It was Valentine's Day 1955 in the erstwhile Soviet Union. On that winter morning - the high was just under -5 degrees Celsius - there was something in the air at Zhukovsky Airfield, an airbase some ...

A rare 2019 dogfight saw an aging MiG-21 Bison face off against a modern F-16, marking the first cross-border air combat in decades. Though the MiG-21 was shot down, competing claims over an F-16 loss ...

To compensate for the considerable advantages the F-4 Phantoms had over MiG-21s, the North Vietnamese developed innovative hit-and-run tactics. The Cold War was one of the most interesting times for ...

India has retired its last fleet of MiG-21 fighter jets, closing a six-decade chapter with an aircraft once hailed for its combat prowess but later derided as a “flying coffin” due to frequent crashes ...

Compared to contemporaries like the American F-4 Phantom II, the MiG-21 was less complex and far cheaper to produce—but could hold its own against the more sophisticated American jet. The best Soviet ...

In the history of aerial combat, the MiG-21 commands an illustrious history that falls in the same legacy pages as the ubiquitous AK-47 rifles. Introduced back in 1955, the MiG-21 was known for its ...

Today the IAF phased out the MiG-21 Bison after a 62-year-long career, spanning two thirds of the air force’s total lifespan. The MiG-21 is often thought of as synonymous with the Indian Air Force, ...

On September 26, after more than 60 years in operational service, the few MiG-21s still flying in IAF squadrons will be put out to pasture. For a quarter of a century, much of the news about the ...