MiG-21 (Fishbed)

The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 (Russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-21) (NATO reporting name "Fishbed") is a supersonic jet fighter aircraft, designed and built by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. It was popularly nicknamed "balalaika", from the aircraft's planform-view resemblance to the famous Russian stringed musical instrument or ołówek (English: pencil) by Polish pilots due to the shape of its fuselage. Some 50 countries over four continents have flown the MiG-21, and it still serves many nations a half-century after its maiden flight.











General characteristics
Crew: One
Performance
Maximum speed: 2230 km/h (1385 mph) (Mach 2.1)
Armament
One centerline twin-barrelled GSh-23 23 mm cannon , 200 rounds (PFM, MF, SMT, and bis variants) or one single-barrelled NR-30 cannon ,60 rounds (F-13 variant).
Up to 2,000 kg (4,400 lb) of air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons on two or four underwing hardpoints, depending on the variant. Early machines carried two Vympel K-13 (AA-2 'Atoll') air-to-air missiles under the wing pylons. Late models carried two K-13 and two fuel tanks under the wing pylons or combinations of four K-13 infrared- and radar-guided missiles. The Molniya R-60 (NATO reporting name AA-8 'Aphid') was also used on multiple pylons and six of them could be carried. Most aircraft carried a single 450 L (119 US gal) fuel tank on the centerline pylon.