Fereidoun Ali-Mazandarani ( fa, فریدون علی‌مازندرانی) is an Iranian retired

fighter pilot A fighter pilot is a military aviator trained to engage in air-to-air combat, air-to-ground combat and sometimes electronic warfare while in the cockpit of a fighter aircraft. Fighter pilots undergo specialized training in aerial warfare and ...

and a

Grumman F-14 Tomcat The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is an American carrier-capable supersonic, twin-engine, two-seat, twin-tail, variable-sweep wing fighter aircraft. The Tomcat was developed for the United States Navy's Naval Fighter Experimental (VFX) program after the ...

flying ace A flying ace, fighter ace or air ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat. The exact number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an ace is varied, but is usually co ...

during the

Iran–Iraq War The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between Iran and Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. It began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for almost eight years, until the acceptance of United Nations Security Council ...

Career

Mazandarani claims 16 aerial victories against Iraqi aircraft during the 1980s, including eight and one using AIM-54 and MIM-23 missiles respectively, two with the Vulcan M61A gun, as well as five manoeuvre kills. French military historian Pierre Razoux has credited him with 9 or 11 confirmed kills. According to Austrian aviation historian Tom Cooper, Mazandarani and his co-pilot Qassem Soltani may be the first pilots to have ever shoot an aircraft down using

AIM-54 Phoenix The AIM-54 Phoenix is an American radar-guided, long-range air-to-air missile (AAM), carried in clusters of up to six missiles on the Grumman F-14 Tomcat, its only operational launch platform. The Phoenix was the United States' only long-range ...

missile, with a claimed victory against a MiG-23 on 17 September 1980 despite the fact the Iranian air force does not officially acknowledge this victory.

References

Iran–Iraq War flying aces Iranian flying aces Living people Islamic Republic of Iran Army colonels Year of birth missing (living people) {{Iran-mil-bio-stub

Career

See also

References