Few aircraft have achieved as much fame and success as the MiG-29, which some like to call a legend.
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| Hungarian Air Force MiG-29 fighter, Kecskemet airhow (Hungary) in 2010, Rob Schleiffert, CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED, Via Flickr. |
Its full name is (Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29), In Russian (Микоян МиГ-29), in reference to Mikoyan-Gurevich (MiG OKB), one of the most famous and oldest aircraft design offices in Russia, which was responsible, alongside Sukhoi and Ilyushin, for the best and most famous Soviet and Russian aircraft for many decades.
Its name in NATO was Fulcrum, and ironically, Soviet pilots preferred to use this name in naming their aircraft.
MiG-29 interceptor:
The MiG-29 was designed as a lightweight supersonic interceptor fighter.
However, it is also suitable for being “multi-tasking”, meaning it is capable of carrying out air combat missions as well as ground bombing thanks to its ability to carry and launch precision-guided (air-to-surface) missiles, and it is also effective in striking naval targets.
Thanks to the efforts of Soviet intelligence, when engineers in Mikoyan-Gurevich's office began developing designs for the MiG-29, they had a lot of data and information about the most advanced Western aircraft of its time.
The Soviets' clear goal in producing the MiG-29 and its Sukhoi counterpart (Su-27) was to produce aircraft equivalent to the newest American aircraft at the time, the F-15 Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon.
However, if there is one thing that these engineers succeeded in making the MiG-29 superior to its Western counterparts, it would certainly be its unique aerodynamic capabilities during flight.
The aircraft, designed by MiG Bureau engineers, were mainly manufactured at the Irkutsk Plant, one of the most important aircraft production plants in Russia, which is located in the city of the same name, located in the area of the confluence of the Irkut and Wangara rivers, more than 5 thousand kilometers from the capital, Moscow.
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| Mig-29 fighter aircraft of Serbian Air Force on display at Batajnica Air Base during the open day manifestation, Srđan Popović, CC BY-SA 4.0 DEED, via wikimedia commons. |
The MiG-29 comes with a single seat, two fixed wings, and a pair of engines, and because it was originally designed as an interceptor fighter, the first numbers of it were allocated to forward aviation regiments in the Soviet Air Force.
Its practical beginning was in the year 1985 - other sources indicate the year 1983 - when it entered service in the ranks of the Soviet Army, while it made its first flight on October 6, 1977, and it took these years to develop it, experiment it, and enter the stage of mass production.
These numbers indicate that the Russians were a few steps behind the Americans, for whom the F-15A began operating in 1976, while the F-16A began operating in 1979.
In 1988, with great boldness, the Soviets publicly displayed for the first time their new aircraft at the Farnborough Air Show in the English town of Farnborough, that is, in front of all the eyes of NATO and even the eyes of the entire world.
Then they repeated the same thing the following year at the Paris Exhibition... What makes us say now that perhaps the Soviets were not acting confidently, but rather trying to intimidate NATO or even deliver a message that they are still strong... History tells us that the Western camp did not pick up on that message, and perhaps it picked up on it and did not believe it.
The MiG-29 is currently classified as a fourth-generation fighter ((the fifth generation of fighters is stealth fighters)), and it is currently operating in different versions in the air forces of many countries of the world, as it represents the backbone of a number of them.
In total, more than 1,500 aircraft of this model were built.
The most famous countries operating the MiG-29 are certainly Russia, Ukraine, India, the East German Air Force, Iran, Syria, and Egypt.
Modern versions of the MiG-29 are classified by some military analysts as belonging to the 4++ generation, which is a dividing step between fourth and fifth generation fighters.
Technical specifications:
- Spacing between wings: 11.40 metres.
- Length: 17.30 meters.
- Height: 4,73 meters.
- Engine: Klimov RD-33.
- The plane's maximum speed is 2400 km per hour.
When the MiG-29 was hijacked:
The information that reached the Americans and NATO about the MiG-29 at the beginning seemed frightening at the time, especially since it came during the Cold War period.
In November 1977, American reconnaissance and spy satellites that were operating day and night over the Soviet Union succeeded in discovering the new Soviet fighter.
The idea that the Soviets could produce an aircraft so lethal in the air seemed downright terrifying.
The MiG-29 had an exceptional thrust-to-weight ratio that no Western fighter had, it was agile, and its pilots had the first practical helmet vision system through which they could use the R-73 infrared-guided short-range air combat missile.
All of these things made it seem unbeatable in any close air combat or at short range, especially if the fight was between equal numbers of aircraft. Adding to NATO’s confusion was the fact that it carried a radar competing with the American F-16’s radar.
Besides all that, the MiG-29 was also extremely fast.
NATO - along with Israel - decided that the best solution to discover the full capabilities of this fighter was to kidnap the plane.
The Israelis were not on the line of contact or confrontation with the Russians, but they knew very well that the Arab countries allied with the Soviets at that time would certainly come when they would obtain the new fighter, and the matter was related to Syria, Iran and Iraq in particular.
The Israelis moved quickly and were able to obtain a number of these aircraft for a short period of time, during which they tried everything and learned all the secrets, strengths and weaknesses of the MiG-29, and most importantly, learned how to confront it in the air.
It is not known for sure which country the Israelis obtained these planes from, although all likelihood speaks of a country from the Eastern bloc that inherited the planes from the Soviet Union after its dissolution.
The Americans also had their own way of obtaining their MiG-29.
In 1997, when the legacy of the Soviet Union was being sold on the sidewalks of the countries that broke up from it, the Americans bought 17 MiG-29 aircraft from Moldova.
This deal was like killing two birds with one stone, as the Americans obtained the planes and at the same time cut off Iran, which had begun negotiations to obtain them.
MiG-29 today:
It seems that time has taken its toll on the MiG-29.
Air combat aircraft have evolved significantly, and it appears that the end of the useful life of the MiG-29 has begun.
However, when NATO considered providing Ukraine with fighters to operate against the Russian Air Force, they decided to send the MiG-29.
There are some analyzes that suggest that this decision is more political, because sending Western fighters against the Russians will provoke Moscow to the point where it will respond nervously and violently.
There is another important factor, which is that the Ukrainian pilots already have experience flying on the MiG-29, and they will not need time at all to absorb it or train on it, and this also applies to engineers, technicians and ground aircraft crews.
Moreover, the Russians use the MiG-29 in large numbers as well. Therefore, those who hold this point of view assert that the MiG-29 is a fighter from a bygone era, and that no pilot would want to engage in air combat with it these days
