Phạm Tuân

Phạm Tuân (born February 14, 1947) is a retired Vietnam Air Force aviator. He became the first Vietnamese citizen and the first non-Russian Asian in space when he flew aboard the Soyuz 37 mission as an Intercosmos Research Cosmonaut. He was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.

Early life and military career

Pham Tuan was born in Quốc Tuấn, Thai Binh province in northern Vietnam. He joined the VPAF, or Vietnam People's Air Force (North Vietnamese Air Force) in 1965, was later commissioned as a combat officer. He flew interceptor missions in a MiG-21 jet fighter against United States aircraft during the Vietnam War.

On the night of December 27, 1972, during Operation Linebacker II (also referred to as the Christmas Bombings), then Major Pham engaged a USAF Strategic Air Command (SAC) B-52 Stratofortress heavy bomber with air-to-air missiles. He reported his missiles struck the B-52, and claimed his attack caused it to go down in flames. This claim, which would be the only B-52 downed in aerial combat, is disputed by the US government. The U.S. states that the B-52 was downed by a surface-to-air missile, as were all other B-52s shot down during the campaign. No additional evidence has been presented to verify the claims of the US. In book named "Hà Nội - Điện Biên Phủ trên không" (Hanoi - the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in the air) of Nguyễn Minh Tâm, published by Nhà xuất bản Quân đội Nhân dân Việt Nam (Viet Nam People's Army Publishing House), the author affirms that in the range of 4 kilometres between the B-52 and MiG-21, Phạm Tuân definitely shot down the B-52 by two air-to-air missiles of K-13 (missile).