Wonder what it would cost to maintain that?

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Wonder what it would cost to maintain that?

OK. What's with the color of Soviet cockpits? I've seen that bright blue on a few and even on a Bonanza in here somewhere. Was there a study that said this was restful or efficient or efficacious somehow? I get ill looking at it. . .

My experience with owning, flying and working on and around a lot of Russian airplanes is they are pretty liberal with color enforcement. Red is basically anything less than yellow in the spectrum. Cockits are often grey, blue, or anything nearby that can be stirred. They usually anodize the panels, and then several really gnarly coats of indestructible primer followed by several coats of paint.. Plus that smell. Not sure what makes that from.

Funny how different people have different reactions to the varying features of different planes, boats, motorcycles, .......

The Mig21 was a serious fighter. I sat in one many years back and, yes, you could trace the workmanship on the airframe to Peoples Revolutionary Boiler Works No. 12 but it worked and it worked more reliably than its US adversaries. In spite of those stubby wings it was actually more lightly wing loaded than the Phantoms and Crusaders and was a bitch to see head or tail on as a result. They were at a slight disadvantage below 12,000' but would win above 18,000'.

We know because we were flying them against our front line fighters of thee day in a program called Have Drill or Have Idea, I forget which. When they put test pilots in the cockpits, the reactions and results mirrored some of the comments here but when, at the end of the program, they put fighter pilots in the cockpits, they started kicking ass.

One of those was the late, great John "Smash" Nash who told me he figured the ejection seat was better than ours and would get him out of trouble if he screwed up so he started flying it to its limits and found it was a beautiful machine with the best rudder for slow airspeed, high AOA maneuvers that he'd ever used.

And they just didn't break down. They were designed to be operated off of unimproved runways, repaired in tents by semi-literate Russian teenagers using ball peen hammers and pipe wrenches. I would never underestimate a Mig as an adversary and I wouldn't hesitate to jump at the chance to fly one-as long as it was someone else's checkbook backing me up.

Steve,

I was just going to mention the book Red Eagles which chronicled the procurement of Mig 15/17/21/23 airframes from overseas and brought back to the USA for an american aggressor squadron to fly in Red Flag exercises. The US pilots had nothing but praise for the flight and dog-fighting characteristics of the Mig 21. The Mig 23 on the other had was universally hated and would kill an inattentive pilot.

Now if someone wants to pick up the tab and send me to Mig 21 initial schooling ill pack my bags and be on the next airline flight.