50s-Era Soviet-Era MiG-21 Still Lives & Flew for 60-Countries

By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

The MiG-21 has flown with as many as 60 different countries after emerging from the former Soviet Union in 1955, and the aircraft is still in service today.

The aircraft has existed in many variants over a period of many years and has been upgraded substantially by various customers.

In total, as many as 11,000 MiG-21s were built with more than 10,000 built in the former Soviet Union.

The aircraft is no longer produced, yet the sheer scale of the production effort from the Soviet Union reached many countries over a period of decades. The aircraft became the most-produced jet aircraft in aviation history and the longest production run of any combat aircraft until surpassed by the U.S. F-15 and F-16.

The aircraft is quite fast, particularly for an aircraft engineered in the 1950s, as it can reach speeds of Mach 2. This is in large measure due to its lightweight design and turbo-jet propulsion, yet the MiG-21 has a poor thrust-to-weight ratio when compared with other aircraft such as the F-15.

The MiG-21’s thrust-to-weight ratio is listed as .76, an amount considerably lower than the Su-35 and F-15, listed with a rato of 1.3 and 1.29 respectively. While much lighter weight than an aircraft such as an F-15, the MiG-21 has a much lower thrust-to-weight ratio because its engines generate a much lower amount of thrust or propulsion power when compared with an F-15 engine.