by JOSEPH TREVITHICK

Shot down and stranded behind the Iron Curtain? No problem. Just steal a MiG-15 fighter plane … and fly home to freedom.

That’s the escape plan proposed in a recently declassified U.S. Air Force manual dating back to the early years of the Cold War. But the idea would have been virtually impossible for even the most seasoned pilots to put into action.

In 1955, the Air Technical Intelligence Center published a user’s guide to the Soviet MiG-15. The handbook described the first-generation jet’s basic layout and how to get it airborne.

“This manual has been prepared specifically for the purpose of providing USAF personnel with operating information on the MiG-15,” the handbook explained. “If necessary, this airplane may be used as a means to escape from hostile territory.”

The Air Force recently released the handbook in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. It’s available at GovernmentAttic.org.

Reading the manual won’t turn you into a fighter pilot — far from it. The guide is clearly not intended to help downed airmen do anything beyond getting the plane from point A to point B.

While its diagrams and other details show would-be escapees where to find the trigger for the jet’s 23- and 37-millimeter cannons, the actual instructions focus almost entirely on taking off and landing.

“Only the information the pilot must know is presented,” the manual stated. “Some procedures which might be considered unorthodox for operational flying of this airplane are recommended because they represent the simplest means of assuring safe flight.”