MiG-29 — Rise and Fall of a Fighter Jet

Video from the channel Geheimnisse der Flugzeuge about MiG-29, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 22:59. Language: German. Video type: Documentary.

A German-language documentary tracing the history of the MiG-29 from its conception in the 1970s to its latest derivatives, arguing that a highly manoeuvrable fighter was held back more by politics and the end of the Cold War than by its technology.

In 1971 the Soviet Union set the requirements for a frontline fighter; the Mikoyan-Gurevich, Yakovlev and Sukhoi design bureaus competed, and at Mikoyan the project was named Theme 9. Once the idea of a universal fighter was dropped, the task was split: Sukhoi would build the heavy fighter and Mikoyan the light one (LFI), intended to operate from the dense network of airfields facing NATO, with short range but great agility. An integrated lifting-body airframe was chosen, with two RD-33 engines from the Klimov design bureau. In 1974 its construction was officially approved; a pilot's defection with a MiG-25 to Japan in 1976 led to the cancellation of the simplified MiG-29A version. The first flight took place on 6 October 1977, and it entered service in 1983. With the fall of the Wall and the Soviet collapse, the doctrine that justified the aircraft disappeared, the budget went to the Su-27, and the MiG-29M and MiG-29K programmes were frozen.

The video cites a length of 17 m, a wingspan of 11 m, engines with 5 t of thrust (8.3 t with afterburner), a top speed of Mach 2.3, a ceiling of 18 km and 9 g in any configuration, against a range of only about 700 km at low altitude on internal fuel. It covers the 1986 presentation in Finland, the 1989 Paris and 1993 Fairford accidents, both resolved with ejections thanks to the K-36 seat, the poor showing of the 30 Iraqi aircraft in 1991, and the trials with East Germany's MiG-29s after reunification. It closes with the SMT and OVT versions, the MiG-29K for the Indian Navy, the MiG-35 defeated by the Rafale in India's 126-aircraft MMRCA competition, around 1,600 aircraft built, and the US purchase of 21 aircraft from Moldova in 1997.