG-21 into combat over the MiG-17, stating that: "for me personally, I preferred the MiG-21 because it was superior in all aspects of climb, speed and armament. The Atoll missile was very accurate and I scored four kills with the Atoll... in general combat conditions I was always confident of a kill over an F-4 Phantom when flying a MiG-21."^{[2] [3]}

The following kills are officially acknowledged and credited to him by the VPAF:^{[4] [5] [6]}

• 20 September 1965, an American F-4 Phantom II^[7] (shot-down the F-4 while flying a MiG-17);
• 7 July 1966, a USAF F-105D Thunderchief (pilot Tomes, POW, credited to Chieu's wingman Tran Ngoc Siu, first victory over piloted American fighter with the MiG-21);
• 17 July 1967, a USN F-8 Crusader;
• 23 August 1967, a USAF F-4D (pilot Tyler, POW, RWO Sittner, KIA);
• 7 October 1967, a USAF F-105F Wild Weasel (pilot Howard, RWO Shamblee, both rescued);
• 29 October 1967, an F-4 Phantom (not confirmed by the US).

See also

• List of Vietnam War flying aces
• Weapons of the Vietnam War

References

Bibliography

• Toperczer, Istvan, MiG-21 Aces of the Vietnam War, Schiffer Publishing, Ltd., 2015; .

Notes and References

1. Gordon, Yefim MiG-21, Midland Publishing 2008.
2. Boniface 2005, p. 192.
3. Michel 1997, pp. 83, 155.
4. http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_245.shtml Vietnamese Air-to-Air Victories, Part 1
5. http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_246.shtml Vietnamese Air-to-Air Victories, Part 2
6. Toperczer, 2015, pp. 52. The standard pair of MiG-21s was more successful in combat at the time when fitted with a mix of infra-red guided R-3S AAMs carried by the flight leader and UB-16-57 rocket pods with unguided S-5M air-to-air missiles carried by the wingman... on 7 July 1966, a dissimilar pair of MiG-21s scrambled from the 921st Fighter Regiment on CAP duty over Noi Bai against incoming USAF F-105D Thunderchiefs... repeated salvos of rockets from Tran Ngoc Siu's MiG-21 destroyed Capt. Tomes' F-105D, however Nguyen Ngat Chieu was unable to lock his R-3S AAMs against another F-105D making energetic evasive manuevers... this was basically the first aerial victory by a MiG-21 over piloted American aircraft.
7. http://mysite.verizon.net/anneled/usloss.html US Losses in the Vietnam War