Ranch for sale hid Soviet defector who brought ‘ultra-secret’ fighter jet to US
A ranch that just landed on the real estate market in Montana has some very curious ties that sound like something straight out of an episode of “The Americans.”
A 7,200-acre property named “Rocking Chair Ranch” was once the hiding place of Viktor Belenko, a Soviet pilot who ended up defecting to the United States with his “ultra-secret” fighter jet — a supersonic interceptor created by the Soviet Union.
And the Philipsburg ranch is listed for $21.7 million.
“The Rocking Chair Ranch is one of a quickly diminishing number of multi-generational ranches in the West,” a news release about the property says. “With incredibly convenient year-round access, an extraordinary aesthetic, a first-class fishery, and a diverse terrain from riparian to conifer forests and rangelands, the ranch has everything most any ranch buyer will want from a western Montana ranch.”
The ranch has been owned by the Vietor family for over 70 years, Mansion Global says, and is ready to hand the reins over to new blood.
“My mom and dad were given the Rocking Chair brand on their wedding day,” rancher Willy Vietor told the outlet. “They already had a smaller ranch—it’s still known as the Little Rocking Chair —when we moved to this one.”
Fun fact: The home is actually close to “American Idol” legend Kelly Clarkson’s Montana ranch, Mansion Global notes.
Features on the property include:
Two-story main house (five bedrooms, 3½ bathrooms)
Team barn
Two equipment storage buildings
Shop
Vet barn
Indoor arena
Scale house
Belenko defected in 1976 when he made a dramatic landing in Hakodate, a Japanese city, in his supersonic interceptor called a MiG-25, a Soviet fighter jet that Americans feared, The New York Times reported when he died in November. Japanese officials turned over him and the plane, which could fly “miles above the earth, several times faster than sound,” to the U.S. It was called “Foxbat.”
After Belenko completed an interview with U.S. officials, he was put in protective custody and lived on the ranch for several years, a news release said.
“He lived the most private life,” Paul Schmidt, Belenko’s son, told the Times. “He flew under the radar, literally and figuratively.”
The listing is held by Bill McDavid with Hall and Hall.
Philipsburg is about a 90-mile drive southwest from Helena.
This story was originally published July 2, 2024 at 3:58 PM with the headline "Ranch for sale hid Soviet defector who brought ‘ultra-secret’ fighter jet to US."