Mig- 21 007 Ecardsmodels 1:48

[hyair]

Some more photos of the famous 007 . A replica ( not the original one that stayed in the US ) of the 007 is on display at the Israeli airforce museum in Hazerim AFB . I attached here a photo of the 007 from my visit there.

Yair

[hyair]

More photos of the Fishbed and Starfighter . Both were genuine mach 2.0 fighters and were produced in large numbers. The mig-21 was exported to many countries - middle east Arab countries , N Vietnam , N Korea , African countries , India and Eastren European countries.
The Starfighter main success was in Westren Europe were it was produced in big numbers by a joint venture between Germany , Netherland and Italy. The German Airforce operated the largest number and many modifications were made in the attempt to convert it into multi tasking fighter . The last version was the Italian F-104 S which had higher thrust J-79 engine and capability to carry 2 Sparrow AA radar guided missiles.

Yair

[hyair]

The mig -21 Fishbed was followed later by the two seater Mongol. Since the landing and flight characteristics were similar it was an important tool to train new pilots as the rear pupil seat
had full flight controls capability - so the Mongol became popular in service with mig-21 squadrons.
I attach here photos of the two. The Mongol is painted in the Hungarian airforce colors.

Yair

[elliott]

Yair you are a never-ending fountain of interesting information. I wish I'd had history teachers like you in school. Thank you for all the work you do in bringing us information and reinforcing it with the appropriate models. You must have a huge model collection.

[hyair]

Thanks for the warm words elliott !

Yair

[hyair]

The mig-19 was first flown in 1953 and started to enter service in 1955 or some 5 years before the mig-21F . In the former USSR the mig -19 was not considered popular or successful and only ! 2000 were built - far less then the 10000 mig -21 produced.
However the Chinese decided to produce it and to develop it further . Their version of the mig-19 was called F-6 and was produced in large scale production of more then 4000 over 20 years between 1965-1985. The Chinese also produced two seater version which was esclusive to China and the A-5 attack plane variant based on the mig-19. One of the most successful users was the Pakistany airforce which operated it from 1965 till 2002 and the two seater version till 2007.
In short while the mig -19 was not popular in Russia it was very popular in China !
Some photos of the GPM 120 mig-19S with the Polish airforce colors.

Yair

[hyair]

The mig-23 swing wing fighter entered service in 1972 and dispite being more modern then the mig-21 it was not as successful nor as long in service.
In dogfights with the Syrian airforce the mig -23 was found an easy prey against the Israeli F-15's and F-16's and many were shut down in the first Lebanon war in 1982.
Some photos of the IAFM model that was released after a Syrian pilot deserted to Israel in 1992.

Yair

[hyair]

In the early 70's there was an urgent need for a mig-21 clone by the USAF. Since the type was the main fighter in the former USSR it was impotant to find an aircraft that will have simillar performance in order to train simulated dogfights against the F-4 Phantom and new F-15 Eagle and F-14 Tomcat that just entered service. The F-5E freedom fighter proved to be an almost perfect clone to the mig-21. In terms of size , range and climb rate they were almost equal. The mig-21 had more powerful engine that gave him better acceleration while the F-5E could turn sharper due to a better aerodynamics. A big project started at Nellis AFB near Las Vegas NV. Special squadrons of F-5E named aggressors were formulated to train the American pilots. It was soon found that the F-5E could be a very hard opponent given the right conditions and new tactics were developed as a consequens - somthing that improved the skills of the participating pilots.
I attach here photos of the IAFM F-5E with the Saudi Arabia airforce colors. The cockpit was added and the rear afterburners section was rebuilt to improve the basic form.

Yair

[hyair]

The Sokhoi SU-9 was looking very simillar in compare to the mig-21. The fuselage and delta wings including the tail and horizontal stabilizers were looking very much the same. Despite this the SU-9 was slightly longer and the fuselage diameter was bigger to accomodate the big AL-7 engine which had 9000 kg thrust in afterburner. The SU-9 weight was therefore heavier but the speed was almost mach 2.0 and the initial rate of climb of 30000 feet per minute put it in the same high level performance zone near the mig -21. The type served only in the USSR as an interceptor able to carry 4 AA missiles , so the production scale was much smaller then the mig -21. The main weakness of the type was the short range due to the high rate of fuel consumption of the AL-7 engine - the Russian early jet engines suffered very often from this problem.
Some more photos of the SU-9 which is hobby model paper n.102 in the traditional silver Russian airforce colors.

Yair

[YOAVHOZMI]

very nice model...looks very elegant.

YOAV