Mig 21 Fishbed: Most Iconic Soviet Fighter

[Applause] the mig-21 fishbed is unquestionably one of the greatest fighters of the post-second world war era not only was it russia's first operational mach 2 capable interceptor but it also served as the stepping stone that enabled many nations to enter the age of supersonic air combat in today's video we are going to reveal the secrets of the iconic mig-21 fishbed fighter that is flown and fought in more countries than the supersonic jet including its history development and specs the first truly modern second generation interceptor the mig-21 eventually dubbed fishbed by nato was the soviet union's first truly modern second generation supersonic interceptor jet fighter with a speed of mach 2 capable of about twice the speed of sound with an internal cannon and the capacity to carry between two and six missiles the fishbed actually preceded the missiles into service it is a single-engine single-seater multi-role fighter aircraft designed by the mikoyan gurovich design bureau in the soviet union like most fighters the mig-21 would eventually serve in a ground attack role in which it could carry a limited number of bombs and rockets as with many of their fighters the soviets preferred to operate the mig-21 from ground control eliminating the need for bulky sophisticated radar equipment testing began in 1956 and the first version entered service in 1960 as the mig-21f-13 soviet designers developed a unique tail delta configuration with a very thin delta wing which gave the aircraft maneuverability high speed good medium altitude performance and adequate takeoff and landing characteristics the mig-21 became the standard soviet clear air interceptor with the addition of radar more powerful engines and other modifications it became a multi-role fighter although the ussr produced over 10 645 fish beds between 1959 and 1985 in as many as 32 versions for the air forces of the soviet union india would construct another 657 under a licensing and technology transfer agreement with moscow while czechoslovakia built 194 under license under complicated and somewhat dubious circumstances the people's republic of china acquired sufficient aircraft and technical documents to reverse engineer the mig-21 into the chengdu j7 f7 china produced around 2 400 fish beds between 1966 and 2013. the combined numbers make the fishbed by far the most produced supersonic aircraft in world history with the mig-21 engineers sorted through a set of basic problems that future research could not substantially improve upon modern fighters don't fly much faster than the mig-21 or maneuver much more capably while they do carry more ordnance and have more sophisticated electronic equipment many air forces can treat these as luxuries they simply want a cheap fast easy to maintain aircraft that can patrol airspace and occasionally drop a few bombs the fishbed fits the bill to be sure the fishbed would not have been a particularly useful fighter in western service it has short legs cannot carry a great deal of ordnance and lacks the space for sophisticated electronic equipment the shape of its cockpit limits pilot awareness however it aptly fulfilled the soviet need for a ground control interceptor fighter that could fly and fight over the battlefields of western europe as well as act in a limited interceptor role during the cold war the united states came into possession of a number of mig-21 variants eventually purchasing a squadron of j7s from china the mig-21 has been called the ak-47 of airplanes rock-solid airframe noted a former aviation technician who ground crewed on one really the thing only needs to be topped off with fluids and it just goes and goes when the u.s air force operated mig-21s as adversary aircraft combat trainers they found them to be in the words of one crew chief just like your family car as long as it's full of fuel you pull it out of the garage and start it up maintenance typically consisted of changing the oil breaks and tires after every 50 sorties with a set of home depot metric socket wrenches and screwdrivers you could get a lot of maintenance done on the little jet said another crew chief what is the design of the mig-21 like the mig-21 was the first successful soviet aircraft combining fighter and interceptor characteristics in a single aircraft it was a lightweight fighter achieving mach 2 with a relatively low powered after burning turbo jet its basic layout was used for numerous other soviet designs delta winged aircraft included the su-9 interceptor and the fast e150 prototype from the mig bureau while the mass-produced successful front fighter su-7 and mccoyan's i-75 experimental interceptor combined a similar fuselage shape with swept back wings however the characteristic layout with the shock cone and front air intake did not see widespread use outside the ussr and finally proved to have limited development potential mainly because of the very small space available for the radar like many aircraft designed as interceptors the mig-21 had a short range this was exacerbated by the poor placement of the internal fuel tanks ahead of the center of gravity as the internal fuel was consumed the center of gravity would shift rearward beyond acceptable parameters this had the effect of making the plane statically unstable to the point of being difficult to control resulting in an endurance of only 45 minutes in clean conditions this can be somewhat countered by carrying fuel and external tanks closer to the center of gravity the chinese variants somewhat improve the internal fuel tank layout also the second generation of soviet variants and also carry significantly larger external fuel tanks to counter this issue additionally when more than half the fuel was used up violent maneuvers prevented fuel from flowing into the engine thereby causing it to shut down in flight this increased the risk of tank implosions while in mid-air the fuselage is semi-monocoque with an elliptical profile and a maximum width of 1.24 meters four feet one inch the airflow to the engine is regulated by an inlet cone in the air intake on early model mig-21s the cone has three positions for speeds up to mach 1.5 the cone is fully retracted to the maximum aft position for speeds between mach 1.5 and mach 1.9 the cone moves to the middle position for speeds higher than mach 1.9 the cone moves to the maximum forward position on the later model mig-21pf the intake cone moves to a position based on the actual speed the cone position for a given speed is calculated by the uvd2m system using air pressures from in front and behind the compressor of the engine on both sides of the nose there are gills to supply the engine with more air while on the ground and during takeoff the pilot's cabin is pressurized and air conditioned on variants prior to the mig-21 pfm the cabin canopy is hinged at the front when ejecting the sk-1 ejection seat connects with the canopy to provide a windbreak from the high speed airflow encountered during high speed ejections after ejection the canopy opens to allow the pilot to parachute to the ground however ejecting at low altitudes can cause the canopy to take too long to separate sometimes resulting in pilot death the minimum height for ejection in level flight was 110 meters starting with the mig-21 pfm a new ejection seat proved to be very reliable and did not need the canopy to protect the pilot which had never been fully satisfactory the canopy is hinged on the right side of the cockpit the mig-21 has a delta wing the delta wing while excellent for a fast climbing interceptor meant any form of turning combat led to a rapid loss of speed the use of a tail with a delta wing aids stability and control at the extremes of the flight envelope enhancing safety for lower skilled pilots this in turn enhanced its marketability in exports to developing countries with limited training programs and restricted pilot pools while technologically inferior to the more advanced fighters it often faced the aircraft's simple controls engine weapons and avionics were typical of soviet-era military designs its low production and maintenance costs made it a favorite of nations buying eastern bloc military hardware several russian israeli and romanian firms have begun to offer upgrade packages to mig-21 operators designed to bring the aircraft up to a modern standard with greatly upgraded avionics and armaments so how did the mig-21 fishbed perform at war the mig-21 never saw combat on the central front in a nato warsaw pact war but it certainly has seen its share of action in vietnam pencil thin mig-21s found that they could take advantage of american rules of engagement by using their size and speed to cut through bomber packages before u.s fighters could visually identify and target them the size and maneuverability of the fish bed also allowed them to evade early air-to-air missiles after attacking the migs would run for home one exception to this pattern came on january 2nd 1967 when a group of f-4 phantom 2s under the command of legendary pilot robin olds tricked north vietnamese commanders into a disastrous engagement the phantom shot down seven fish beds that day including one flown by nuen van kok who would survive the crash and would accumulate nine kills over the rest of the war this would mark nuen as the most successful fish bed pilot of all time although several other vietnamese and several syrian pilots would achieve ace distinction while flying the mig-21 the mig-21 saw extensive service in wars across the middle east the fighter bombers of the israeli defense force devastated egyptian and syrian fish beds in the opening strikes of the six day war fish beds fought israeli fighters in the war of attrition the yom kippur war and the lebanon war generally suffering badly at the hands of outstanding israeli pilots in one case israeli fighters ambushed and destroyed several mig-21s flown by soviet pilots the success of western aircraft against the fishbed in the middle east as well as in angola caused many to conclude that soviet fighters were outclassed by their western counterparts however pilot training issues make comparison difficult the mig-21 performed more than adequately in comparable pilot training contexts for example indian mig-21s flew in the 1965 indo-pakistani war and achieved kills in the 1971 war and the cargill war fish beds also acquitted themselves well in air combat in the iran-iraq war the mig-21 will soon end its operational career perhaps after at least 30 perhaps even 40 years even today syria's air force is flying them dropping homemade propane tank bombs on rebels and isis there is no possibility of the fishbed approaching its competition the boeing b-52's near century of service but those ancient migs will likely be flying in the hands of warbird enthusiasts long after the b-52 shuts down forever what do you think about the mig-21 fishbed please let us know in 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Channel: Vapored Skies

Views: 227,102

Keywords: vapored skies, mig 21, mig 21 fishbed

Id: 4btXFAztG5E

Length: 11min 18sec (678 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 11 2022