MiG-29

Designed as the light counterpart in the Soviet answer to American fourth-generation fighters, the MiG-29 first flew on October 6, 1977 and entered service in 1982.

Its agility and rough-field capability made it one of the most widely exported fighters of the late Cold War.

The starting point was the Soviet PFI programme of 1969, the direct answer to the American F-15. It was soon understood that a single aircraft could not be simultaneously large, long-ranged and cheap to mass-produce, and the requirement was split: the heavy fighter would become the Su-27, the light one Mikoyan's "Product 9-12", defined from 1974. The result was a compact twin-engine design with wings blended into the fuselage, intakes that could be shielded to operate from unprepared strips, and outstanding low-speed manoeuvrability.

The first production aircraft reached Soviet frontal aviation regiments in 1982, and by 1983 the deployment was visible to Western observers, who assigned it the NATO name "Fulcrum". Against Western fighters of its generation it brought two tactical trumps: the helmet-mounted sight paired with the R-73 close-combat missile, which allowed firing by "looking" at the adversary, and an airframe capable of flight regimes its rivals could not match in a close fight.

German reunification put a complete MiG-29 fleet in the hands of the Luftwaffe, which operated them for years and flew them against Western fighters in training: NATO could finally measure the Fulcrum from the inside, and its conclusions —lethal in close combat, limited in range and avionics— shaped the aircraft's image in the West. Those airframes were eventually transferred to Poland for a symbolic price, where they kept flying. Meanwhile the Soviet collapse pushed Russia to export the fighter to any willing customer, and India became its largest operator outside Russia.

Successive improvements grew from the original interceptor: variants with more fuel and electronic warfare, the modernised MiG-29SMT with digital avionics and extended radius, two-seat conversion trainers and, above all, the naval MiG-29K, which gave the Russian carrier and the Indian navy their embarked fighter. The family culminated in the MiG-35, a deep evolution offered for export. In all, around 1,600 airframes have been built, placing it among the most-produced fourth-generation fighters.

Half a century after its first flight the Fulcrum remains in active service with numerous air forces and has fought on both sides of several conflicts. Its story condenses the end of the Cold War: born to contest the sky against NATO, it ended up flying under NATO flags, and its twin-tail silhouette remains one of the most recognisable in military aviation.