MiG-21 Fishbed - Documentary in Spanish

Video from the channel Flying Machines about Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 48:55. Language: Spanish. Video type: Documentary.

A Spanish-language documentary on the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21. It covers the fighter's origins at the design bureau of Artem Mikoyan and Mikhail Gurevich, its technical development, its service in the Soviet Union and abroad, and its role in aerobatic displays. Its references to post-Soviet Russia and the 1990s mark it as a production from that period, combining archival footage with images of airframes still flying.

The narration places the aircraft's birth in the Cold War that followed Stalin's death in 1953 and in the speed race between Soviet and American fighters. It reviews the bureau's earlier work: the MiG-3, the MiG-15, the MiG-17 and the MiG-19, its first fighter able to operate comfortably at supersonic speed. In 1953 the Soviet air force asked for a fighter able to double the speed of sound and approach an altitude of 20,000 metres, as a response to bombers such as the B-47 and the B-52. The bureau tested swept and delta wings with TsAGI and ended up choosing a combination of delta wing and conventional tail.

The documentary explains the adjustable intake cone, which smooths the airflow across a wide speed range, and the dual hydraulic control system. The first operational MiG-21F aircraft were ready by the end of 1958. To claim a speed record of 2,388 km/h, the aircraft was registered under the false name Ye-66. According to the narration, the type served in 45 countries, more than 8,000 units were built, and it was also produced in Czechoslovakia, India and China. The documentary gives space to the two-seat trainer MiG-21 UTI and to the Kubinka aerobatic team, which flew the MiG-21 until receiving the MiG-29 in 1983. It also covers the combat in Vietnam against the F-4 Phantom, where the kill tallies claimed by the two sides do not match, and sales to countries such as Finland and India.